Many times throughout the semester the idea of cohesion in lighting terms kept coming up. In the early stages of forming the group assignment we collectively decided that both components should be part of a whole, and that however inconsequentially, the two parts of our assignment should feel part of a larger work.

This was criticised because, it was very unnecessary, the idea was of course to develop our skills, we felt we could do this by making the second piece different (to challenge us) but also to re-try what didn’t work on the first shoot.

Three light sources, this time using the sun as our key light source and LED Panels for the fill. Using daylight (in contrast to our previous shoot) enabled us to try a different look and style of practise. Michael was originally trying to get tungsten fixtures for the day but it didn’t come off. Using different coloured gels, we created various different lighting effects on the walls. With a bit more time on location than the first take and much much more background elements to play with, we were able to try very different effects even if not all of them were helpful to the story we were telling.

Furthermore, we experimented with using a practical light modifier. A magnifying loop was introduced to focus the light onto the diamond for one particular shot.

One of the challenges was consistent lighting through the space. Indoor light was fine as this light could be easily controlled and modified using the means on set. One side of the space provided direct sunlight through a window whilst the other side of the space had only reflected sunlight coming through which made the light not only softer but less intense. This comes across as very natural, (due to the fact that real sun behaves in this way) although the team felt it contributed in a negative way to the overall evenness of the light being reproduced within which was one of our key goals.

We opted for a different method to diffuse the space, rather than using a hazer with a heat element, we opted for haze spray which was much easier to control, partially due to the fact that there was no wind (interior, as opposed to the previous exterior shoot) but also because the haze was finer compared to the extremely thick haze juice that Michael provided us with last time.

Over all the achieved effect was a resounding success.