Page 124 - Lighting Magazine June 2018

light in focus
122 enLIGHTenment Magazine | June 2018
www.enlightenmentmag.com
of dramatic lighting and you can tell someone paid a ention. Then you go to another museum and someone – probably the board of directors – sat around and said, ‘We’re spending too much on electricity. Let’s put in all of these cost-saving bulbs’ and the people look like the walking dead; there’s no decent contrast anywhere and it drags the energy out of you.”
Briggs’s choice in color temperatures in lighting revolves around whether there are people in the composition. “If there’s a person in the shot, I don’t like to use uorescent color temperature. I like complementary colors, like when you get some of the blue from dusk (blue hour), or purple coming in and then you’ve got incandescent light as a nice orange contrast — those are always an endlessly a ractive combination.” It’s what people are used to seeing in sunsets, and that psychological e ect of light has a lot to do with color temperature.
“I like light that is focused on something,” Briggs states. “If you have a painting on the wall, it’s won- derful to have a spotlight shining brightly on it.
It gives light to the room, but it also gives dramatic emphasis to something beautiful.”
LIghtIng & CInema
The amazing e ects that were able to be achieved without modern technology in early lm and pho- tography is remarkable.
“One of the things that came from that period was that they didn’t have all the bulbs we have today. Color temperature was less of an issue because normally they were shooting in black and white — but their lm was very mildly responsive to light, so they had to leave the shu er open for long periods of time,” Briggs comments. “They would use arc lighting (like welders’ light) which re- ally exposed that lm, but caused people to have temporary blindness. The great creators of the day came from every corner of the globe to Hol- lywood. It was like a Gold Rush of photography. They would study shadows and re ection. They would hold dried plants in the light to cast so , in- teresting shadows — which is now called a Gobo.”
LIghtIng arChIteCture
“I like the organic atmosphere of marble interi- ors,” Brigg recounts. “Marble has a serendipitous design in the veining and color tones, and most an- tique marble has carving in it. So, architecturally, I’m always moved by the artistic design in the carv- ing and the e ect of veining all mixed together in a molten form that dried into the marble.”
Playing with dimension is another favorite. “I like when you have many di erent levels and spaces that somehow connect to each other, where you can shoot through one room and another, and maybe a third room to get a dimensional e ect that adds a real sense of spatial variation,” he explains. “[I also love] tray ceilings, where you get illumination behind the cornice, and that light is almost like a skylight or a sunrise. Architecturally, there’s always a warm feeling that comes from that. A background should be very supportive, but not distracting so I’ll blur it out with my lens (in a Bokeh technique) or I’ll nd something that’s very neutral in tone and shape so the individual posing doesn’t get lost in the background.”
Briggs’ recent projects include the Win eld Gallery show in Carmel, California, and the Art of Guitar Show, featuring the guitars of Keith Rich- ards/Jimmy Page and Dickie Be s. To see more of his work, visit www.BrianBriggsphotography.com