Discovering Stage Lighting

Francis Reid

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 1998
• Print ISBN: 9781138140202
• eBook ISBN: 9781136084218
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre

This guide to the fundamentals of stage lighting includes a series of projects to allow experimentation, discussion and analysis. The necessary equipment is described in relation to its purpose, along with checklists and hints for practical use.

The practical handling of light, with observation of the relationship of cause to effect, is central to the study of stage lighting. Rehearsal pressures usually restrict the time available for experimenting with lighting for a performance, but laboratory-style projects can be used to enable specific lighting problems to be solved.
The core of this book is a series of 'discovery' projects using minimal resources, to explore the use of light in the theatre, with particular emphasis on the interaction of conflicting visual aims. The projects cover all the major scenarios likely to be encountered by lighting students and have been tried and tested by the author, who has taught lighting students all over the world for over 30 years.

The book has been updated to include more on safety and the latest technology including:
- fixed instruments using the new lower wattage high efficiency lamps in combination with dichronic reflectors
- an increase in the availability, reliability, range and usage of 'moving light' technology based on remotely controlled instruments.

New lighting projects have also been added.

If you are studying the art and craft of stage lighting this book is an excellent working manual that will provide you with the technical knowledge and skill to cope with a range of lighting situations.

Part One Fundamentals

DOI: 10.4324/9780080885612-1

1 Discovering light

DOI: 10.4324/9780080885612-2

The response of a theatre audience to stage lighting is influenced by experiences of light in the environment of their daily lives. They are also conditioned by the way light is used in the still images of paintings and photographs, and in the moving images of cinema and video. Much of this response is subconscious. Audiences rarely analyse stage lighting in a conscious way–unless the performance fails to hold their attention or they are students of lighting design. Apart from the irritation of just not being able to see detail, audience response to stage lighting is likely to take the form of a feeling of general visual unease that something is not quite right. This will also be the initial response of most of the production team of director, choreographer, designers and other specialists. However, unlike the audience, they will try to analyse their visual response in words, with the lighting designer as possibly the most articulate member of the team and certainly the person who has to find and implement a solution.

Anyone using light on the stage–particularly lighting designers but including everyone involved in the production team–needs to develop an awareness of the behaviour of light in a natural environment and the way that light is handled in various media. This is not so much a matter of formal study as a continuous informal response to the world around. The major equipment of lighting designers is their eyes: everything else is subsidiary.

Light in nature

The natural light by which we live is sourced by sun, moon and stars, augmented when necessary by artificial light from electric lamps. Most of this light is distributed by reflection from the various surfaces in our environment. It therefore tends to be softly diffuse and all-pervading. Some light may have a directional feel and this is particularly strong when natural light is channelled through such structures as windows, buildings and trees. The direction of this natural light changes within daily and seasonal cycles. Artificial sources tend to impart a directional feel by highlighting objects or people close to them.

The colour of natural light is dependent to some extent upon the atmosphere through which it travels: this may filter it and, under certain conditions, act as a prism to break it up. But the strongest influence comes from the colour of reflective surfaces. The tinting of daylight or artificial light by these methods is mostly subtle, with the possible exception of prismatic sunsets and strong sunlight filtered through leafy trees. Convention holds that the moon is blue and highly directional–and the words of many songs support this. However, in reality, it tends to be grey and all-pervading except when channelled through buildings. The blueness is largely an illusion stemming from the surrounding darkness.

Lighting designers tend to be more than normally aware of subtle shifts in direction, colour and balance of light outside and indoors. Student lighting designers are usually consciously aware but, with experience, this gradually becomes a subconscious awareness except when something jars the eye.

Awareness of light in the environment has an important role in the process of discovering light. Points to observe and consider in the course of one’s daily life include:

Outside

• sources, natural and artificial
• directional quality, whether straight from source or channelled through structural features of the natural or built environment
• effect of any filtering, e.g. by passing through foliage or mist, on texture and colour
• colour of light from source
• colour of reflective surfaces
• resultant colour of reflected light
• effect of direct light on environment surfaces
• effect of indirect light on environment surfaces.

Inside

• externally sourced light penetrating through windows, doors, etc.
• directional quality of externally sourced light, including consequence of channelling through doors, windows, etc.
• effect of reflective surfaces in distributing this externally sourced light
• internal artificial light sources
• directional quality of internally sourced artificial light arising from position of source
• colour of light from external and internal sources
• colour of reflective surfaces
• resultant colour of reflected light.

Light in art

Study of painted, photographed and sculpted images is an important way of developing an understanding of the behaviour of light and a sensitive approach to its possibilities.

When painting three-dimensional images on two-dimensional canvas, the artist is dependent upon balance of light and shade to provide depth. It is interesting to study painting where the light source is included and the contrasts are strong and obvious, and then to look at paintings where there is no source, considering the directional quality of the light and its apparent source. Painters use light with varying degrees of subtlety. Occasionally they depict the actual light beam but more usually just its effect. Paintings can be particularly helpful in understanding reflections and the colour imparted to light by a reflective surface.

Photographers use light to strengthen the depth of image. They may do this deliberately, although the technology of the camera tends to strengthen contrasts automatically. Light and shade are particularly important in providing depth in monochrome photography whereas, in colour photography, the colour contrasts provide considerable depth.

Both painter and photographer use contrast and colour in light to create every kind of atmosphere from idyllic relaxation to creative tension. Study of a wide selection of portraits will reveal the subtle complexities of the response pf facial structure and skin texture to light. Such a study will also demonstrate the way in which light and shade can enhance the fabric and cut of costumes. Landscapes will reveal how various individuals perceive light and use it to explore an environment in every possible style from heightened realism through varying degrees of impressionism to total symbolism.

The best approach is just to wander through galleries and look. Although accessible local collections may be short on acclaimed masterpieces, they can still be full of images to provide stimulation for both conscious critical analysis and subconscious response. Study of reproductions is, of course, also productive. But reproductions, however perfect, can never provide quite the same contact as the painter’s canvas or the print from the photographer’s own darkroom. When looking at artists’ images, points for consideration include:

• apparent light sources, natural and artificial
• directional quality of the light, whether or not sources are included
• colour of light from sources
• colour of reflective surfaces
• resultant colour of reflected light
• effect of direct and indirect light on surfaces
• extent to which contrasts of light and shade may have been strengthened or distorted to increase the illusion of depth and three-dimensional modelling within the two-dimensional medium.

Sculptured objects help us to understand the way in which light reveals form. All three-dimensional objects, whether those of everyday life or works of art, provide us with a way of studying the effect of directional light using simple equipment like flashlights and adjustable desk lamps.

Light in film and video

Film and video makers take the manipulation of light a step further. In addition to revealing form and supporting atmosphere, the light contributes to the fourth-dimensional progression of time.

When studying moving image recordings, a stage lighting designer should concentrate on results rather than methods. The technical eye of a camera lens behaves in a different way to the human eye, particularly in its response to contrast. Perhaps the most rewarding study is black and white movies where the lighting cameraman has set up each individual shot for perfect pictorial composition, including a light balance sufficiently exaggerated to maximize light’s potential for inserting depth into a basically flat medium. At the other end of the scale, much of today’s video is shot under soft all-over lighting with a reliance for depth on general backlight plus differentiation in colour toning between the costumes and the scenic background. Note also the difference between the quality of light in images projected on white cinema screens and those displayed on video screens. Points for consideration include:

• apparent light sources, natural and artificial
• directional feel to the light, whether or not the source is included
• use of contrasts of light and shade to increase the illusion of picture depth and the three-dimensional modelling of objects and people within the picture
• use of contrasts of colour to separate actor from environment and increase the illusion of picture depth.

Light in the theatre

The fundamental requirement of light in t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Prologue
• Prologue to second edition
• Part One Fundamentals
• Part Two Projects
• Glossary
• Further reading
• Index