Let the garden Lighting set the mood

Let the garden Lighting set the mood

By Mike Gambino

The next time you go to a movie theater or view a movie at home, pay close attention to the way the director uses lighting to help create the mood in a scene. Good lighting designers work very closely with directors to build a lighting scheme that adds to the drama of a scene and intensifies the emotions we often just attribute to the actors or the action. Lighting can make a scene feel happy, sad, mysterious or even dangerous.

In this article we will talk about the various ways lighting can be positioned to achieve different emotional feels for the same Garden scene. We will discuss light placement, color, strength and variations, fill and back lighting that is used in landscape lighting.

Henri-7Light Quality

To master the art of altering mood with lighting you have to remember a few basic principles. The hardness or softness of light effects mood dramatically. The more diffused the light is, the softer and smoother it will look. To remember this, look at a shadow cast by the sun. On a bright sunny day, the shadow is dark and the edges are very sharp because the sun is a strong, intense light. We call this intense lighting. On an overcast day, the shadows have very little definition and are soft at the edges. This is because a huge diffusion layer of clouds covers the sun. We call this soft lighting.

Light intensity is dependent upon its distance from the subject. If you double the distance of a light from the talent, you are decreasing its intensity by one fourth. If you halve the distance between the light and the subject, you quadruple the intensity of light. With these concepts understood let’s get on with this.

Controlling Mood

The quality of the overall lighting scheme and its effect on mood is often dependent on the relationship between the primary and secondary or fill lights. If they are about the same intensity, the garden scene will be perceived as bright and flat with not much dimension. As the fill becomes less and less intense, the garden scene becomes more dramatic. The back light also plays a role. The more intense the back light, the more dramatic the effect.

Gambino- water featuresIn the Garden we Let the lighting create the mood. Here are a few Scenarios of lighting schemes

  • Scenario ONE
    Emotionally Neutral Lighting
    The first scenario is a basic emotionally neutral scene. This is what we also call a high brightness scene with not much dimension. This type of lighting is commonly used in parking lots and areas or high security where aesthetic value is not of utmost importance . The lighting casts very few shadows and makes everything seem bright and flat as previously stated.
    Typically all of the lights are the same intensity and fairly soft.
  • Scenario TWO
  • Dramatic Lighting 
  • Care must be taken when casting shadows and preventing light from spilling onto areas where you don’t want it. For this scene, subjects are primarily lighted, but the fill light intensity will be somewhat reduced. Primary and fill lights should be shielded and positioned so that the spill from each doesn’t fall on one another. Also, caution should be taken so that any back light spill does not hit the viewer in the eyes. The effect you should get from this is scenario is one with a little more emotional tension. There will be shadows on the fill sides of the subject and the lighting will appear a bit more dramatic. This type of lighting is used when a moderate amount of attention is desired to be drawn to a scene.  Now Let’s add more drama.
  • Scenario THREE
    Strong/Emotional Lighting
    For Scene 3, Any diffusion materials should be taken off the front of the lights to increase their hardness. The primary lights are moved closer to the subject and the fill farther apart and this will create a more dramatic effect. The light falling on the subject will create a hard shadow line and, if properly achieved, should create a feeling of dark, strong emotions. You should, however, still be able to see the background. This gives the viewers a feeling of normalcy because they have reference objects they can use to put into perspective. Let’s change that.
  • Scenario FOUR
    High Intensity Lighting
    Setup 4 introduces a style called cameo or spot lighting. Raise your primary lights so they are sixty degrees above and to the side/s of the subject. Lights shielded so that there is absolutely no spill reaching where you don’t want it. You should focus and shield the back lights so that they’re only hitting your subjects. You will also want to move the back lights further away or diffuse them so they’re less intense. The result should be a dramatically lit scene where you see your subject suspended in a space with no walls. This should create a feeling of high drama, an intensity of mood,. Without the reference point of the walls, the viewer is drawn closer to the subject creating a strong emotional bond. Lighting designers often use this type of lighting to intensify garden scenes and create a feeling of dramatically increased emotion.
  • SETUP FIVE
    Silhouette Lighting
    Taking the theme we have created one step further, think silhouette. This adds a sense of mystery, romance or maintaining a secret identity. For this setup to be effective, you have to make sure that no spill light is reflected onto the front side of the subject. Point a single or multiple lights at the area or wall behind your subject, lighting the background while leaving the subject in shadow.
  • Light it Right 
    Garden lighting designers use the principles described and work with them to create our own special lighting signature. The most important thing to remember is that lighting is more of an art than a science. It’s a powerful tool that can communicate different moods of the same garden scene. So next time you light your Garden, increase its emotional intensity with a dramatic lighting set up and hire a competent Garden lighting design specialist to accomplish it.
  • Facebook-iceThis landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .
  • Blog articles may be published with permission on other websites without editing or removing links.

 

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