Principles and Practices of Lighting Design: The Art of Lighting Composition

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. – Socrates

The professional lighting designer is defined in this context as a person who has mastered the profession of lighting design and who possesses a strong understanding of the essential artistic and technical components involved in the design process.

This book is organized to address these two components and how they are integral to successful lighting design. This book is intended to be used both as a textbook for lighting academic programs, and, as a comprehensive resource handbook for the professional, involved with the design, manufacturing, installation, and monitoring of lighting systems.

This book is organized as follows (See Figure 1.1):

Part One: Fundamentals: What is light?, actual and perception, color and light, definitions and characteristics, and how to analyze a space for lighting.

Part Two: Lighting Composition: Artistic: Sets forth the lighting design elements, principles, categories, compositional framework and lighting techniques necessary for the artistic understanding of light design.

Part Three: Lighting Design: Technical: Sets forth technical information regarding lighting sources, energy and electricity, and fixtures and controls.

Part Four: Case Studies: Presents a wide variety of actual lighting design projects which illustrate the artistic and technical techniques and applications.

Part Five: Communicating Lighting Design: Provides a step-by-step outline of the way a lighting design is documented and presented.

Artist and Technician

The lighting designer must combine the qualities and attributes of the artist and the technician. In order to do so, he or she should use as a springboard the lighting design concepts and information discussed and presented here.

Be hard on yourself, be your own worst critique, spend a lot of time researching, studying and experimenting, and involving yourself in the field of lighting design. The information presented here is extremely important, but is not the end all.

Lighting design is above all a process. There is always more to learn, no matter how experienced or accomplished you become. Technical knowledge and artistic abilities will enable you to express concepts with lighting on real life design projects and to translate these two components with your personal aesthetic design.

Technical understanding and applications of lighting design are merely a set of tools to provide a means to an end, but it is you acting as the artist, who is also the interpreter, and the composer of light.

Figure I.1 The Art of Lighting Composition: Overview

Training and Education

Once someone has decided to become a lighting designer, how should one proceed? On-the-job training with good professionals as mentors (perhaps with electrical engineers)? For the student of lighting, four to seven years in a college or university involves considerable expense; yet these years are the most valuable preparations that one will make towards his/her career.

The first task for the student interested in lighting is questioning what to study and how to develop personal creative abilities. The second task is the consideration of those training places which have a track record of quality education in lighting. The third task is to research the lighting field and learn as much as you can about the profession and the opportunities it offers.

What the would-be lighting designer needs to know

Knowledge which lighting designers need to acquire falls into three basic areas: (1) artistic/ design concept development, (2) technical information and (3) a practical systems approach of working within a project team structure.

As of this edition, The National Council of Qualifications for Lighting Professionals administrators a national qualifying exam to test the experience and training of persons desiring to be granted the title lighting certified.

This exam generally tests the following areas of expertise:

1. Artistic/concept development

It is important that a training or educational program has experienced teachers to help the student grow in the following areas:

Learning how to see:

Observation powers for the perspective lighting designer must be developed and sharpened.

For example, each year that I was teaching at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, CA, my students would undertake a black and white photography project, where they would go out and take pictures of different types of natural light phenomenon (shadows, patterns, textures and spontaneous light sources). When their images are critiqued, they are amazed at the vast amount of light they had not noticed. We find instances of reflection in surfaces, value changes in objects, details within forms, playful distortions of light shapes and so on.

Detecting and understanding these vital lighting details is a skill the student must develop if he/she is to grow as a lighting design artist.

Learning what to analyze:

To be prepared to meet the client or the architect or the contractor, the lighting designer must read, research, analyze, and understand the particular project at hand. Only then can the designer meet with other team members and contribute their input. They need to have knowledge of how to use light and shade and color, as well as a broader understanding of how humans respond to light. This aspect of lighting involves an understanding of psychological behavioral responses (discussed in Chapter One).

The student of lighting should select training programs, teachers, and mentors who can help in expanding and broadening the necessary skills of analysis and human reaction.

Nurturing of the artist:

A well taught lighting designer needs a perspective that is much broader than the technical understanding of lighting. As a lighting artist, the designer needs to have an overall sense of architecture, music, art, dance, religion, economics, psychology, and history. It is necessary to have a broad range of interests and an even broader range of knowledge. Only then will the designer have some insight into the very large topic of lighting.

It is important is to find a educator/mentor of lighting design from whom one can learn. This can be a highly subjective and personal matter as different educators/mentors use different forms of instruction. The student needs to know that he can trust, respect and communicate with his educator/mentor. The student must seek out a person whose work they appreciate and admire. It is a give and take process of learning.

2. Technical facts

The lighting designer in training needs to understand and have enough knowledge of how to use each of the following:

1. Light characteristics, definitions, and elements of performance.

2. How light is produced and controlled.

3. How people respond to what they see.

4. What humans see both directly and indirectly.

5. The equipment in common use in the field and specific luminaires.

6. Control devices, i.e. switches, circuit boards, dimmers, etc.

7. The basic history of lighting design.

8. The traditional project monitoring and control systems used to achieve a lighting design on schedule, within budget, and in an orderly, creative way.

9. Drafting and rendering skills for symbolizing the design approach and communicating and visually presenting ideas.

10. Some familiarity with the procedures and practices of related disciplines such as architects, engineers, contractors, and installation personnel.

All of this information can be found in a half-dozen or so existing basic textbooks on lighting design.

As strange as it may seem, the student that attains all of the above knowledge and skills and who can successfully create a lighting design is still not yet a lighting designer. This type of person is merely a highly trained and skilled technician, but not yet an artist of light.

3. Practical systems approach

The third body of information the prospective lighting designer must master is the project team approach to systems and procedures.

Step by step, how does a space get designed and lighted?

A student can be taught about reflected ceiling plans, drawings and diagrams, preplanning, organization and anticipation of unknowns, however, the student must seek qualified and experienced personnel for guidance in systems and procedures.

All lighting design involves the interaction of a multi-disciplinary team (architect, interior designer, mechanical and electrical engineers, etc.). Creative, knowledgeable people contribute their expertise and ideas to the project. Most tasks involving a lighting designer are highly structured and organized. The lighting designer must be willing to be a team player within that structure. A good educator/mentor can help students learn how to balance the many issues that arise as a team player and advise them on how to be both employable and creative in the lighting design field.

Apprentice/Internship Programs

Good apprentice programs are hard to find. Here are a few apprentice program specifics a student should look for:

1. The more progressive programs encourage students to design lighting away from the classroom and campus, but they also serve as a resource to locate such opportunities. Apprentices should attempt to be exposed to a wide range of design jobs and training conditions.

2. Premier educators usually invite well known guest lecturers and designers into the classroom. Most designers know that their way of designing lighting is not the only way and that students could benefit from a wide range of design expertise and approaches.

3. Educational programs should take full advantage of field trips to showrooms, lighting firms, and energy centers; instructors should insist that students visit and critique specific project installations.

4. An instructor who takes the time and has the interest to evaluate and critique a students’ lighting design project work, usually makes the very best instructor. Without such reviews the student will not grow.

5. A good place to study will have a proven track record in the job career placement area. Do the educators have contacts in the field to help the students find summer employment and part-time positions?

6. What is the advancement status of students that have already been trained in this program? Have they found good positions?

7. Good programs should have either a lighting lab or at least a small staging area. Also a light box set up for students to experiment with colors and various fixtures and some switching capability is important. Lighting design is a visual art, and if the program is restricted to textbooks and classroom instruction, it is not sufficient.

If the student has received good training in the fundamentals of lighting design, much can be applied and readily adapted to the various lighting specialties. An understanding of these critical methods is basic, regardless of where they are applied. The important issue to remember is that the student must find the right teacher/mentor and area of study within the field that fits their training focus.

Available Resource Texts

The vast majority of existing texts are improved rewrites of prior approaches and procedures.

Over the years the theoretical approach has changed very little, but practice and technology in the market has changed dramatically. Only a few scattered magazine and lighting journal articles have made any serious attempts to focus on the needs of the lighting design student who has looked beyond the first course. Exceptions are sometimes found in a given specialty, for instance, architecture; however, useful knowledge about lighting design is now so extensive that no one text, until this one, has provided a comprehensive resource for the answers.

Most of the information in this book applies to those intending to pursue careers in lighting or who are already working in the field of architectural lighting design. Existing lighting designers will profit from the additional research, advice, and information included here in the areas of light and design.

Preparation for a career in lighting design is generally not laid out as a course of study, although this is beginning to change in some university programs. Light as a design element is in itself a newcomer to the broader arts arena. Architects complain about those that they hire for lighting design, saying they have too little background in architecture, architectural drafting, and illuminating engineering. Apprentices can be most certain of employment if they are aware of the significant differences between training in the technical/ engineering arena versus the artistic/design arena. Students should make sure that they have grounded themselves fully in these two basics of lighting.

Career Trends and Opportunities

This section discusses the various types of career opportunities in the lighting design. It also outlines the requirements and characteristics for each, as well as relevant opportunities for employment and advancement.

Additional information for career alternatives within the field of lighting can be obtained from an excellent resource publication, entitled LIGHTING LISTINGS, published by Visions Communications.

More traditional career trends in lighting include the following:

Freelancing and Consultant Positions

Should you decide to take the big chance and freelance you should tackle one of the biggest questions of all: Should you try a big city or go elsewhere?

Stay where you are known, where you grew up and were educated, because you are potentially more employable there. Making contacts in a new location usually takes a long time, and making contacts is vital to freelancing. Those who you work with are always forming opinions and can potentially provide references for future work; thus, it is important to try to leave good impressions with everyone you work with, not just the client.

While it may seem insignificant to add comments about collecting all fees when due, it is certainly an important part of freelancing in any industry. Clients have long been notorious for not paying the moneys owed to the lighting designer.

Teaching or Staff Lighting Positions

As designers become successful, they may find fewer challenges over the years. Clients are typically more apt to utilize newcomers who will work for less money. Generally, more mature, middle-aged designers’ move on to teaching or a staff position with one of the larger lighting design companies. These positions offer both a steady income and often a greater opportunity to be exposed to more projects over a longer period of time. It also removes the designer from the sometimes cutthroat world of competition.

Consulting Firms

The career pattern in the architectural lighting design field is such that the professionals usually start their own consulting firms and stay in that particular region.

The Search Process and Tools

How do lighting designers in a consulting firm go about the process of finding work and what tools do they need?

Resumes

Logic would assume this very basic tool of the profession. The prospective client or employer first wants to know the name, address, and telephone number of the applicant or designer.

Next, a brief personal sketch of the person being represented. The sketch should include age; education; any pertinent facts like marital status, children, etc. Following should be information about prior projects and employment, where the person last worked and for how long, and then a chronological depiction of jobs going back in time. In addition, both personal and professional references are included.

The client or employer also needs to know about other non-paid activities that might have some bearing on the evaluation of the persons’ qualifications.

Finally, any awards, citations, publications, lectures, special skills or training, and organizations to which the person might belong to should be included.

Portfolios

The approach for portfolios is not quite as straight forward. Most clients and employers are not always trained experts at reading lighting drawings. A portfolio should have photographs of your finished projects, academic or otherwise, reviews of your work, and any letters of recommendation.

Include anything that will make them view you as their new, talented light artist. This might include renderings, color boards, fixture schedules, reflected ceiling plans, electrical layouts, switching and dimming devices, black and white photographical analyses, light/ color studies, specifications, custom fixture designs and mock-ups.

Industry Trends

No one really knows how many people are in the field of lighting, but it is estimated that those that teach, design, manufacture, and market light sources and fixtures, those involved in power design and production, and sales, comprise a rather large group.

I would estimate in the year 2011 the total size of the industry to be well above 100,000 individuals. To try to define this group of lighting design professionals, I would like to refer to the following updated industry survey which gathered information about the following:

Summary

As was stated in the beginning of this chapter, this book is organized to define and connect the artistic and technical aspects of lighting design and composition. Clearly a right brain, left brain approach to the subject. Having taught and practiced in this field for almost 20 years, I can assure you, the reader, that this approach, given the complexity and vast amount of information that floods the product market each year, is by far the simplest and most logical approach.

I sincerely hope that this approach and information becomes both a resource and springboard for many exciting lighting designs.

Before discussing some of the artistic and technical areas of lighting design, we should first go over some fundamentals about how we perceive light and what light actually is.

Part One: Fundamentals

Chapter One: What is Light?

Art is the difference between seeing and just identifying. - Jean May Norman

Perception: Vision and the Eye

Vision is the richest human sense. It provides us with a myriad of information that we would not receive without light-the basic stimulus for vision. Both of these have an important influence on our reactions, ability to concentrate, efficiency, fatigue, and general well-being.

The ability of the eyes to function at an optimum level is in direct proportion to light. Therefore, light, and the environments that lighting designers create, have to be responsive to the physiological and technical laws of vision and light.

What is seen and perceived by the eye is a narrow band of electromagnetic energy, ranging from approximately 380 nanometers (nm) to 760 nanometers (nm). Only wavelengths in this range stimulate receptors in the eye that permit vision.

Figure 1.1 Sunlight

In a vacuum, light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second. When light travels through glass or water or another transparent substance it is slowed down to a velocity that depends on the density of the medium through which it is transmitted. This slowing down of light is what causes prisms to bend light in lenses to form images. When light is bent by a prism each wavelength is refracted at a different angle so that the light coming through emerges as a fan of light, yielding all the spectral colors.

The physical difference between radio waves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, and x-rays is their wavelength. Therefore, spectral color, or hue, is essentially light of a specific wavelength.

Figure 1.2 The eye and the brain

The Eye and the Brain

The human eye and a camera are amazingly similar. The eyes supply the brain with information coded into chains of electrical impulses, but the seeing of objects is determined only partially by these signals. The brain searches for the closest interpretation of available data. The perception of what we see as objects is merely a suggested sensory conclusions, derived from knowledge from our previous experience and historical context.

Usually our assumptions and conclusions are correct because we strive to have an order to this perception of our world as separate solid objects in a surrounding space.

The human eye is primarily a device with a focusing lens that throws a miniature inverted image onto a dense mosaic of light sensitive receptors, which in turn, convert the patterns of light energy into chains of electrical impulses that the brain then interprets.

The lens of the human eye is built up from its center, with cells being added all through life, although growth gradually slows down. The center is thus the oldest part, and as the cells age they become more compact and harden. As a result, the lens stiffens and is no longer able to change its shape to accommodate varying distances.

Lenses only work well when they fit properly and are adjusted correctly. Sometimes the lens of an eye is unsuitable to the eye in which it finds itself, and it is adjusted incorrectly, i.e., giving it short (myopic) or long (presbyopic) sight, where the lens focuses the image on the front of or behind the retina instead of on it. Also, some distortions in certain directions can occur, blurring the image, or the cornea can be an irregular shape or pitted.

Most of these optical effects can be corrected with exterior lenses or glasses. Eyeglasses correct the errors of focus (called accommodation) by adjusting the power of the lenses of the eye; they also correct for distortion.