Ship of Fools: Hereford Cathedral, Hereford, England
The Mystery Worshipper
Shipmate
Ship of Fools: Hereford Cathedral, Hereford, England
Bright lights spoil the mood at this Epiphany service
Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here
Comments
How many were there in the nave please? It's unclear from your report.
There were roughly 500 in the nave.
But the nave uplighitng from dozens of LEDs dotted about has a horror-show effect. Romanesque naves were supposed to be lit with divine light from ABOVE, not the other sort from below. The uplighting makes all the shadows flip upside down, like a disco. Plus the high level spotlights (and transept chandeliers) at Hereford can be dazzling, as you found, an effect worse for those wearing lenses or spectacles.
Hereford is one of my very favourite English cathedrals, but it looks best with the lights off. It wouldnt work for a late afternoon service in Winter such as this, but at other times it might. My sight is far from 20:20 but I do question the idea that church services require light at the intensity of a retail outlet.
I wonder if they couldn't 're-focus' the lighting—a term apparently used by lighting designers for tweaking the angles and brightness of lights—to reduce glare (though even this costs a lot at such giddy heights).
Electricity is so often the enemy of a numinous atmosphere.
I hissed to the friendly helper who lit my candle 'turn the lights out' and she assured me they would. But they didn't.
I date the start of the decline in religion to the invention of electricity.
No, no - the invention of television, surely? Or the cinema?
Seriously, though, it's a shame if carefully thought-out special effects are spoiled by what appears to have been an error on someone's part! Maybe they'll do better next year...
I think the church we worship in was OK until the previous owners decided to put curly bulbs in all the light fittings. The architects seemed to have a good idea of what was the required light level and arranged for 16 x 60w at the top of the nave columns, and then 6 pendant 150w lights suspended from the nave roof to illuminate a building which is basically 64' by 40.'
Unfortunately, the high lights are now extremely bright thanks to the curly bulbs so that when you bang that lot on and you have enough light for neuro-surgery! I had the same problem with the low level lights, which had been changed to 100w equivalent curly bulbs. I changed out the low level lights for yellow LEDs and they are much more satisfactory. Sadly, on their own they are not quite enough, so I need to find someone I can bribe to go up a 20' ladder and change the rest!