Does Smoke hurt lights?

Schniapereli

Active Member
I was thinking of a better way to show how the light travels through a fixture. Then I somehow got this idea of taking a src 4 apart, putting the light on at a lower level, and putting smoke in it, so you can see how the light bounces off the reflector. Then you put on another peice, and then another. This would help a lot with students understanding the 3d space of the light.

But, I don't know if smoke will hurt the reflector... I know some chemicals do, so I don't want to ruin it.
Is chemical fog bad for it?

If chemical fog is bad, could we possibly use dry ice?

Thanks
 
You should be fine... you'll probably need to clean it but it'll be fine. I wouldn't use "Joe's Cheap Party Smoke", I would use a regular brand, preferably water based.

I question if it will work exactly the way you are thinking. Unless you figure out a way to break the source up into several individual beams (maybe use a laser?) you aren't going to see much of interest in the reflector. Now popping a source four in half at the gate and fog/hazing the room should give you something to see. You might look into using a follow spot in a haze. I did that with my high school tech classes. Because of the long throw you could REALLY clearly see where that focal point beyond the end of the barrel is. We held up a piece of paper in the light and were able to get it down to a focal point about the size of a quarter or less. It was a cool lesson. It might be more interesting to work with an old 360Q with the two lens system if you can... I think the optics are a little easier to understand. and a little clearer. If you took it apart you could hold the lenses up in front of the burner of an S4... might be a fun experiment.
 
You should be fine... you'll probably need to clean it but it'll be fine. I wouldn't use "Joe's Cheap Party Smoke", I would use a regular brand, preferably water based.
I question if it will work exactly the way you are thinking. Unless you figure out a way to break the source up into several individual beams (maybe use a laser?) you aren't going to see much of interest in the reflector. Now popping a source four in half at the gate and fog/hazing the room should give you something to see. You might look into using a follow spot in a haze. I did that with my high school tech classes. Because of the long throw you could REALLY clearly see where that focal point beyond the end of the barrel is. We held up a piece of paper in the light and were able to get it down to a focal point about the size of a quarter or less. It was a cool lesson. It might be more interesting to work with an old 360Q with the two lens system if you can... I think the optics are a little easier to understand. and a little clearer. If you took it apart you could hold the lenses up in front of the burner of an S4... might be a fun experiment.

Hahahahahaha, Gaff. Wait, you actually taught the kids? Like with lesson plans?...

I never had that... all we have is "quick do this we are running out of time"...

No formal training beyond what was at hand. "Nope, see, you aren't holding the screwgun at the correct angle.". A lot of the knowledge sharing is student generated, which is cool. Especially when you are in the ranks of "share-er" and not "share-ie". Kinda makes you wonder... where did this training originate?

(I was hoping this year we might actually have kids interested in lighting, 'cause I got some lesson plans stewin' in the ol' noggin'.)
 
I agree with gaff. chemical smoke wil not injure a fixture, per se, but it will leave a glycol residue. A simply cleaning with Isopropyll alcohol will remove the residue. Left in place the residue will screw up the reflectors < depending on what kind you have.> so just clean it asap. It will also coat your lens' again coffee filters and isopropyll alcohol will work wonders.
 
Hahahahahaha, Gaff. Wait, you actually taught the kids? Like with lesson plans?...
I never had that... all we have is "quick do this we are running out of time"...
No formal training beyond what was at hand. "Nope, see, you aren't holding the screwgun at the correct angle.". A lot of the knowledge sharing is student generated, which is cool. Especially when you are in the ranks of "share-er" and not "share-ie". Kinda makes you wonder... where did this training originate?
(I was hoping this year we might actually have kids interested in lighting, 'cause I got some lesson plans stewin' in the ol' noggin'.)

Yep... my high school tech class actually involved teaching. I used both Gilette's lighting and the Parker and Wolfe scenic book as my text books. It was stripped down and my students never saw the books but they were still getting solid college tech 101 content. For the final I gave out 3 scenes from Neil simon's the good doctor set in very different locations they design a set with drawings to show how they would make all three sets work on our stage, do a full light plot, a costume plot, write a description of a sound design, do a prop plot and explain in detail how they were going to come up with one of the harder props. If you passed that class... and if I liked you... you were invited to be on the regular crew.
 
That seems like a pretty brutal final for the non-design oriented technician, even for the high school designer. But I suppose it is a good teaching tool.
 
That seems like a pretty brutal final for the non-design oriented technician, even for the high school designer. But I suppose it is a good teaching tool.

Yeah it was hard but I set aside about 3 weeks of class to work on the final in class with my support. The biggest complaint I got was that they had to do an oral presentation at the end. My feeling was I wanted my students to get a little taste of all the theater disciplines. We aren't talking full CAD drawings we are talking paper "sort of scale" drawings... so it was all scaled down to a high school level. But in the end they really learned something and had the skills to work competently anywhere in my program.
 
We can't actually fail anyone. Then we'd have no crew. So some people come and go as they please, so don't really do any work, some are not the best workers / distract others. But, not much we can do, or we will shrink from about 15 to 5, fast.

Oh, and here is an example of our crew's dedication, from a conversation I had a couple days ago.

Me: "Hey man, you still signed up for tech?"
Him: "Yep."
Me: "Cool. Wanna do running crew for Amadeus then?"
Him: "No ****ing way."
 
Oh, and here is an example of our crew's dedication, from a conversation I had a couple days ago.
Me: "Hey man, you still signed up for tech?"
Him: "Yep."
Me: "Cool. Wanna do running crew for Amadeus then?"
Him: "No ****ing way."

Gezzzz.. Back in High School, I was such a stage nerd that I came back and did LD for four plays after I graduated!

What has happened to the kids of today.....

(now I'm sounding old!)
 

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