Lighting design

There are as many ways to design lights as there are lighting designers, what is discussed here is the basic's you need to know to light a show.

Three point lighting

This a key principle of a basic lighting rig, the idea is the any part of the stage can be lit by three lights, two from the front "frontlights" and one from the back "backlight".

In these example images, the two front lights have two similar but different shades and the back-light a contrasting colour.

The use of a three-point lighting in Girl Friday, notice how two slightly different shades of amber are used on either side on Naomi's face to enhance the 3d effect

The use of a three-point lighting in Mojo, notice how the light-blue backlight surrounds and defines Kevins outline

Types of light

Most of our lanterns have 500/650W bulbs in them, the large profiles, normally at the back of Bell auditorium, are 1000W.Floods were 300W each, including the banks of 6, mini floods 100W. As a rule of thumb, the dimmer packs should be loaded with no more than 1000W per a channel and 3000W per pack. The system was designed so there are 72 channels of control in Bell, 36 in Prompt (more can be added if needed) and that each lantern would have it's own channel for maximum 'creativity'. Though the lights have to be designed from their own computer, they can be triggered the lights from the sound system, via midi show control.

Profile

Internal shutters, focusable

Our includes Patt 23's and Source 4 Jnr's

Fresnel

external shutters Barndoors The distinctive lens has a 'stepped' appearance and The resulting beam of light is wide and soft-edged, creating soft shadows, and is commonly used for back light and side light.

Fresnels use a spherical reflector, with the lamp at the focus. The lamp and reflector remain a fixed unit inside the housing, and are moved back and forth to focus the light. This is done by a slider on the bottom or side of the lantern.

Most of our Fresnels are Patt 123's others include CCT Minuettes, both are 500W.

Flood

Floods were 300W each, including the banks of 6, mini floods 100W.

Special effects

Gobo

A gobo is a metal stencil that fits inside a light and is used to project a pattern or image.

The use of a gobo to give a flame effect in Faust

Shadows

Though it is a simple effect shadow can be effective at creating menacing effects, the caveat is though it make it difficult for people to lip-read the actors

The use shadow for dramatic effect in Gagarin way