While it is universally acknowledged that lighting can change how a person appears - "Don't photograph me here, the lighting is terrible!" - a new video posted on Vimeo by Nacho Guzman has highlighted the extent to which this assertion is true.
The clip is a teaser for an upcoming music video for a song called Sparkles and Wine by a French group called Opale, and features a woman's face apparently distorting and moving as light is rotated around it at different angles and changes colours, casting interesting shadows. Truly, it looks like the face is physically changing when the woman is staying completely still.
According to Petapixel.com, the video was filmed using a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera and two different lenses. The lighting consisted of two ten by ten centimetre LED lights on a ring, which rotated around the woman's face, as well as a string of fairy light LEDs.
While this visual effect had been masterminded for aesthetic purposes in an edgy music video, inspired by French film director Henri-Georges Clouzot's work in L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot, the principle can still be applied when designing lighting for your home - especially when considering bathroom spotlights, as their application can completely change how you see yourself in the mirror.
If the angle of the lighting is wrong, it will cast shadows in all the wrong places. If the lighting is too bright, you may not be able to make out subtle facial contours, which can be of paramount importance when grooming and applying makeup, for example. If the lighting is too dark, the lighting will be failing its purpose entirely.
As Vimeo user Chris Koelsch commented on the clip: "It's all about the light," and the same could not be more true of interior design. This was echoed recently by Manja Swanson, chief creative officer of Lamps Plus, California's largest specialty lighting retailer, who affirmed: "Every good room begins with lighting."
