How does stage lighting work

The important thing to remember if you have on-stage lights is that they impact your overall lighting design. Any source of illumination incidentally alters the look of an entire scene, so you need to explore that thoroughly.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you want your core stage lighting layout in place first. That way, your end design is ideal for the production. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on pinterest. Fill Lights Fill lights support the key light.

Backlighting Backlighting is positioned behind the performers, set pieces, and props, adding light from a completely different angle. Enhancing Your Stage Lighting Layout In most cases, your front and backlighting are the foundation of any stage lighting layout.

Spotlights Spotlights — also called spot fixtures — allow you to add dramatic lighting to a very specific area of the stage. On-Stage Lights In some cases, having a light fixture within the production space is beneficial. Tags: basics , concert lighting , stage lighting , theatre lighting. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Get weekly tips and updates delivered to your inbox.

Share this post with your friends. If you are willing to trust your show to a laptop, we have some useful links for you:. This is question is far too common. The subject has been covered many times, here is some good reading on the question of moving lights and their uses in small venues:.

There are many people in the business who would question whether you really want a job in lighting at the moment See Boom and Bust in the Lighting Business but no matter. The entertainment industry always seems to have plenty of hopeful talent trying to make their way in.

Today there a number of options to getting a job in the stage lighting business — formal education, work experience, working your way up from the bottom. The subject of which was the best education to get a real job was covered in our serious of interviews with major stage lighting employers :. Or you could get in touch via Twitter. As a professional lighting designer, Rob designed and programmed theatre performances, music festivals and large corporate events for blue chip companies while travelling all over Europe.

With a background in theatre, he combines traditional stage lighting knowledge alongside fast moving lighting and video technology in the world of commercial events.

Can anyone recommend the best way of cleaning the lenses in my stage lights? Is it best to just use a lens cleaning cloth like for glasses or binoculars or should I be using something else?

Some cleaning substance? Hi Matt — There is quite a few threads on the subject the Blue Room including this one. In the old days we used to use neat Meths but lense technology has got more complicated and you need to be careful not to clean off any special coating the manufacturers put on. I am still pretty new to stage lighting, one of my problems so far is that I have par 38s that I put colored gels in. White light shows from the sides of the pars and shines on my back drop pretty badly. How do I fix that?

Is the white light shining out from the ventilation holes in the body of the fixture or between the end of the lamp and the gel? Have you thought about repositioning your lights or maybe using different fixtures? All depends on what you have in the way of kit and what you want to do with it. Hi Doug. Not quite sure which housing your PAR38s are in, but the usual lighting solution to light leaks is a matt black aluminium foil, often called Black Wrap.

I just had a Doh moment. Doug, the trouble with Gaffer tape directly on lanterns is that it melts and then hardens again, making a nasty mess an leaving sticky cloth mesh residue behind. Is there anyone who is a lighting designer but also an acrophobic? I have a lighting rack with 4 cans using par 64 watt lamps.

What device do I need to buy to make the lights alternate? Method 2. Consult with the director or person in charge of the show. Talk about the script, choreography, or concert type to collaborate and come up with a lighting design that works for the show. Ask about what the director, choreographer, or band wants the audience to see and focus on to decide how you will light the performance.

Imagine your lighting as if it were a camera and your job was to film and highlight the performance for the audience. Consider the mood, movement, texture, and naturalism things like whether you're portraying day versus night. For example, you can experiment with different lighting to highlight a fast-paced, chaotic scene vs. You can also use warmer or cooler lighting to convey changes in the time of day or temperature of a scene.

Decide what angles you need to position your lights at. Get a small directional light, like a strong flashlight, and have a look at how shining it from different directions at the stage creates a different atmosphere. Look at how different angles will complement the performance and think about at what times you will use them during the show. If you are lighting a concert, then you need to focus more on backlighting to make the performers pop out from the background, as well as special effects and coloured lighting to create the right mood for the concert.

Use coloured lights to help you create a mood and atmosphere. Use deep blues for nighttime scenes and yellow for warm sunny scenes.

Use crazy combinations of colors for big exciting moments in a concert. You should be able to get a colour swatch book from any theatre equipment supply store, from which you can choose your colours to set on the lights you will be using.

Method 3. Angle front lights at degree angles to the left and right of their subject. Each subject you want to highlight will need 2 front lights positioned to their left and right in front of them and angled about 45 degrees down at them. This is the standard 3-point lighting technique that most shows use. Angle a back light at a degree angle directly behind the subject. This is the third light in the standard 3-point system.

Place the light directly behind the subject and angled down about 45 degrees at them. For example, single-point lighting, with just 1 front light, can be used to mimic the effect of the sun and create dramatic shadows. Divide the stage into a grid and cover with overlapping lights to create a wash.

Divide the stage into zones that are approximately 8 ft 2. You will need to cover each zone with a light fixture to create general lighting that illuminates the whole stage. You will still need additional lights to light up backgrounds, scenery, or highlight other things not covered by the area lighting. Draw a diagram of the stage and where you will put the lights.

Make sure to include the location of any fixed lighting bars that you plan to use to hang lights in the diagram. Be specific about what lights go where, where they will point, what colour they will be, and any other relevant info. If your venue doesn't have enough lights, look into companies that can rent you additional lights. Hang your lights and plug them in to a dimmer rack.

Dimmer racks give you the ability to fade the lights in and out fluidly using a lighting desk or console. You will need training on how to use the lighting desk or console if you do not have any experience doing so. A DMX controller allows you to pre-program light settings and effects that you can easily transition between with a single slider on the lighting console.

Plug the lights in via a DMX cable and program the light scenes that you want so you can quickly create different scenes during the performance. Remember to double check the position and angles of all your lights before each performance, in case something got accidentally moved.

My lights are set up and my lighting board is plugged in and set up correctly, how can I test my lights? Just flick your lights and test the levels. If you'd like you could get your subjects out as well to see how your lights look on them. Yes No. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 1.