An occupational hazard

As a photographer, I work with light. Forgetting all of the fancy camera ads we’re all bombarded with, it all comes down to light – where it comes from in a scene, its intensity, color quality, reflections and so on.

As such, I compulsively pay attention to lighting when I enter a new room and almost always start looking at the ceiling to mentally calculate the correct exposure of a typical reception where flash is bounced off of (hopefully white) it. Sad isn’t it? Typically white is always good, and high ceilings much easier to work with than low ones.

On the other hand, I can see the effect of different types of lighting in a room without even turning on the lights, so I see it as a plus. Now if I can only stop doing it all of the time and just when I’m actually working on a project.

Here’s your homework if you’re interested. The next time you see a movie at the theater pay attention to the lighting in the film. You’ll quickly understand what lighting is romantic, dramatic, dull, edgy and so on and why the director wanted that effect in that scene. You may even start looking at ceilings when you enter rooms to see if they are white and how high. Sorry.