Tonight we began technical rehearsals for our fifth show of the season, "Albert Herring". I wasn't scheduled to start until 5pm, but I had to ride in with stage crew to be on time, which arrived around 3pm. Caitlin wants to put up photos that i've taken for her new apartment, so I figured I would shoot some more. I haven't gone out and just photographed around town, and the ranch at the north side of the Opera's campus seemed like I could find some good places to shoot.
I started wandering around the backside of the Ranch, down a dirt road that I hadn't seen before. I don't feel like I have a "creative" photographic eye, compared to some other photographers that I see. They can go and photograph anything and make it gorgeous, and I struggle to pop out a few nice frames from hours of shooting. I have gotten very familiar to the adjustments in Aperture, in terms of color and exposure, and I've played with lots of the presets, so I feel like my good photos are becoming great from these minor "touch-ups".
I have to thank the people in my life who have shown me anything to do with lighting: architectural, theatrical, portrait, etc. Until you're completely immersed in the fundamentals of lighting, you really don't see how light "falls" on to people and objects, and more importantly, the emotional response that is elicited from the angles and colors of light. Light from the front is different than the side, then the top, the back, the high side, etc. Every Take one light and shine it from all these angles onto the same object, and your brain likes some, and hates others.
Theatrical lighting designers, photographers, and anyone else who manipulates light truly understands this, and will do whatever it takes to bring out the emotion and vibrance of their subject. I can honestly say that from the beginning of my photographic career, the only lighting lesson I knew was "Have the biggest light behind your camera, shining on your subject". Being surrounded by lighting designers for the past three years and sitting in technical rehearsals for hours on end looking at nothing but light on stage, combined with reading photo websites such as Strobist, and the finally taking a "Light for Photo Imaging" class last semester, my perception of light has completely opened up. Using any controllable light source (flood light, camera flash, etc) gives you so much more control than just the sun.
Which is why in Santa Fe, I guess i'm feeling a little tied at the wrists when shooting, because my main light has only been the sun. My photo class kept striving to get away from the sun, and use *controllable* sources, ones you can change the intensity of, which help you "sculpt" your subject. With just the sun, I can't change the angle or intensity of the sun relative to my subject.
Anyway, here's what has come out of that hour-and-a-half photo shoot around the Opera campus. Most of the tweaks i've done have been to richen up the color, and add a vignette around the corners to bring focus towards the center of the image:
A lot of the images I shoot in Santa Fe rarely have the light coming from the "front"; it's usually from the back or high side. Much more detail is revealed from this angle (in my opinion), the front light is just not as flattering or interesting as from any other angle. The only image that has lots of front light is the fence, and I processed that quite a bit to get the detail and richness I thought made the image pop.
A few more images from some another night prior, of our Production Manager during his pre-show checks:
Oh, right. Tech, that's why i was here tonight. Technical rehearsal mostly consists of the lighting designer writing "looks" for the various scenes of the show, and helps stage crew work on the scene changes. My job in A/V is to make sure the lines of communication for the lighting crew and designers stay open and working.
My shift usually starts at 5pm, preparing wireless intercom headsets for the electrics crew to focus the lighting rig before tech rehearsal. Focus begins at 6pm, and lighting and stage crew work until 9pm preparing for tech. From 9pm to Midnight, the lighting designer writes their looks, and at midnight we take a meal break. Called "Grey Lady", i've discovered that it used to be catered by older, grey-haired women who would cook the meal for all who braved the rehearsal. Over the years, the catering came in-house, but the name stuck. Tonight's Grey Lady feast was AWESOME: pulled pork, green chile barbecue and cornbread.
Tech usually resumes until 2:30am, but tonight the designer was happy with the progress that we finished our work just before Grey Lady, and we left after the meal.
Talk to you next time!
-Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment