Design Method

[MarshallPope]

My biggest advice would just be to play. Throw a mannequin on center stage and spend a few hours trying different angles and colors and textures and anything else you can think of.

Try something unconventional.

My favorite show that I've designed (an opera) I did with zero true front light - just a couple of box boom positions and two followspots in saturated colors.

 

[macsound]

My biggest advice would just be to play. Throw a mannequin on center stage and spend a few hours trying different angles and colors and textures and anything else you can think of.

Try something unconventional.

My favorite show that I've designed (an opera) I did with zero true front light - just a couple of box boom positions and two followspots in saturated colors.

I didn't take a lighting design class until about 10 years into my life as a designer and its amazing what a mannequin teaches you. Incredible advice and that one design class was super eye opening if for nothing else, to allow play time with no pressure.

 

[sk8rsdad]

For the next lab experiment, add a second mannequin, or switch to using real people, to see what happens when there's an object in between the intended subject and the light source.

 

[RonHebbard]

I didn't take a lighting design class until about 10 years into my life as a designer and its amazing what a mannequin teaches you. Incredible advice and that one design class was super eye opening if for nothing else, to allow play time with no pressure.

@Kevin Rogers & @macsound If you don't have a mannequin or two handy, let me suggest a few alternatives.
A 6' wooden, aluminum or even yellow fiberglass ladder standing center stage can be VERY revealing, NOT for choosing colors but for seeing how differing angles sculpt, model and emphasis a form, this can be particularly useful if / when you're lighting dance. Stand your ladder at an angle (rotationally plan-wise) rather than facing straight ahead directly down stage. Adding a molded white styrofoam wig holder, borrowed from your wig and makeup pixies for an hour or two, can be very enlightening, pardon the pun, when sat atop a five or six foot ladder. Add additional ladders and wig forms to suit and re-position to taste. A ladder will stand in one place for hours on end which is more than you can say for many performers. Dress maker's forms can also be useful. Again NOT for choosing colors but for experimenting with relative angles and comparative intensities of back light Vs. front light Vs. cross lights. As long as you're not spending long, late nights with inflatable dolls, your better half should be understanding.
EDIT: It can also be useful to place a costume on a clothes hanger and hang it on the ladder, dress-maker's form of even a hall-tree. If there are any hats in the production, you may wish to position one on top of a wig holder and experiment with how angling the hat potentially alters shadowing on the wearer's face.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[kicknargel]

Ron, you beat me to it. I've had an inexpensive, inflatable. . . lighting assistant in my kit forever. I clip her to a mic stand for use in pre-cueing. Although, a real human, or at least more detailed facial features, would be better. Plus it gives everyone something to talk about.