SCALE: LIGHTING

More and more I’m seeing how essential it is to understand scale cues in visual effects to make something feel bigger or smaller. This study will go over how lighting factors into scale perception. From telegraph.co.uk, this is a scale comparison of the world’s tallest statues - the tallest being the Statue of Unity in India.

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In the photo of the Statue of Liberty below, the strength of the lighting is quadric in fade, but is such a strong light that the light fall-off is harder to spot (from her base to her hand). This reads as one light being able to cover the whole height of the statue.

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Looking at The Statue of Unity, the light at the base has a much weaker fall-off implying a much larger scale of statue that the light cannot fully cover from base to head with stronger light.

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This scaling effect is used in The Empire Strikes Back on the Bespin matte painting where the light has a greater fall-off suggesting a larger set piece:

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