On our first day of class we did an exercise to help us
understand what lighting design is, and a scenario came up that had us
wondering what light the moon is actually reflecting. This thought was in the
back of my mind all through last week, until one night I finally took a second
to look up. As I exited my car from a late night run to the grocery store, I
was struck by how light it was outside. My eyes immediately recognized the
moonlight as I looked up to find a full moon shining brightly overhead.
The intensity was so strong (even through the thin layer of
clouds) that I had to document, and investigate. With my trustworthy Wikipedia
tool at my fingertips I discovered that only 13.6% of sunlight is reflected off
of the moon, and that the full moon is 500,000 times fainter than the Sun! My
curiosity had officially been piqued, but I wanted to understand more
mechanically how moonlight affects the way we see things as human beings, so I
did a little more digging.
By following a trail of blue words, I was led to a page of
Wikipedia called the Purkinje Effect. As quoted, this effect is “the tendency
for the peak luminance sensitivity of the human eye to shift toward the blue
end of the color spectrum at low illumination levels.” This happens as the
intensity dims and the light-sensitive rods in our eyes take over, but before
the color disappears completely, it shifts to the rods’ top sensitivity à
green-blue light. Now because of this, humans basically become colorblind under
low levels of illumination, such as moonlight! So the moonlight itself does not
have the bluish tint, but our eyes pick up a bluish tint all around us, leading
us to believe the source has a blue tint. [Apologies to anyone reading this who
has already consumed this piece of knowledge; it is new to me!] There are some
other factors involved in how we see moonlight, but I just had to research for
myself why we see natural light the way that we do.
I am currently working on a project that relies heavily on moonlight
to set the tone, so with this new understanding of moonlight I can focus on
recreating a kind of moonlight onstage that the audience can connect with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purkinje_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight
Google can be such a useful tool! :) Moonlight is simply stunning and I have often wondered exactly how it reflects sunlight. That's neat that light inspired you to investigate further, and DEFINITELY draw upon your experiences in every day life to recreate looks on stage! What a perfect way to get inspiration for your upcoming moonlit show :) Remember to stay true to your first instincts because those are what your audiences will relate to the most!
ReplyDelete