1. Light Design
CHS Stagecraft

2. 4 Reasons for Lighting
VISIBILITY
Seeing what needs to be seen

3. 4 Reasons for Lighting
ESTABLISHING THE ENVIRONMENT
helping the audience figure out what time of day it is, where the play takes place, and other aspects of the physical environment

4. 4 Reasons for Lighting showing the audience where to look on stage
PLACING THE ACTION
showing the audience where to look on stage

5. 4 Reasons for Lighting
CREATING A MOOD
lighting the stage to get an emotional response from the audience

6. Controllable Qualities of Light
INTENSITY
How bright or dim the lights are

7. Intensity

8. Controllable Qualities of Light
COLOR
Controlled through gels

9. Color

10. Controllable Qualities of Light
DISTRIBUTION
Where the light travels

11. Types of Lighting FLOODLIGHT
produces light that washes the entire stage with light
Diffused look/Soft Edge
Short throw

12. Types of Lighting SPOTLIGHT
produces a very controlled, or concentrated light
Longer throw
Hard edge

13. Modeling – Front Light
Front Light is generally used for visibility and color washes. Front light from a low angle can create an eerie feeling. Most often front light is brought in from angles off to one side or the other at approximately 45 degrees from full front.

14. Front Light

15. Front Light, Matilda

16. Front Light, Rock of Ages

17. Side Lighting
Side Lighting is generally for effect lighting and creates more extreme modeling and accents arms and leg movement. Particularly dramatic with bold colors.

18. Side Lighting

19. Side Light

20. Side Light

21. Side Light

22. Back Light
Back Lighting is for effect lighting creating a halo effect on the performers’ heads and shoulders. Back light also helps to create a sense of depth. Coming from below, back lighting can help create a silhouette. Strong colors often used.

23. Back Lighting

24. Back Light

25. Back Light

26. Back Light

27. Back Light

28. Back Light

29. Back Light with color

30. Modeling
Down Lights are good for highlighting specials or color fills. Down lights are often used to draw attention to one particular action on stage.

31. Down Light

32. Down Light

33. Background (Cyc) Lighting
Background (Cyc) Lighting helps create the picture. Colors are generally chosen to accent the foreground with deeper colors and lower intensities.

34. Cyc Light

35. Cyc Light

36. Cyc Light

37. Instrument Selection

38. Instrument Selection

39. Instrument Selection Front Light
Ellipsoidals (front of house and on stage)
Fresnels (on stage)
PAR’s (on stage)
Side Light
Ellipsoidals
PAR’s

40. Instrument Selection Back Light PAR’s Fresnels
Ellipsoidals (occasionally)
Background (Cyc) Light
Striplights
Scoops
Single cell cyc lights (paired together)

41. Key and Fill lights
Key light is the most intense, primary source of light
Fill light is the slightly dimmer or more diffused light used to fill the shadows created by the key
Helps to manipulate the audience’s focus to a certain area
Audience members will invariably focus on the key area and have an emotional response depending on the modeling of the object created by the designer

42. Key/Fill Light

43. Key/Fill Light

44. Review

45. Review

46. Lighting Key
Drawing indicating the plan angle and color of the various sources of light
Used by designers as a primary guide for determining the hanging positions of the lights
Effective tool when discussing the design with production team members

47. Lighting Key

48. Creating the lighting key
Determine lighting source number – one to six
Lighting source number will affect the modeling of objects and emotions eluded to audience
Determine color to assist mood (should consult all members of production team on color palette)

49. Lighting Key

50. Lighting Key

51. Acting Areas
Spaces on stage where specific scenes, or parts of a scene, are played
Some settings could have only one acting area while others may have multiple
Shape and size of acting areas is determined mostly by the blocking of the actors along with the shape of the setting
Cylindrical space whose size is roughly determined by the diameter of the cone of light made by the instruments used to light the area (generally 8-12 feet by 7 feet tall)
Acting areas subdivided into lighting areas to create uniform base of lighting

52. Lighting Areas

53. Lighting Areas

54. Creating Lighting Areas
Light from adjacent areas is overlapped by about one-third
When light is overlapped by approximately one-third, it will nearly equal the intensity of the light from the beam of a single instrument

55. Lighting Areas

56. Beam and Field Angles
Beam angle is the central cone of light whose outer limit is defined as the point where the light diminishes to 50 percent of its intensity when compared with the center of the beam
Field angle is portion of the cone of light outside the beam angle whose outer limit is defined as the point where the light diminishes to 10 percent of the output of the center of the beam
Source 4 field angle general twice the beam angle thus creating relatively smooth wash

57. Beam & Field Angle

58. Beam & Field Angle

59. Layering
Warm wash can create a general warm feeling in all lighting areas
Cool wash can create a general cool feeling in all lighting areas
Specials create any specific light source to be illuminated on particular object or actor

60. Warm Wash

61. Warm Wash

62. Warm Wash

63. Cool Wash

64. Cool Wash

65. Cool Wash

66. Specials

67. Specials

68. Specials