Page 102 - Lighting the Unlightable Volume 1 #1

Almost a decade had passed since I had seen Akira - a fa-

miliar event these days. It seems many of the models I have
worked with have been re-entering my life. Not only had I not

worked with Akira in close to a decade, but "back in the day,"
my use - and understanding - of light was very limited. It was
either ambient light, natural light, or nothing at all. Not even

a flash.

To further complicate matters, I was in the midst of a highly
experimental phase in my work. I had moved from no addi-
tional light a decade ago, to remotely triggered flashes about

eight years ago, to strobes with soft boxes six years ago, to
Fresnel lighting technology in early 2015. So, when Akira and

I agreed to work together, I was still working through all the
issues surrounding how that technology worked when at-
tached to strobes.

If you aren't familiar with Fresnel technology, it is unique in
that it was designed to both intensify light over a given dis-
tance and to keep light from diffusing (see page 169). Fresnel

technology worked well on movie sets in the 1930s and 1940s
and, to this day, it works effectively when used in lighthous-

es. But, when attached to strobes, I would learn, that was
neither straight forward nor simple. Determined to make
Fresnel technology work, I devised a plan and began to work

towards implementing it. By the time I scheduled the ses-
sion with Akira, I had worked through many of the more com-

plex issues.
When we selected the location in Pinehurst to work, I knew

I would face some serious technical problems just because
of what I knew about the location. Using Fresnel technolo-

gy was going to make those issues even more complex and
difficult to resolve. The first floor was dominated by large
windows that assured that the difference between black and

white was at least four F-stops, (see pages 194-5). There was
a staircase where I wanted to work as well, and, there again,

not only would the difference between black and white be

102 |