An article about Mood and Light.


Introduction:

I was recently doing some research on the subject of “Mood Setting” for a Computer Graphics specialization project that I am doing for a University Course. It was very enlightening for me and I decided that I wanted to share some of that research.

Creating art may sometimes be completely intuitive and sometimes it is a project planned ahead. Whichever way we create art I believe that it is good to have a basic awareness in the back of our heads. In this article I will try and define and explore some of the aspects of mood and light.

I recommend you take a look at the internet pages listed under "resources". There are a couple of really great tutorials there!



Mood Descriptions:

Defining mood can be hard since it is very much connected to our individual interpretation of symbolism. Especially in pictures where there is usually no music to heighten the tone it is very probable that different people will interpret a different mood that the artist had originally intended. However there are a few things that most people of the more widely spread cultures can come together and say “makes up a mood”:


Happy:

Description:

Overall a happy environment strikes me as bright with lots of light and lots of warm colours. It seems to me that there is often a lot of artefacts such as pillows, candles, flowers etc. which helps make it feel “lived in” and like a place you want to be in. More than anything else a “happy” environment holds no secrets. Everything is out in the open and is generally clean/tidy and fresh in its appearance.


Cosy:

Description:

It seems that an environment that is perceived as “cosy” generally has a lot of dark warm colours. The light often consists of many small light sources such as candles or small lamps instead of one big bright light source. Fire can be an element that brings extra warmth and life to a scene with its warm and gentle light. A cosy environment is often richly decorated with both artefacts and fabrics.


Creepy/Scary:

Description:

A creepy or scary environment is often full of shadows and contrasts in both light and colour. It holds secrets in the corners and it is here that we come in contact with our fears; darkness, small cramped spaces, distorted reality, the unknown, etc.. The light is cold or “demonic” or at least neutral. Extreme close-ups can also help make an environment feel creepy.


Sad:

Description:

An environment with a sad or mournful atmosphere often has a very narrow but not very colourful palette. In films and artworks it is very common that the picture is either tinted slightly grey or slightly blue to give a cold or colourless cord to it. To really underline the sadness in a scene one could bring in old and sentimental artefacts that are looking abandoned.


Magical:

Description:

A magical environment often has a lot of bright colours and shiny sparkly effects. There may be elaborate artefacts or uncommon creatures or situations. There might be some proof of “magic” like flying artefacts or people. Fog can be an effective mood heightener in a magical environment.



Mood and Light

I felt it necessary to explore some of the different aspects of the light that we have in the real world to better understand what I am trying to recapture when doing art pieces of different sorts. Also I think that the world is a very good place to be inspired for mood setting and really the only source when looking to understand at least some of the fundamentals of light.


Mood and Colour

To understand mood setting I decided I needed to break down what makes up the mood in a picture. Of course in a film, the movement of the camera, music and sound adds a lot to the mood setting. But if we ignore these factors for a moment there are still a few pieces left that make up the mood in a scene or picture. There are a couple of major things that gives to setting the mood.


Colour:

Before we interpret the shapes and the happenings in a picture we perceive the colours. The colours tell us if it’s hot or cold, if it is a calm or harsh environment. Generally we also have associations of mood set with different colours.

- Hot Colours:
Generally hot colours bring action, spice and excitement to a picture. However bringing warm colours into the light of a picture can also bring a hopeful and gentle tone to the environment.

- Red: Red is a dramatic colour with associations to passion, strength, energy and love. It is a colour that can bring a reaction of alarm since we also relate it to blood, fire and anger and the fact that we generally use it for our warning signs.

- Yellow: The colour of the sun, it is bright and cheerful and if it dominates a scene then it is most likely that the audience will be expecting something happy to take place. It is a warm colour that we relate very much with summer.

- Cool Colours:
Cool colours generally give soothing and relaxing experiences. We connect these colours with the nature around us; water, sky grass, trees. However cool colours in light can make a scene very unwelcome or sterile in how you perceive it.

- Green: Green is nature, it is Life. The right shade of green can be very harmonious and indicate balance, stability and good fortune. Green is one of the main colours in our environment and can look very natural when used in the colour scheme of a scene or picture, but can also easily be used to make an image or a person look very sick and distorted. A green tint in the lighting could very well make a scene feel disturbing and create the impression that something twisted is in the making. We also have a symbolic association between the colour green and envy.

- Blue: Blue is harmonious it is our vast skies and our steady deep oceans. There is harmony and a majestic unity with the colour blue. While a colour scheme dominated by red may say “fear me”, a deep ocean blue is more likely to say “trust me”. However a lighter blue is cold like winter and ice and reminds us of depression. A scene flooded in blue light is probable to take give the impression of sadness, where only a tint of blue in the light will give the look of coolness, winter or night.


Direction of light.

The direction of light affects shadows and the intensification of different parts of an object or scene. It also affects depth and can enhance the overall emotion of a scene or further bring out the shape of a subject. It could also do just the opposite and render us with the subject looking completely flat. The choice of light direction will be the most important decision as it will impact how the scene will appear to the audience and what emotions the image will convey.

- Light from above: Having the light source coming from above can have a very angelic effect to the subject. It has commonly been used to depict divinity and spirituality. However if the light source is more localised and concentrated and lit with a harsh light spot then it will add to the negative features of the character and give a very different effect. This can also somewhat with light in environments. Another common effect when lighting directly above a subject is that it can also give a character a menacing look, as it will emphasise the bone structure and the eye sockets.

- Light from the front: Light source is coming directly from the point of the viewer or behind the viewer. It is probable this sort of lighting will make things look flat. However when frontal lighting is used softly and diffused it will smooth things over and can be very flattering to some subjects since it can conceal unwanted flaws or unwanted texture (or create interesting effects with textures).

- Light from Side: Side lighting can be very effective when you want to show off form, depth and texture. It can give you a nice and high contrast with more prominant shadows. Lighting a scene from the side can also be a useful tool to cast long and dramatic shadows onto empty boring surfaces in order to create some atmosphere. There is a slight risk that some areas of a subject or a scene can be lost in shadow or that it can reveal unwanted imperfections.

- Light from below: Light from below tends to bring forward the negative traits of the subject. For one it is a very unnatural light source that will bring out the features of the subject in an uncommon way. When the shadows are cast upwards it will relate to us as a distortion to our normal perception of our world. It is also a set of lighting that will bring out details in texture and unfamiliar placements of highlights. This type of light is good to use to bring a negative or spooky atmosphere to a picture.

- Light from behind: Lighting from behind or “back lighting” is when the viewer looks into the light source. The objects in front of the light source will either appear as silhouettes or be darkly lit by fill light. This is a type of light that will give objects a rim of light and can bring out transparency and other fine details along the rim-lit edges. This type of light can be very dramatic since unless the light source is very soft will result in a picture rich with contrasts.


Size

The size of the light source affects the shadows of the scene or character. It may create intensely dark areas in a room that will make the scene feel threatening or it can light the whole area and make it light and happy. The size of the light can also change whether the light will feel intense or soft. The size of the light gives different therefor types of shadows and has resulted in different types of moods.


Intensity

Intensity will affect how much of the objects are shown, how saturated we perceive the colours to be and how much the texture "pops". It is good to be aware of how materials reacts to the intensity of light in real life so that we don't over or underestimate how much texture it will give off.



Natural light

Times of the day:

- Midday sunshine: The sun at its highest point. The light is as white as it gets and the world is made up of high contrasts and dark shadows. Colours generally look very low saturated in this type of light.

- Late afternoon/early evening: As the sun sets the light gets warmer with a obvious yellow colour and the sky darkens with a deep blue colour. Everything the light touches will look warm with a yellow tone to it whereas the shadows will have blue tint from the sky. Colours are generally highly saturated during this type of lighting.

- Sunset and Sunrise: The sun setting envelopes the world in deep orange or red. The source of light is has gotten faint and the shadows are long and gain a deep blue colour from the darkening sky. Contrasts in the world at this time are very low. If there are clouds they are lit from below and take on the colours of red and orange from the setting sun, however clouds add to the colour of the skylight which could very well result in shadows with a tint of pink or purple. Sunsets are also affected very much by the atmosphere, which leaves us with no two sunsets the same.

Sunrise is very much like sunset however can look a bit different in colours since the atmosphere is cooler and if you are near a city it is also much likely that the amount of smog and particles in the air should be less around sunrise then around sunset. There is also the factor on how darkness relates to the event. During a sunrise it almost feels like light is pushing darkness away while during the sunset it is more like a soft and gentle darkness embeds the world.

- Dusk: With the sun no longer in sight there is only the light of the sky left. The light is often unpredictable but often very stunning in colours. The light is soft with little shadows or contrasts. The colours of the world are often very soft at this time. There is a phenomenon that can occur after the sun has set; alpenglow. Alpenglow can occur on when the sky is clear as a pink glow in the eastern sky which is too faint to affect most normal surfaces, however can give astonishing effects to reflective surfaces (such as metal or water).

- Night: Night is not without light. There is still some light in the sky especially if there is a city or town nearby that can reflect some light up on the sky. The sky is always a bit brighter then the world below it. If there is a moon then the sky and the world will brighter and there will be shadows, however much more subtle then the ones we see when the sun is out. The stars do not cast any shadows or cast a refection on our world, they are too far away to do that. Since the moonlight is a reflection of sunlight it takes on different colours as it climbs over the sky. It will have a more red or yellow while being near the horizon and become whiter when it climbs higher.


Seasons:

- Spring and Summer: During spring and summer the day grows longer and the sun sets and rises much quicker than during Fall and Winter. The light comes from a high angle, which will often results in deep dense shadows.


- Fall and Winter: When Fall turns to Winter the sun rises and sets more slowly and which results in long beautiful sunsets and sunrises. During the winter the sun is low and the light is soft and flattering and the low-angled winter sun gives long and sweeping shadows.



Some Basics elements

-High key images have a predominance of white or very light tones and tend to look light and airy. High key lighting is often (but not always) soft, and detail is generally low and it is common that even shadows are light due to the amount of reflected light bouncing around. High-key images are usually considered happy, upbeat or commercial. It can also be good to consider if one is aiming for a light and minimalist touch.

-Low-key images have very little light in them. Contrasts are high and lighting hard. Low-key lighting can create a very moody atmosphere and is often used for this very effect. Besides night time other settings for low key lighting setting can be found in situations such as storms and in interiors. Overall is good when aiming for a very dramatic tone to your setting.

- White balance:
Most light sources in our surroundings casts colour, however our brains filter the lights. As long is there is a vague mixture then our brain interprets the light as white. It is important to understand this when lighting and use it accordingly. It can be a useful to manipulate this fact and use it as a source for a tint in the light so to create a specific mood.



Resources:

Books:

Author: Title:
Jeremy Birn: Digital Lighting and Rendering; Second Edition



Internet Pages:


Akaan Akram: “Lighting Techniques”: [link]

Richard Yot; Itchy Animation: “Light a detailed tutorial”: [link]

Wikipedia: “Colour Symbolism”: [link]



Copyright: Agneta Akerlund 2009

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Mood and Light Gallery.

With this article I wanted to put together a Gallery with different artists on the theme of mood with light as a major influence. I hope you enjoy this gallery.