Love is in the air, which has gotten me to thinking about lighting. (Come to think of it, what time of year doesn’t do that?) If Valentine’s Day always gives you a hankering to pop Gone With the Wind or your favorite rom-com into the DVD player, have you ever thought about what goes into making those romantic films?

Color temperature is one of the first things to note when studying the lighting in a romantic scene. Is it orange? Bluish? White? Most often, warm colors add to an inviting, romantic atmosphere. For example, the warm light in this sunset scene in Titanic draws the audience in, unlike the cold, blue lighting later in  the movie, after things get dire.

2. Brightness (and Shadow)

You can judge the quality of light in a film scene through the hardness or softness of its shadows. Hard quality light has dark shadows with sharp edges, and often feels more raw than soft quality light. Soft lighting, often used in older films, has lighter, diffused shadows and tends to feel more sentimental. If you’ve seen Casablanca, you know what I mean.

Of course, there are always exceptions to these rules.

Cool lighting can still be quite romantic in the right setting. Like in this still from The Notebook:

And with advances in film technology, sharp shadows can also be quite romantic. Case in point, this still from the end of the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice:

The ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award. Sea Gull Lighting’s focus remains on delivering on-trend, high quality lighting products with unparalleled customer service and best-in-class availability. For almost 100 years, they have built strong relationships and earned a reputation among channel partners, builders, contractors and homeowners to be among the very best. Sea Gull Lighting looks forward to the evolving business landscape, and with its continued commitment to serve, and to listen and learn from its valued customers, is poised for success as it soon enters its second century of operation.

For a professional electrician, Austin presents its own set of challenges. During summer months, electricians in Austin are often working outside without the AC many Texas residents enjoy. Extreme summer heat like the record summer temperatures we all saw in 2011 becomes compounded when working in an attic, where temperatures can quickly reach lethal levels. Fortunately, the extreme heat is almost behind us; although this year, it often seems as if Summer just doesn’t want to end. Fortunately, Austin is blessed with fairly mild winter months. There can be exceptions, however, as we saw earlier in the year. And when winter ice storms down trees and power lines, the electricians who are working to restore power are outside in the cold.

If temperature extremes aren’t enough, electricians have to deal with other hostile elements like wasp nests inside electrical boxes, and we’re not even going to discuss what might be living in the crawl spaces beneath homes, where electricians often go to work on wiring. Needless to say, electrical work is not for the weak or faint of heart. And besides toughness and courage, electricians need to be smart, because they’re working with lethal quantities of electrical current every day, and one wrong move can be the last thing an electrician ever does. Besides being tough and smart, the professional licensed electricians at Bryant Electric Service have the knowledge and skill to inspect your home or building for potential hazards, correctly install life-saving equipment like ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) and arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI). They can also install automatic backup generators to keep your electricity running smoothly despite the brown outs, rolling blackouts, wildfires, and ice storms which have left many other Texans without power for hours, and sometimes for weeks.

The next time you need electrical work or a safety inspection, give Bryant Electric Service a call. We work hard to deliver the quality of service you expect, and we’re proud of our tough, smart, and highly skilled electricians.