What Constitutes Good Lighting?

What Constitutes Good Lighting?

In this essay I will be analysing What Constitutes Good Lighting? I will be looking at lighting within Theatre and Architecture, for example buildings, offices, libraries and landmarks. I will be doing this by looking at how lighting is good and bad in these areas. This could either be because it is impressive or it works and tells a story.

What constitutes good or bad lighting is very much the opinion of the observer this quote shows that it is you, the audience and the critics that define what is good lighting. This is also saying that whatever you think could be totally different to what the person next to you could think. Good lighting can be defined by the mood, atmosphere and what the stage looks like. For example if a performance is lit well the lighting will be narrative lighting and make you follow the story as different light is bought up in different areas of the stage. This can be done through apparent movement and form which are two of the attributes of light described by McCandless.

If a play does not have Good lighting there will be no given circumstance, rhythm and style some examples of the function of light descried by Palmer. For example if the lighting is not giving the audience a sense of place, time and season in which the play is set then the audience will feel detached and will be trying to find out this information from other sources, meaning they are not concentrating and not immersed in the story. This is the same for rhythm if you are at a rock concert or show and the lighting is not flashing or changing in time to the music or pace of the show. If the rhythm in a performance works, the audience is waiting in anticipation to find out what is going to happen next, this make the show feel like it has flowed and time has passed quickly. If it doesn’t work the audience feels bored and drained and just wants the show to be over.

Lighting a building inside and out is a challenge. To create good lighting it wants to be made up of different layers;

Ambient being the overall lighting needed to make visual recognition and move around, Task Being a place of work e.g. a Desk, Focal is used to pick out a painting or object on a wall and Decorative is “jewellery of Architecture” it is only there to catch the eye of an observer e.g. Chandelier.

This shows that the designer needs to select which of the elements they need to create a place that works; this can be done by using many different sources of light. For example you could use a desk lamp or a spot type light for a Task area and this will give you a focused light you need to read and work. Whereas you would use an unfocused lamp for Ambient as you need the light to spread around the room so that you can see where you are going and who you are talking to. A Decorative lamp could be lots of