For the final presentation, I decided to go with natural light instead of LEDs, per the recommendations I got last class. Since the photos are of stained glass windows, having the photographs backlit by natural light felt fitting and true to the original idea. I printed the images at Staples, picked up poster paper and the frames from Walmart, and used a lightbox to trace the window shapes onto the poster paper. I then laid the paper over the cardboard from the frame and cut out those shapes using an X-Acto knife, cutting through both the poster paper and the cardboard backing simultaneously, ensuring everything lined up.

That part of the process took a while. Unfortunately, some of the shapes didn’t come out as exact as I’d planned, and not every cutout matched the print perfectly. Unexpectedly, though, in the photo with multiple windows, those small imperfections worked in my favor. The misalignment caused some light to bleed around the edges, which made the windows look like they were glowing, more so than if everything had been perfectly tight. In hindsight, I wish I had made every cut slightly larger than the actual window because the glowing effect would have been that much more amplified.

Photographing the final piece was a bit tricky. My iPhone didn’t capture the full effect of the backlighting, and in person, the windows looked more like they were glowing than the photo shows. That said, I’m happy with how everything came together. It’s not perfect, but the decisions I made along the way feel intentional and aligned with the theme.