Picture of the Month-5

Hi Folks,

This month's Pic of the Month is from 1992. Shot in August, when the weather in Pebble Beach, CA is pretty foggy.

This dining room was a supreme challenge.

Client: Capri / Thomas Lighting
Lighting Designer: Linda Ferry - Architectural Illumination of Monterey, CA
Interior Design: John Newcomb
Assistant: Ethan Kaplan

When doing a dusk shot, you begin 3 to 4 hours before sunset. All you can do is try to imagine what the room will look like at
dusk. When you show up the room is full of way too much light. I see very few sites prior to shooting them. You show up, use
you imagination, set some lights, and hope to get lucky. Areas that are not directly lit will be very dark or black in the final image.
You look at where the lighting designer has placed lights and you try to get a sense of which surfaces will have some light. Areas
that are suspect need to be augmented with the additional fixtures that I bring to the site. These additional lights are set up in
advance of the dusk, "just in case". On foggy/overcast nights the dusk lasts a long time(10 to 15 minutes). On clear nights the dusk
is over in just 3 or 4 minutes.

Windows present an extra challenge. As the light level drops outside at dusk, the room interior becomes visible in the windows.
You hope that your added lights and camera are not surprise guests in your carefully planned shot. The client will not be happy
seeing the photographer or lights reflected in the windows.

Candles present a unique challenge as well. The candles needed about 30 seconds of exposure to convey the mood and show
enough brightness. The rest of the room needed about 2 minutes of exposure. The final exposure had to be stopped halfway
through ,and then restarted without the candles. All of the lights in the scene need to be dimmed to the level of the candles. You
cannot see any of this until the light levels diminish with the sunset. On a 4 x 5 camera the f stop needed is around f32 to capture
all of the focus, both near and far. The picture required multiple exposures. Some lights are turned off as the exposure progresses.
If the lighting ratios are just right , it all works. There are no second chances.

The type of film used(tungsten balanced), enhances the blue of the dusk. Indoor lighting is very yellow due to it's nature. Films
that are used to photograph interiors are called Tungsten/Indoor films. To compensate for the lack of blue light present in indoor
lighting, the manufacturers of these film incorporate an extra blue layer within the film. Indoor photos done with this type of film
will be more neutral or balanced. But areas that are still affected by the sun/dusk(bluer light) will have an excess of blue on the
film. So at just the right time during dusk, the blue outside of windows will intensify and produce a rich effect of beautiful blue. So
part of this blue in the image is the scene, and part of this blue is the film.

The plants outside are lit with flood lights. Of course the circuit breaker controlling the outside lights blew at showtime(Murphy
is always present). You run and find the circuit breakers. In this case Ethan did the running. If you are really prepared you ask
where the panel box is, before you begin!
Enjoy the Pic!

Have a warm, serene, and reflective Thanksgiving.

Respectfully,
Doug Salin

Douglas A. Salin Photographer
647 Joost Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94127
415-584-3322
dspeoe@pacbell.net
http://www.dougsalin.com

Links:
Architectural Illumination
Contact: Linda Ferry
Monterey, CA 93942
Phone: 831-622-7111
Fax: 831-622-7411
light@montereybay.com

The image was featured in the lighting books of Randy Whitehead. http://www.randallwhitehead.com/

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