Lighting question...

[chitz]

I am adding in a lil frontlighting to our duo. I liked the Chauvet Colorstrip, sale price was right, LED's are always a good thing, but in playing with it in our practice space... This thing is bright! BLINDING BRIGHT!

While it's a cool unit, I need a way to dim it down. Should I get the Obey3 (or another) controller? Or use a gel over the lens?

Where would be the optimal stage positioning? Low or high beaming down?

Thanks in advance yon experienced.

[funeralsinger]

Stage lighting always looks much brighter to the performer than it does to the audience, so you'll just have to get used to that. Get them up as high as you can and focus them down at you (make sure they're still in front of you, or you'll end up with the raccoon effect - shadows around your eyes)...they'll still light you, but they won't be right in your eyes. It never hurts to have the option to dim them a little though. You could also use some diffusion gel to take the directional edge off...LED fixtures tend to be very directional, often too much so.

I think this is the first lighting thread I've seen here...probably not the best place for lighting advice. you can try:

http://soundforums.net/live/forum.php

or

http://www.prosoundweb.com/forums

in the lighting section for detailed advice on stage lighting.

Good luck with it.

[JanVigne]

I assume this is the unit you're looking at; http://www.zzounds.com/item--CHVCOLORSTRIP

Well, as someone with a MFA in theatrical design, I would first disagree with the idea stage lighting looks brighter to the person on stage than it does to the audience. The only thing that looks brighter to the person on stage is they have the ability to stare directly into the light source. If the instruments are hung correctly though, that shouldn't be happening. Otherwise, lumens are lumens and what the audience sees is what counts.



When you say you are adding a little front lighting, what else is already there? Are you adding to the general lighting in, say, a club setting where there is no direct light source aimed at the performers? Are you responsible for the lighting for your performance? Are there other instruments you can use?

I can't say I would select this unit as a general lighting source. It provides a "wash" of light which will mean a broad, virtually uncontrolled swath of light that will serve no greater function than to have more light over the entire stage (and possibly even off the stage proper) rather than being a light source which illuminates the performers. If you're looking for something that simply turns on more light for everyone including those folks in the front row, then this unit will wash the stage with that sort of illumination. If you are hoping for a lighting source which you can adjust to highlight controlled areas of the stage where performers stand/sit/move about then this is no better than hanging a few flourescent fixtures somewhere in the house.

Let's begin with a few of your direct questions.

"While it's a cool unit, I need a way to dim it down. Should I get the Obey3 (or another) controller?"

Any stage lighting house can sell or rent you a dimmer for LED instruments. However, buying a lighting instrument which provides a wash of light just so you can dim it down doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But, then, you haven't made clear how you intend to use this unit. I wouldn't discount the ability to add a dimmer to any instrument you decide on since you might be going into vastly different venues for each performance. But that brings up another question, how are you going to hang this unit for each performance in each venue? The brackets shown on this unit would suggest it is meant for floor mounting as an effects type up light where it can switch between color bars to add a wash of yellow, purple, cyan and white individually or as one broad swath of mixed color. So, how are you going to hang this unit for each performance?


"Or use a gel over the lens?"

There is no need for gel over the lamps in this unit, nor would it appear any provision for adding gels has been made. Gels are generically used to alter the color temperature of an instrument. Beginning with a specific color temp created by the lamp (the bulb), incandescent, halogen and LED all having different base line color temps, the designer will select gel colors which shift the spectrum of light on stage to specific colors or, more specifically, color temps. Only the "white" lamps in this unit would possibly benefit from a gel in front of them. Otherwise, the "gel" color has already been added to the lens by the manufacturer as a permanent fixture of this unit. In other words, the unit has "gels" (here actually colored fresnel lenses) which take the base LED color temp - which they are calling "white" but tends more towards a cool bluish tint in reality - and they have adjusted that color temp to what they are calling yellow, purple and cyan. There is no need for further "gel" material in front of the colored lenses. Adding gel to simply diminish the intensity of the instruments would be a waste of buying this unit and you would only really have a choice of further darkening - intensifying, really - the already existing color which would make the illumination seem very strange to my way of thinking. Or, you could add a heavier frost material - frost gels are normally used for a general stage wash illumination effect - which would just eat up the lumens from the instrument. However, unless provision has been made by the manufacturer for gel materials - a frame into which gels fit - you would be using gaffer's tape to stick the gel to the unit which then risks the gel falling off during a performance.

You could simply set the unit to provide a fixed "white" setting which would eliminate three out of four lamps in the unit. That would certainly cut down on how "bright" the unit appears to the performers. But that doesn't seem very effective to not run three out of four instruments you've paid for.


"Where would be the optimal stage positioning? Low or high beaming down?"


Considering this is not the unit I would select for general stage lighting and I have no idea what other illumination will be provided for the performers plus I don't have a clue how you would hang this unit or how much variability you would have in selecting a lighting position in each venue, you've asked an impossible question. As I said, this unit would appear to be an effects unit meant to sit down low on the floor and provide washes of alternating colors or a wash of all colors.

Are you looking for that sort of effect from this unit? Up lit washes which cast huge shadows of the performers and equipment on the backdrop of the venue's stage? I gotta say, that sounds pretty cheesy to me. Particularly if that's your only lighting effect in the show. This is the sort of instrument you might find used low and rather tight against the cyc (the backdrop curtain) of a stage. I really don't see this as a general lighting instrument with much use in any other position. The colors are rather garish and used together or separately aren't what most designers would select as generic stage illumination.

Otherwise, your standard options are; front and back light instruments should ideally be positioned at a 45 degree angle to the stage area they will cover. The stage will typically be divided into three levels; upstage, midstage and downstage with lighting instruments aimed at each level. Then the stage would normally be divided into areas across the stage in each level; stage right, center stage and stage left. Obviously, the smaller the stage, the fewer levels and areas need to be considered. The first main goal of general stage lighting is to cover the stage evenly unless some sort of effect is desired where performers move in and out of light. For that sort of effect, you need a leko type instrument which has the ability to create edges and sharply defined stage areas. The "pools of light" inexperienced directors often request can only be achieved with a leko. Otherwise, fresnels and PAR's offer less defined areas of light with the intensity of the illumination gradually fading out at the edges. Barndoors are the tpyical devices used to "aim" a fresnel or a PAR instrument.

Once you move from 45 degrees you begin to change the look of the lighting effect and you either select even broader washes of illumination which wipes out facial features and casts long shadows such as you would see at sunrise or sunset, or too stark an angle which places deep shadows on the performers and typically fails to evenly light their faces. Less than 33 degrees and you begin to change from front or back lighting to some other form of illumination. Top and back lighting tend to make a performer stand out on stage, but they are used after sufficient front lighting has already been put on the stage. The general rule of stage lighting is its purpose is to allow the performers to be seen, so you begin by providing enough front light to satisfy that requirement then look at how many instruments and how many dimmers you have left to play with.

Top lighting is just that, an instrument or instruments which are aimed directly down from above the stage to catch the shape of the performer and outline that shape against a background. Unless the designer has a lot of instruments and a lot of dimmers, the choice is typically either top light or back light as they tend to serve the same purpose - to provide dimension to the performer. Side light which also comes from 90 degrees to each side of the performer would further highlight the shape. This sort of side lighting effect is useful in dance concerts where the performers' shapes need to be highlighted. In side lighting, the instruments are normally set up in rows on each side of the stage with one bank of lights each covering the upstage, midstage and downstage areas in washes of color.

Up light - the sort this instrument seems designed to provide - is reserved for special effects as it will normally look very unnatural and cast those huge shadows on the backdrop when placed in front of the performers.

Most libraries will have some information on generic stage lighting. The basics as laid out here are covered in a few pages of most general theatre design texbooks.