Lighting Design
Lighitng design is used in many different events and its purpose is to establish and support the genre and event, support the director's vision, direct the audience's focus, and help set the mood and tone.
Fundamentals of Lighting Design
Lighting Determinations
Atmosphere - is what the mood or tone you are trying to create
Illumination - is lighting up the sections of the stage using light sources
Dimensions - are adding layers to the stage using multiple lights
Selectivity - using lights to determine how much of the stage you want the audience to see during a scene.
To be precise with lighting you will need to determine these things:
The precise position and angle of each light
How many lights of each type are needed
The colour and colour combinations
Where each light is placed in the rig
The brightness and intensity levels
Additional special requirements
Describing Lighting
Techniques for mood
To describe lighting you need to talk about what direction the lights are coming from, if the colours are warm or cold, or have a hard or soft texture. You can describe whether the lighting is natural or unnatural and is a spotlight or wash. You can also consider if the light creates a shadow or a motion, shape or angle.
When the lighting is used to affect the mood you can speak about colours, snaps, fades, and intensity. Effects used to amplify the mood can be low smoke, haze, fog, pyros, and smoke. The lighting angle can affect the mood, whether it is a backlight, sidelight, or footlight.
The Lighting Desk
The lighting desk is the desk used to patch, focus, program, and control lighting. On an eos ion desk, to patch a lighting fixture you need to first create and select the channel which you want to patch the light into. You then need to select which lighting fixture you want to patch and press enter. To then program a cue you need to select the channel which you patched your lighting fixture into. Once you have selected your channel you can customize the light, then press record, cue, and enter the cue number.
Lighting effects and Colour theory
When the lighting is used to affect the mood you can speak about colours, snaps, fades, and intensity. Effects used to amplify the mood can be Low smoke, haze, fog, pyros, and smoke. The lighting angle can affect the mood whether it is a backlight, side light, or light. Colour theory is the science and theory behind colour combinations, these can be colours which can be used alone or together to create a complimented theme or mood.
Colours - can be used as a lighting effect as you can use colours to portray the mood of the performance. Colours can also be used to focus the audience's attention on a specific part of the stage.
Warm colours - can be used in a theatre to show the contrast between scenes. The warm colour wheel consists of Red, Green, Blue, and White, which are also primary colours. These types of colours can be used to portray a deep or dark mood or tone in a scene and can signal to the audience an emotional moment.
Cold colours - can be used in a theatre to show the contrast between scenes. The cold colours consist of Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta, and are secondary colours. These types of colours can be used to portray any serious scenes as the colours are often hard or shows can use magenta to portray any loving scenes.
Snaps - can be a change of light or colour which happens instantly with a fade time of 0. This can be used for a scene change or to draw the audience's attention away from one factor and towards something else which may be happening. A colour snap can be used to portray a quick change of tone in a character.
Colour theory can be used to create lighting scenes and portray moods, themes, and atmospheres without making it obvious.
A complementary colour scheme is two colours on the opposite side of the colour wheel, these can be used to create a general or contrasting lighting state.
An analogous colour scheme is three colours next to each other on the colour wheel, these can be used to show emotion in a scene and create an atmosphere.
A split complementary colour scheme is three colours where two are near each other on the colour wheel and the third is opposite, creating a tall triangle formation in colours, this scheme can be used for a generic lighting state.
A triadic colour scheme is a colour in the colour wheel which makes an equilateral triangle shape these three colours can clash but also create a natural lighting state when mixed properly.
A tetradic rectangle is four colours where the colours are set into two pairs, for example, red and orange, and green and blue, where when together all four colours and two pairs blend but when red and blue are paired and orange and green are paired they can clash.
A tetradic square colour scheme is four colours opposite each other on the colour wheel where each colour can blend but can split into two pairs, for example, orange and yellow can pair and blue and purple can pair but they cannot pair purple and orange or blue and yellow together.
Haze, fog, and smoke can all be used in theatres and events and can be used as a special effect or to assist lighting. Haze is the lightest effect and can be used in theatre and live events to create an effect or it can be used to make lighting effects more obvious. Smoke is the heaviest effect because it is pushed onto the stage without a direction, you have to be careful with smoke as if it is too thick it could block the view of the actors and audience and it can also get into the performer's or audience's throats. Low smoke is similar to normal smoke but it is given a direction and is aimed to be pushed toward the stage floor and stay underneath the actor's knees
Haze, Smoke, and Low Smoke
LX Free Lighting Design
Using a program called LX Free I created a general lighting design for a small venue that would hold a dance competition, an open mic night, and a straight play.
Angles of Lighting
There are six main angles of lighting which are used on stages. A backlight is shining from the back of the stage to the audience. A front light shines from above the stalls toward the performer. An up light shines from the floor to the ceiling and a down light shines down on the performer(s). A side light shines from the wings of the stage towards the performers and the opposite wings. The foot light shines from the edge of the stage up towards the performer.
Show Lighting
Show Lighting - Show lighting can vary from show to show but genre has a large impact on the lighting design. Below are three examples of different shows with very different lighting
Dance - Any dance show will have lots of lighting involved. As an example, Ballet will have very neutral lighting of white light. In most ballets, the lighting will be front lights and side lights as a lot of the costumes will have intricate designs that they will want to show off to the audience and this can be done by having the correct lighting
Musical Theatre - Musicals can have lots of bright and different lighting designs. For this example, each light and colour shining on each of the actors give them individuality but also gives them their own space to show off their character.
Straight Play - A straight play is a realistic play where the audience is immersed and feels like they are watching people live out their real lives. In a straight play, the lighting is natural and only portrays the lights of real objects, items, or times of day. this means the lighting will be white, gold, yellow tints, or darker colours for nighttime.