I was shocked that when my buddy tried Lee 181 (Congo Blue) on Par 64 NSPs, that it didn’t burn through right away.sk8rsdad, we used all colors on incandescent fixtures, from primary blue (which was a Cinabex #20, transmission around 5%) to the palest warms. We just needed more wattage on the darker ones.
To clear things up, I don’t even own a light meter, and like Les, I eyeball everything. We were so small we only had really enough instruments for a one or two color wash, so you sort of use the eye test and say looks good. Also, I’m too old to move a 12 foot ladder a bunch of times and go up and down a ton. To be honest, a high school upgraded their lights after 50-some years and gave us a ton of ancient focusing scoops. Not quite the surgeons scalpel instrument designers love, but got the job done for washing.
Les, one director we work with on occasion went and got his eyeballs cleaned. He got his cataracts out and when he came to see our last show, he commented that he never realized the stage was in such bad shape and that you could see the fire door backstage from the house. I’d be afraid to clean the lights because he might notice the actors on stage next...