Mood Lighting Probs

[designgoblin]

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http://members.shaw.ca/designgoblin2/hyde.jpg

Here's a shot of a painting I'm working on right now. It's supposed to be gritty/dirty with lots of dark, grimy mood (Jekyl & Hyde/turn of the century London).

I'm having trouble coming up with a lighting setup that works. The sunset behind is a strong lightsource and I like the overall effect, but I didn't want the figure to be totally silhouetted. I was playing around with a light source to the front/right (streetlight or something) but it makes it too weird with another strong lightsource. I even considered losing the skyline/sunset and simplifying the composition a lot, and adding more detail in the figure itself (left arm and so on...which i plan to do anyway)

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

DG>>

[JoshuaTheJames]

hah...

this is great...

-Joshua

[michael see]

ohh this is just nice~although the painting is alittle muddy ..but the mood is fine..i like the background sun setting mood:)

[the machine god]

I say try the streetlight thing again and use the BG sunset to cast a nice orange Kicklight (Rim light) on him.
And if you really don't like the Streetlight thing then try more of a strange blue light coming from somewhere streetlevel to his left (our right). I can't really say what the blue light would be coming from but I think it would add to the cool dark mood of the piece.

[Scubasteve]

I agree with the machine god. I really like the sunset and the bridge. A dull glowing light from the bottom would work nice. Personally, I wouldn't want two high light sources coming from behind and the front, which if it was a lamp post it would be high.
I like the grit!!!! Makes me think of Jack the Ripper!!!! ummm. I do hope that is a cane in his hand though!!!!:rolleyes: