LIGHTING DESIGN - Allstar Show Industries · make my graduate students salivate. Many ......
Transcript of LIGHTING DESIGN - Allstar Show Industries · make my graduate students salivate. Many ......
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Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
LIGHTING DESIGN and FIXTURE SELECTION
BY DAVID MARTIN JACQUES
LIGHTING DESIGN IS A
COMPLEX ART FORM.
It encompasses a unique
combination of art and
technology. The lighting
designer creates imaginative
atmospheres that express
the feeling and meaning of
the moment. These atmo-
spheres originate in the
lighting designer’s imagi-
nation and art. In order to
create this art, the lighting
designer must also know the
technology, as well as what
tools are available.
For most people, it takes seven years of
university study to be properly trained for
entrance into the lighting design profession.
But that does not mean that it is impossible
for you to create effective lighting atmo-
spheres by choosing appropriate fixtures.
Understanding the basic approach to light-
ing design and choosing fixtures basically
comes down to indentifying your church’s
needs, and applying the right tools to meet
them.
CREATING THE DESIGN
The first step in creating your lighting
design is to identify what needs your
particular worship space requires. Whether
for worship, theatre, opera, dance, or video
broadcast, I always consider this as the
beginning of the creative process.
The functions of lighting are clear to most
professional worship designers and consul-
tants. The lighting must create visibility
and focus, reveal the space, create model-
ing, support the composition of the worship
service, and finally, support the message.
Par’s are relatively inexpensive lighting fixtures compared to Fresnels or Ellipsoidals. Due to the nature of their optics, they are intensely bright lights normally used as powerful stage washes.
Photo: Lightronics Par 56 courtesy of Lightronics
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
By revealing the space, the lighting designer generates interest and assists in the emotional engagement of the congregation.
Creating visibility is the most obvious
function of the lighting. Although one may
think of visibility only as adding light to
reveal a subject or object, it is crucial to
understand that lighting designers create
shadows as well. The lighting designer
reveals what the audience sees and what
they don’t see through shaping the space
and directing focus for the audience. By
revealing the space, the lighting designer
generates interest and assists in the emo-
tional engagement of the congregation.
When creating visibility and focus, it is also
important to assess whether or not image
magnification (IMAG) is being used. If so,
lighting the space becomes even more
challenging. Due to the limitations of video,
the lighting designer must be very careful
with intensity and contrast.
I will refer you to the excellent article
written by Jim Kumorek entitled: “How-to
Guide: IMAG (Image Magnification” in
Church Production Magazine at:
(www.churchproduction.com/how_to_
guide_to_imag_image_magnification).
In this article, he explains the best
techniques to consider when considering
lighting for video.
In addition to lighting for the camera, the
lighting designer must be careful to keep
light off the video screens. Choosing the
appropriate angles of light—along with
choosing lighting fixtures that are able
to shutter the light off these screens—is
necessary to achieve this.
Speaking of video, modeling is an-
other crucial function of light. As the
congregation is often sitting at a long
distance from the stage area, the light-
ing designer must use angles of light
to create highlights and shadows on
people and objects that emphasize their
three-dimensional properties. This is
called modeling. The most useful angles
to achieve modeling are sidelight and
backlight. These angles separate the
objects from the background, adding
Although it’s important to add light to reveal a subject or object, it is crucial to
understand that lighting designers create shadows as well.
The most useful angles to achieve modeling are
sidelight and backlight. These angles separate
the objects from the background, adding depth
to the stage area. This is especially important
when IMAG is being used.
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
depth to the stage area. This is especially
important when IMAG is being used.
Most worship services include sections of
prayer, community worship, sermons, and
worship songs. This is what we call the
composition of the service. Although we
are familiar with the concepts behind these
sections of the service, it is important to
consider the needs of each, as well as how
they interact.
Understanding the composition will help
you create lighting atmospheres and transi-
tions that guide the congregation from one
section of the service to another. This is
partially accomplished by generating focus
for the congregation.
For example, you will probably light the
pastor’s podium completely differently than
a worship song. The podium should be lit
with a clear, warm light. This atmosphere
conveys an intimate bond between the
minister and the congregation.
Worship songs give you the opportunity
to be more creative through color, inten-
sity, and angle. Music naturally evokes a
“suspension of reality.” The power of good
music will transform the congregation into a
strong connection with the message of the
song. Lighting designers support this power
though the qualities of light, and how they
are composed through movement.
A common technique is to use deep blues
and soft qualities for “quiet” music, and
bright colors and higher intensities for up-
tempo, energetic songs. This use of color
and intensity is not absolute, but it is im-
portant to appreciate the psychological and
emotional effects of these qualities of light.
Developing these distinctive lighting
atmospheres creates conventions that com-
municate to the congregation what part of
the service is next. The lighting qualities
of intensity, focus, color, texture, shape,
distribution, and movement can all be used
to accomplish this.
Finally, the lighting design must support
the message of the service. Lighting artists
The Aledin 630 LED profile spot from
Robert Juliat that earned the PLASA 2010
Innovation Award. The high-power
LED-based wash light is designed for
theatre, exhibition and television work.
Due to the limitations of video, the lighting designer must be very careful with intensity and contrast.
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
Even with all these sophisticated lighting fixtures, it is important not to
allow technology to overwhelm the art. Lighting designers must balance their
analytical and artistic instincts.
ETC’s Selador line of LED fixtures includes the Fire and Ice collection which can produce as much light output as a standard 575-watt fixture, yet con-sume less than 70 watts each.
interpret the message of the moment, and
express their own personal points of view
through light. There is no step-by-step way
of doing this—as in all art, creating art
with light is a personal expression of cre-
ativity. Successful expression of creativity
usually comes from talent, experience, and
a knowledge of the available tools.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT FIXTURES
Lighting may be the most powerful and
spectacular element in a stage design.
This is more apparent today with all the
amazing new lighting technology available
to us.
With new fixtures being developed every
day, lighting designers must continually
find ways to keep up to date with the
technology. Every year I attend Light-
ing Dimensions International (LDI) to
attend seminars, stay in contact with my
colleagues in the industry, and to see the
latest lighting fixtures and controllers. This
event allows me to see, up close, what
new tools are available for my art. The up-
coming WFX event in Dallas also features
a great many lighting manufacturers and
dealers.
I am also fortunate to work in some of the
most state-of-the-art theaters in the world.
I am presently designing a show at the
Oslo Opera House. Built only a few years
ago, the technology in this theatre complex
is truly amazing. The hundreds of high-
tech lighting fixtures lying backstage would
make my graduate students salivate. Many
of these lights were foreign to me when I
started working here three years ago, but I
learned their capabilities by doing research
and actually using them on my shows.
For the local church designer who is not
in a large city, keeping up to date can be
especially challenging. The best way to
learn about lighting fixtures is to see them
in action. Go to a local stage lighting dealer
and see what they have in stock, or visit a
nearby church with a larger or more diverse
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
inventory. If your church is considering
investing tens of thousands of dollars in
new lighting equipment, most dealers and
manufacturers are more than willing to
set up demonstrations in your church. You
can also do research on the Internet to see
what the fixtures’ capabilities are, or attend
LDI or WFX and see for yourself.
The first consideration in choosing a fixture
is what type of effects you wish to achieve.
For a basic stage wash you could use a
great number of different models of conven-
tional stage lighting fixtures. In fact, just
about any fixture that emits light will work.
The ultimate difference is in control.
Although Fresnels can be used to create
a soft stage wash, it is somewhat difficult
to control the light. You can make the
light from a Fresnel small or large, but
due to its optical design, you really can’t
shape the light effectively. Barn doors can
be used to cut the light, but achieving a
sharp cut is difficult.
Choosing the appropriate moving light can be as challenging as choosing a color. If you only need soft washes of light with color changes, then a “wash” fixture would be appropriate. If you need to project images from the light, or shutter it, then you need a “spot” fixture.
Lekos (ellipsoidal reflector spotlights) are
the most common lighting fixtures incorpo-
rated for stage washes. The reason for this
is that Lekos have shutters, which enable
you to control the light by shaping the
beam. Lekos can also be used as projection
devices. Unlike Fresnels, you can make a
Leko’s beam sharp or soft. By using frost
color media, you can make a Leko look
almost like a Fresnel with a beautifully
blended soft edge.
The lighting designer calculates how
many lighting fixtures are needed for a
stage wash through the use of the fixture’s
photometric data. To accomplish this, the
designer chooses the desired lighting angle
and distance, the hanging position of the
light, and then calculates the beam spread.
Photometric data is available on the manu-
facturer’s website.
Lekos come in a variety of fixed beam
spreads including 90-, 50-, 36-, 26-, 19-,
10-, and 5-degree models. They also come
in variable beam spreads, also known as
The Platinum Beam 54 from Elation Professional uses a new MSD Platinum 5R from Philips which runs on only 189 watts of power and offers an average of 2,000 hours of lamp life.
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
One of the latest developments in lighting design is the use of video projectors on movable yokes. With these projectors you
can paint the stage with light from a video source, and remotely focus the video onto
different objects.
“Zooms.” These zoom Lekos are quite versa-
tile, allowing you to change the size of the
beam through simple optical adjustments.
Lekos can also do a great deal more than
simply suppling a wash of light. By shap-
ing its beam you can use a Leko for a
tightly controlled lighting area. If you just
want to light the pastor’s podium, you can
use the shutters to cut a shape of light that
isolates this area.
You can also insert a gobo inside a Leko
and project a static image onto a surface.
There are hundreds of different gobo pat-
terns made by several companies that en-
able you to project anything from a colorful
stained glass window to a leaf pattern. You
can even generate your own artwork, and
the gobo manufacturer will make a custom
gobo for you.
Another useful stage lighting fixture is
the PAR. These fixtures are relatively
inexpensive (compared to Lekos) and are
quite common. Due to the nature of its
optics, PARs are very intense lights and are
normally used for powerful stage washes.
Like Fresnels, PARs cannot be shaped via
internal shutters.
A recent development is the LED PAR.
Along with its inherent energy savings,
most LED PARs are designed with various
colors of LEDs. This allows you to change
the color of the light without changing the
gel. When all the colored LEDs are on, the
fixture emits a white light.
Striplights come in many models and sizes.
The concept behind a striplight is to create
an even wash of light over an extended
area. This is the type of fixture you use to
light a drop or cyclorama. You can also use
smaller striplights as footlights. Striplights
have multiple circuits (usually three or four)
enabling you to mix colors. This is very
useful when you wish to change the color
of a wide surface.
But don’t limit yourself to conventional
stage lighting fixtures. Many architectural
lighting fixtures can also be used in a
stage lighting plan. On several occasions
I’ve used household fixtures purchased at
hardware stores for stage lighting appli-
cations. You may be surprised with the
effects you can achieve with the simplest
of lighting fixtures.
Another consideration is the type of lamp
these fixtures use. Most of these models
come in incandescent, LED, or HID (arc)
sources, though there are other lamp
types available.
The most common lamp type is incandes-
cent. These lamps are easily dimmed by
conventional stage dimmers and emit a
warm, white light (usually around 3,200
Kelvin). They are relatively inexpensive, but
have a limited lamp life compared to LEDs.
As mentioned above, LEDs offer advan-
tages in energy savings, lamp life, and
color flexibility. The initial purchase cost of
LED fixtures is usually much higher than
comparable incandescent models. In my
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
opinion, the advantages of LEDs certainly
outweigh the disadvantages. Lately I have
been specifying LEDs for most of the wash
fixtures in church lighting systems.
HID sources are also more expensive
than incandescent, but offer a greater
intensity of light. For instance, a 700-watt
HID lamp is several times brighter than a
750-watt incandescent lamp. One of the
main disadvantages of HID lamps is that
you cannot electronically dim them. These
fixtures require a mechanical device (called
a “douser” or “shutter”) to block the light
and dim the intensity. Due to the great
lighting intensity of these fixtures, I specify
HID fixtures on most of the major opera
productions I design.
But HID fixtures may not be the best
choice for houses of worship. They usually
require much more maintenance, and most
require fans to keep the fixture cool. In ad-
dition, they use a lot of energy and emit a
great deal of heat.
MOVING LIGHTS
Automated lighting has radically changed
the art of lighting design. Moving lights
enable the designer much more flex-
ibility in changing focus, color, texture,
and movement. They have been readily
accepted in the church market for obvious
reasons, and the prices keep coming down.
Choosing the appropriate moving light
can be as challenging as choosing a
color. Each model has different capabili-
ties (and different costs). If you only need
soft washes of light with color changes,
then a “wash” fixture would be appropri-
ate. If you need to project images from the
light, or shutter it, then you need a “spot”
fixture. Similar to the difference between
a Leko and a Fresnel, you can make most
spot fixtures look like wash fixtures (with
the internal frost filter or by softening the
focus), but you cannot make a wash fixture
look like a spot fixture.
You can also use external automated accessories for your conventional fixtures. These include automated yokes and mirrors that can pan and tilt the light, color scrollers and dichroic filters that can remotely change the color, and gobo rotators for special effects.
The Right Arm from Apollo Design Technology adds pan and tilt capabilities to a wide range of static theatrical and studio lighting fixtures.
Church Production Magazine Whitepaper
Visit the CPM Media Center at www.churchproduction.com for another
lighting specific whitepaper by David Martin Jacques entitled: “Lighting
Your Easter Production on a Budget.”
Mega Systems Axis Tri-LED is a moving
light that features 90 three-watt tri-colored
LEDs which produce RGB (red, green, blue)
configurations without shadows.
www.churchproduction.com
Let’s say that you wish to create a moving
fire or water effect. You can do this with a
spot fixture that has two rotating gobos, or
a rotating gobo and an animation wheel.
But you can also create this effect with
one Leko and a dual gobo rotator (savings
thousands of dollars). So sometimes a mov-
ing light is not the most practical answer
for an effect.
You can also use external automated ac-
cessories for your conventional fixtures.
These include automated yokes and
mirrors that can pan and tilt the light,
color scrollers and dichroic filters that can
remotely change the color, and gobo rota-
tors for special effects. These accessories
basically transform a static conventional
lighting fixture into a moving light.
One of the latest developments in lighting
design is the use of video projectors on
movable yokes. With these projectors you
can paint the stage with light from a video
source, and remotely focus the video onto
different objects. These amazing fixtures
are used in some of the more complicated
productions in the industry.
Even with all these sophisticated light-
ing fixtures, it is important not to allow
technology to overwhelm the art. Lighting
designers must balance their analytical and
artistic instincts. Achieving this delicate
balance is the key to creating the most
effective lighting atmospheres for your wor-
ship service.
DAVID MARTIN JACQUES is a professional lighting
designer and consultant. He has designed over 300
productions throughout the world, consulted on numer-
ous houses of worship, and heads the graduate lighting
design program at California State University Long
Beach. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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