Grazing light reveals brushstrokes

A stucco wall illuminated by grazing light. The light sweeps across the surface almost parallel, pulling out highlights and shadows from every curved trowel mark, every fine grain of sand, and every slight undulation; the wall surface thus transforms from a plain white expanse when viewed from afar to a richly textured surface up close. The light spot gradually fades from top to bottom, with the lower half of the wall submerged in shadow. Avoid: direct frontal light that eliminates texture, highly diffused soft light that flattens the surface, uniform wall washing with artificial lighting, placing the light source far from the wall.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一面被掠射光照亮的灰泥牆。光幾乎平行地掃過表面,把每一道鏝刀的弧形抹痕、每一顆細砂、每一處輕微的起伏都拉出明暗;牆面因此從遠看的一片素白變成近看充滿紋理的表面。光斑從上往下逐漸變淡,牆的下半部沉在暗處。避免:讓光正面平射消除質感、使用高擴散的柔光讓表面變平、用人工照明均勻洗牆、把光源放在遠離牆面的位置。