The primary function that the lighting designer must keep in mind is Visibility. Without light, the elements of the production cannot be seen. This seems self evident, but in actuality, it is one of the more difficult areas of lighting design to master. It may seem odd, but the ability to SEE the actors has a significant impact on being able to UNDERSTAND their words! We sometimes do not realize how much lip-reading we actually do without thinking about it.
The simplest way to make sure the actors are visible is simply to turn on all of the lights as bright as possible, right? Well- that IS a strategy that will provide visibility. However, that tactic sometimes sacrifices some of the other functions of stage lighting. So in essence, the Visibility function is slightly more complicated than that. Most often, the lighting designer uses what might better be described as selective visibility. There is almost always a balance between what the audience can see and what they cannot see. The contrast between light and shadow (or the presence and absence of light) does a couple of different things:
The simplest way to make sure the actors are visible is simply to turn on all of the lights as bright as possible, right? Well- that IS a strategy that will provide visibility. However, that tactic sometimes sacrifices some of the other functions of stage lighting. So in essence, the Visibility function is slightly more complicated than that. Most often, the lighting designer uses what might better be described as selective visibility. There is almost always a balance between what the audience can see and what they cannot see. The contrast between light and shadow (or the presence and absence of light) does a couple of different things:
- Creates visual interest (style)
- Allows for emphasis or de-emphasis of elements (focus)
- Sculpts or shapes the three dimensional visual elements (actors and scenic elements) to make them actually look three dimensional.
The ability to make objects and actors visible is one of the most fundamental of lighting principles. Front light allows the actors in the photo at left to have good visibility. On the other hand, lighting only the background, without placing any light on the actor provides a much different look in the photo on the right. The image is striking, but not because of visibility.
However, many or most lighting compositions rely not on these extremes of 'visible' or 'non-visible', but on the concept of selective visibility. This has to do with the concepts of focus and composition, and uses direction in many cases to allow some objects to be seen well, while others are partially obscured.