Page 103 - Lighting the Unlightable Volume 1 #1

at least four F-stops, but there were few options for adding

more light. The "dominant" light was a bank of windows over
the landing on the staircase. At the "wrong" time of day, that

light could be overpowering.
And there were the rooms on the first floor. Each had a large

sliding door that faced the lake behind the house, and that
sliding door was under a deck. As I stood there, in the af-

ternoon, I realized the technical problems were going to be
immense.

The rooms were relatively small as well. Diagram One shows

how the bedroom where we worked was laid out. The place-
ment of the furniture and the size of the bed made the room
seem even smaller. As I walked into the room in the ear-

ly afternoon, I was surprised by the amount of light coming
off the lake into the room. Unfortunately, the light wasn't

enough to light the entire room. Judging by the shadows on
the floor, the light from the lake only reached about 30% of
the room. So, unlike upstairs where the light tapered off over

almost the entire room, here, the difference between white
and black became 4 F-stops over the course of less than a

foot.
I wasn't even sure where or how I could get my lights into the

room. The only thing I had in my favor was that there weren't
as many reflective surfaces as I had anticipated. Had there

been, my task would have been even more difficult.

Lets look at the basics.

When: Sunday, August 8, 2015, just shy of five weeks
from the autumnal equinox.

Where: Pinehurst, NC

Time: After 1:00 PM

Direction: The back of the house faces South. The
sun would be moving from east to west as the af

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