We do not see light as such. We cannot observe light as it travels from the source to the illuminated object, or from illuminated object to the eye.

Light only allows us to see the surrounding area. The eye is able to perceive not only sources of light, but reflections of the light from objects. Everything what is within the range of our sight either emits the light or reflects it.

Whenever we are able to detect the rays of light, it is when they are refracted from an object, even drops of rain as in rainbow or from pieces of dust. We can purposefully use haze if such an effect is desired.

The second lesson of the European Lighting School Knowledge Center deals with the nature of light and its influence on the lighting design in theater. The goal is to apprehend the basic qualities of light and what kind of influence they have onto the objects, areas in theater, further to consider the result of falling light in the real ambiance of various qualities, to learn how to think over and intentionally work with reflection, refraction, color and color contrast and contrast between cold and warm.

Topics:

Physical qualities of light (reflection, refraction, scattering). The problem of “white”. Color temperature. Color Rendering Index. Theory of colors, characteristics of a color. RGB and CMY color mixing. Reproduction of colors, effects on the stage. Some basic ways of measuring light.

Time requirement for this lesson:

6 – 8 hours

Author and tutor for the lesson:

The lesson was prepared by Ondřej Růžička with cooperation of František Fabián and Jan Purkert.

Photos courtesy of Institute of Lighting Design and Jan Purkert. Other sources are quoted separately as appropriate. Some pictures were created with the help of programs Color Wheel Pro and Virtual Light Lab 2010.

In the Key terms section, the definitions were mainly retrieved from Wikipedia. Some definitions are retrieved from International Lighting Vocabulary (International Commission on Illu­mination 1970) and are marked by their code CIE with a reference number in the vocabulary.

Tutor for the lesson is Ondřej Růžička who is available for answering questions in the period 12.7 – 25.7 of 2015.  You can contact him via the contact form at the end of the lesson. Reply is not guaranteed, unless submitted within the given period of time.