Drama 16 Stage Lighting

Photo Credit: me, this was taken last year in my high school photography class

Theme: single source, artificial light

Description: This is a photo of my classmate, Tiana. I just love this photo because I think it captures her personality perfectly. She is the type of person who is always on top of things and knows she’s great, which I think her expression shows. I also love how dramatic and timeless this photo feels. With her face showing every shade of light, from almost white, to complete black makes the photo feel intense. Also the photo feels very vintage because of the black and white, but also very modern based off of her pose and clothing. I am also very fond of the contrast not only in her face from the shadows, but how her clothing contrasts as well and is enhanced through the black and white filter.

Date: 3/5/2016

Time: 6:30 PM

Location: Bocca Di Bacco Restaurant NYC

Objective Description: The sun was going down, however, the restaurant was completely dark inside as there was only one window towards the front of the restaurant. My family and I were seated in the back and once the sun was completely down, they dimmed the lights and lit each table with candles as the main source of illumination.

Subjective Description: A dark warm, however, warm and inviting. The atmosphere lit with soothing and glowing flickers from the center of each dark, wooden table. The menus barely legible under the dimly lit flourescents hanging overhead. Each person placed on each side of the table laughed with a glow that I had not seen in quite some time. Lit from beneath, each person’s features were eccentuated with shadow and orange glow from the burning flame centered on the table. Quite a contrast from the burning flame illuminating the dark and dingy vaults of Edinurgh, but rather an inviting atmosphere with warmth of joy and company.

This is a picture I took underground in the Edinburgh Vaults.

Theme: Artificial Light

Description: A world of complete darkness. Catacombs of a hidden world and deadly secrets that lurch in every pitch black corner. One single flicker illuminates the dark history that lies beneath the ground of unsuspecting footsteps. The cold, wet, and unearthed walls of the vaults look beige under the glow of the single-lit flame. The face of the guide, lit maniacally from belo, giving even him, an heir of supernatural curiosity. Remnants of a world unknown remain unseen until the eventual unveiling from a small flame temporary light. The only glimpse of warmth in an otherwise cold and unwelcoming society of darkness.

Date:3/7/16 Time: around 7:30 Location: my friend’s house in Hempstead

Objective Description: Bright, blue, morning light beaming through two sky lights.

Subjective Description: As I woke up on Monday morning I could not help but to look up at the ceiling above me, except for once it was more than just a ceiling. Above my head were two large sky lights letting in the early morning light. Soft beams of day light illuminated the room I was in as I was slowly waking up and preparing myself for the long day ahead. I spent about twenty minutes just looking out and into the sky above me. It was the greatest feeling to see the light of day as if I was laying outside in the grass while still being curled up in the sheets of my bed.

7 March 2016-6:40pm-A church on the streets of NYC (not far from Penn. Station)

The front of this church was lit up with several large film lights to make it look like day on the outside perhaps while a film crew shot an interior to exterior shot.

This feeling of falseness pervaded the scene since the light was like this big illuminated patch of sunshine in a dark in comparison world. It was like someone trying to create the white and pure idea of heaven on Earth. It was like the night was bleached out by this harsh, piercing light. The light was the awkward bleach stain on your clothes. It was the thing that seemed like it was trying too much to be the thing to be the actual thing. The main point that made this light seem so wrong and unmistakable from the sun is that this light was hot, white in color. It was warm as opposed to the cool bluish daylight. This warmth marked it as fake. The various angles of the light made the shadows small and few. The brightness and seeming power of the light claimed that it would disintegrate any great patches of darkness that might try to eek out their existence in this space. The light felt like a bully trying to make its victims shout that it was day despite this being a lie. The light was an illusion of day like if someone were to use fog from a fog machine to make a water dragon’s breath. Like all illusions, the light was artificial and not the natural. The light was an actor but not perhaps the best one from the perspective of a bystander. The camera’s footage might tell a different story.

My camera automatically took this photo while I was filming a community theatre production of White Christmas back home in Maryland.

The theme is “single source; artificial light.” There is only one light on the actor at this point in the piece, and it is artificial.

The light brings details to the surface from beneath the waves of darkness, the endless and mysterious abyss. It causes its own spots of darkness though. It penetrates and bounces back off the subject under its rays. The colors pop beneath its whitish spread and are the only thing attracting the eye in this darkness. The edges of the light fall off sharply and leave much to guess about the image. The bright, seething, and only light in this photo is the point of clarity and tension as it contrasts with the surrounding pit of blackness. It is a mysterious, bright, hot, white, harsh, light.