Directional Lighting

What I enjoy in this photo is how the lighting lights certain parts of the woman's body while making a silhouette of the rest of it. It adds a mysterious yet artistic tone to the entire photo. Then the background makes the scene more modern-day.

The lighting in this photo is the same as the first, but it has a different story behind it. With the light revealing the man's sweaty face, the veins popping out of his arms, and the wood shavings around him, the photo as a whole shows struggle and determination.

This picture is a prime example of directional lighting as it shows the audience exactly where to look by showing light only on the action.

Special Air Service Operator (circa early 2000s)
This is a good picture with directional lighting that creates not only where to pay attention, but also allows a ominous warrior feeling.

Goya & Rembrandt

Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Painted by Goya, this work is titled José Costa y Bonells (died 1870), Called Pepito. This boy, Pepito, was the son of King Ferdinand VII's doctor. I like how Goya uses highlight to emphasize the creases in the child's clothes as well as creates dimension inside his plumed hat. I do think it is odd, however, that the child's face is not as highlighted as his clothes. Perhaps Goya emphasized the clothing's highlights in order to convey the sense of a certain type of material, potentially an expensive one.

Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This painting by Rembrandt is called Woman with a Pink. The "pink" is a carnation, a symbol of love and marriage. Rembrandt's highlights are very bright, especially the ones present on the woman's jewelry. The shadows he creates are so dark that the figure seems to melt into the background. What I found odd is the highlight surrounding the woman's hands holding the pink; it seems unnatural. The extra light is most likely to highlight the pink as emphasis of its importance (love and marriage), but it seems like the flower and the hands themselves emit their own glowing light that is not natural.

 

I think this picture is interesting  because it captures lighting from an single side but yet it cheats in that one still gets a reflection off of the grapes and tomatoes where there is no direct light shining on it.

I really like this picture because it gives almost a surreal snapshot of the guy, giving him a stoic aesthetic to match his soldier appearance. The lighting creates a brightness to the soldier but still leaves a almost mysterious vibe to him.

This pictures uses the light of a candle to shine on the two individuals. I like the fact that the background is completely blacked out and the only light comes from the candle. Although the background is very dark, the mood conveyed is not really scary, but more lighthearted like they sharing a story together.

This picture uses the lighting from a lamp to illuminate the two figures in the picture. The use of one light creates a very somber mood.

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This is In Ictu Oculi by the Spanish painter Juan de Valdés Leal. I thought this was an interesting piece because there is no light source shown in the painting but it is easy to tell that it would be coming from the lower left area. He does use his artistic licence in the lighting of the casket and the globe; they are both well lit though they are relatively far from the light.


This is a still life by the Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch. I find myself drawn to paintings that show a dark place being lit from an interesting angle. This one is also lit from the lower left corner. I think the light is actually very well represented in this painting. It does seem to lack some of the shadows we might expect but other than that it appears to be an accurate representation. I really liked the color in this piece and how she used it to show lighting.

This painting is interesting because it gives a balance between the sunlight and the candlelight while juxtaposing it to the shadows created from the multiple light sources.

This painting is fascinating because the moonlight peeks over the cloud to illuminate the water, which gives a nice balance to the darker shore in the painting.

"The Destruction of the Palace of Armida" is a painting created by french artist Charles-Antoine Coypel in the early 1700s. The focus of the piece is on the angel creature coming down. The light source appears to be in the back. However, most of the people in the piece are lit from the front, implying an additional source in the front, which I found interesting in addition to all of the chaos.


This one is called "A Coastal Landscape with Sailing Ships by Moonlight" by Andreas Achenbach. The moonlight is the clear source of light here. It is contrast with the dark, ominous clouds, which gives either the feeling that danger is always there, or that there is hope amongst the darkness and despair.

Old Masters: Patinir and Wijnen

I decided to go with the painting "Landscape with St. Jerome" by the painter Joachim Patinir. I chose this painting for a few reasons; for one I found the cooler tones just an interesting palette choice, as almost everything in the photo seems to be just tinted slightly bluer than they would normally be. Then the cave in which we see St. Jerome sitting in, is dimly lit, and we are able to see just a hint of him. This creates such a nice effect, as it is definitively something that draws your eye to it, just because of the difference in color to the rest of the landscape.

I also decided to go with a painting attributed to Dominicus van Wijnen, and it is titled "Witchcraft". The thing that I like about this photo is how the sky is partially illuminated by the moon, and that the moon also being blocked by the clouds, thus not illuminating the entire frame. Instead for the main lighting, we have both a fire which is being used to burn, what I can only assume to be, a Witch, and a second flame coming out of a creature's mouth. Overall it's just an energetic scene being lit by two different sources of light.

This painting is called "Cristo deriso" by Trophime Bigot. Here, the only light we can see is coming from the lamp in between the two men, while darkness surrounds them. I like the intensity of the light from the lamp, because it makes you focus on the details on the faces of the two men before anything else. It makes the moment between the two appear more intense.

This painting is called "The Haarlemmermeer on a Cloudy Day, with a Distant View of the Church of Saint Bavo, Haarlem" by Jan Josefsz Goyen. I like how you can see the sunlight come through and reflect on the clouds themselves. You can see the light reflecting off parts of the water, but not on the grass or the people. You can tell it's an overcast day, but you know what the light source is.

I really like the lighting in this image because the source is not visible. It is because of the obvious light shining on them and the shadows cast around them (and the book they are reading) that one can infer a candle is in front of them. I assume it is a candle because of the soft quality of light that is produced. 

This image is really cool because while it is not the brightest picture there are actually two sources of light picture. There is the large uncovered window and the fire. The two sources of light create a lot of depth in the space and allow for shadows to only appear where the light doesn't touch at all. 

Master Paintings

This painting is called "Clearing Up, Coast of Sicily" by Andreas Achenbach. The sun appears to be covered by the clouds, yet it acts the source of light in this painting. Individual rays of light can be seen from behinds the cloud which I think shows the power of the sun, as if it is unstoppable. Some of the sun's light can be seen on the rock at the left center part of the painting. I also think the dark clouds gives a stormy, gloomy, kind of mood, but this is countered by the sunlight shining around the clouds.
This painting is called, "A Calm at a Mediterranean Port" by Claude Joseph Vernet. I think the calmness of this painting is due to the lighting. The sun can barely be seen in the distance lighting the clouds around it. It appears to be setting giving a dim light. The water lightly reflects the sun's light giving a calm feeling. The way the light seems to, mostly, stay contained to the background area makes the sun seem further away.

This painting, called "Two Views of Dresden by Moonlight" by Johan Christian Clausen Dahl, is centered around the glow of the moon. The lighting casts interesting shadows on the water, and highlights the tree in the top right corner. 

In this painting (Georges de la Tour, "Magdalen with the Smoking Flame") features a woman illuminated by a single bare flame. The light given off by this candle frames the lines and details of the woman's body, and lengthens her bare legs. 

Old Masters Paintings (Briahn Hawkins)

The painting is called Judith Slaying Holofernes by Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who tends to focus on powerful female figures in her work. Besides the graphic actions themselves, I'm interested in the actions taking place in front of what looks like either a lamp or a candle. This simple light exposes a brutal, gory beheading. In addition to that, you don't even see what the rest of the room looks, so you're even more focused on the action taking place.

This painting titled The Duet was created by Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst in the 17th century. According to ArtfixDaily, this painting was confiscated by Nazis during World War II from an art collector and has been auctioned recently in New York. What I enjoy is the color and passion that is illuminated by the candle. It allows us to see the emotion from the woman and the joy of the man as they share the song together. Also, like the first painting, the candle only shows the action that's taking place and not the entire scene.

Nature's Beauty

Wheat in Sunrise

This is a beautiful picture of wheat in the countryside during sunrise. The sky contains red, blue, and yellow - all primary colors - but in softer, more pastel-like tones. At the edge of each primary stripe in the sky, you can see that the colors mix to make secondary colors like purple, orange, and green. The stalks of wheat are a magnificent teal color tinged with a cerulean blue that you can also spot in the sky's clouds.

Foggy Field

This picture is full of muted tones which give the picture a tired, dreary. The trees in the distance are backlit, so they provide dark silhouettes in contrast to the sharply focused grass in the foreground. There is not much light in the picture, but what light there is highlights the grass in the foreground. This picture makes me think of a countryside scene from Harry Potter.

This picture is really great because it really shows the difference that light makes by reflecting off the water creating a contrast between the water and the land.

This picture is really fantastic because it almost seems as if the light is emanating from the ground and projecting onto the sky. This creates a really beautiful and breath taking scene. The shadows are also interesting that come off the cliff faces, they create darkness in a super bright place.

This is picture taken by myself at the pyramid chichen itza in Mexico. I took it during a night tour of the pyramid. The only light in this picture are the moon and red light shining from the base of the pyramid which create a very eerie/spooky mood.

This picture was taken by myself off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula on the island of Hol-Box. Its a small, secluded island and this picture captures the setting and mood of the island. The light blue, grey, and white shades are very refreshing. Since its overcast, the sun's bright rays cannot be seen so instead this pictures is dominated by the blue shades reflected off the ocean and sky.

Lighting in Nature: Naturally Interesting

I find this picture really interesting because of the color of the sunrise. The yellow and orange light creates a brilliant contrast between the red rock and soil and the green vegetation. The warm color brings out the reds making the green, cool colors, much brighter. You are also able to tell that it is coming from the right side of the picture based on the shadows.

The bright light in combination with the snow has a very refreshing or energizing feeling to it. I really like how bright this photo is because of the color and reflection of light. I was also drawn to the interesting pattern created by the tree shadows. The light source is also unseen in this photo but it is more difficult to pinpoint its location using shadows.

The lighting in this photo creates a feeling of naturalness, and with the way the light passes through the tree on the left really does help to increase this feeling. The minute amount of light that passes through the tree specifically does promote this, but it also is just a nice effect with. I really just love the aesthetic and the palette that the photo contains.

This photo's lighting is much softer and creates a much cooler tone than the last photo. The great thing about this photo, is the color palette is pretty uniform, and the lighting helps with keeping this consistent. The other nice thing about the lighting in this photo is that it helps make the central point of the photo be the main focus, makes it seem much more unique, and overall it just makes it "pop".

Lighting in nature as seen by Ivan

This is a picture of the Houston skyline taken by yours truly. Both the shadow of the clouds as well as the shadows of the buildings suggest the sun is on the left side. There is a clear distinction between the lit side of each building and the unlit, yet every building is entirely visible and there is no side that is too dark.


The Northrup building is lit by the sun in a similar fashion to my first picture.The top part of the building is more lit than the floor, so if this was a stage, the focus would be on the top of the building. The windows reflect some of the light, which increases the total amount of light seen in the picture.

Lighting in Nature

This is a picture from Rice University's campus. I like it because you cannot see a source of light but the picture isn't dark. There is still light even though you can't really see where it is coming from. 

This is a photo from Trinity University's campus with bright light coming from the right but reflected by the clouds on the left. Even though the light seems like it is coming from the right everything is completely light in the photo, with no visible shadows. 

I like that the land is being backlit by the sun, and that there is a reflection on the water. I think the light from the setting sun helps give off a calm, relaxed feeling. The orangish-yellow color from the sun also gives off a warm and friendly feeling.

This photo also has the sunlight in the background so that the flowers are backlit. However, I like that the we don't see the flowers just as black silhouettes. I think the sunlight that reflects off the flowers helps give off a romantic feel.

The Sun in the background provides a bright, centered light that gives the trees shadows. From that sunlight, we can notice most of the colors in the images, although some of the tree are silhouettes. It is almost as if the Sun is looking at you.
This shows a sunset, or dawn of this rock. The light shining on this big chunk of rock gives a message of power. There is a darkness on the right side of the rock which indicates that the light is coming from the left. The clouds are slightly darker in the distance, giving a sense of doom in the distance.

The soft haze of the light on the right side of the photo provides interesting contrast with the darker left. Along with this, the intensity of the light hitting the flower makes the petals translucent and fragile-looking, highlighting how delicate things in nature like flowers are. 

The intensity of the moonlight makes this dark, intimidating landscape look almost hopeful--the single bit of crazily bright light calls back to biblical imagery of God, providing light and comfort for those who are lost. 

The darkness of the trees, contrasted with the bright light from the sun which illuminates the walkway. This does a very good job of portraying a "light at the end of a tunnel", or even a biblical reference in nature "seeing the light" type of feel.

The way in which the sun provides backlight for the spiderweb, allows the web itself to glow and, I think, highlight the small things in nature.