Page 17 - Lighting the Un-lightable 2015

Sometimes structural features can not only be visually distracting,
they can also be problematic. This pillar - painted white - was a
1 significant problem. It reflected light in every direction. This made

positioning the strobes difficult. Note the white wall to the left of
the column. This was another highly reflective surface.

This area was exceptionally dark - more than four F-stops darker
2 than the areas near the windows. To make matters worse, captur-
ing the texture and pattern in the rug was critical to conveying the
emotional experience of the space.

4 3 This glass wall is also an important part of the visual experience.

However, particularly because of the rapid drop off of light from
the windows around it, this surface could easily become a mir-
ror. Remember, light reflects at the compliment of the angle with
which it strikes an object, and if you get in the path of that reflec-
tion, glass becomes mirror-like.

This was the "whitest white." The client wanted to capture the
3 skyline outside the windows. While the clouds added drama, they

also added to the problems we faced. They also reflected much
4 more light than the human eye could see. To make matters worse,
light from the windows was reflecting back from the interior glass
wall. This almost created a 3D effect in the exterior windows - a
infinite series of reflections of the interior space in the exterior
windows. We wanted some of that reflection to keep the sense of
depth that was critical to the visual experience.
6

5 The white ceiling was also a problem. Aiming the strobes up would
make the ceiling way too bright - almost surreal. So, that wasn't an
option.

Let's analyze the scene. 6 White chairs are never easy to deal with. In this case, we wanted to
use them to enhance the sense of space in the room since the room
was longer and narrower than the human eye perceived it to be.
We needed to compensate for that effect.

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