Need basic lighting tips

[RaulM]

Ok, so this question slightly pertains to our current show, and general lighting overall.

I do a lot of work with our lighting system, but recently we have been going back and forth between dance productions, and play productions. So we had to adjust or lighting positions. So now are lights look a complete mess on stage, and we never took the time to right anything down. But normally we would just angle all the lights downward and let the FOH lights do the rest.

But I have always been unsure of whether or not this is the right thing to do, I have looked at other schools light plots and many use zones and things like that to know where to adjust the lights. So what I am asking is:

does anyone have advice or tips on knowing where to properly position lights?

 

[Les]

Do a search on the McCandless Method. That is a good place to start.

 

[coolbeam]

Briefly, divide the stage into chunks or "areas" 8'-12' in diameter. On a typical stage this might translate to 5 areas accross and 3 areas deep. Next assign each area a letter. Thus, A-E are downstage, F,G,H,I,J are midstage, and K-O are upstage.

Now if strictly following McCandless, each of the areas would have two lights from the front, each 45° above and 45° L&R. (These are IDEAL angles. Theatre archictecture, hanging positions, and personal preferences make 45° virtually unattainable in all situations.) One can then go farther and assign each area a backlight, downlight, and sidelight from each side. Choose fixtures based on their photometrics so they provide the proper sized pool and intensity at their throw distance. It's quite likely by now you've already run out of fixtures. That's okay--lighting is all about balance and compromise. Perhaps K,L,M,N,O are so far upstage that don't need frontlight. Perhaps 2 sidelights from one angle can light F-J rather than 5. Maybe one light from the front center rather than two at 90° apart for every area.

Whatever you do, always write everything down. Even if it's squares for Lekos and circles for Fresnels on a yellow legal pad. Or a lighting stencil from Field Templates. Or a Vectorworks plot. Write stuff down so you don't have to remember that the SR frontlight for area B is circuit 46 in dimmer 27 on channel 2.

 

[derekleffew]

(This applies to everyone, not just RaulM; he was just the catalyst for this tirade.) Now I realize that some/many/most of our readers will find this suggestion antiquated or alien in this day and age, but...get thee to a library, and ask your local madam Marian Paroo to help you in finding a book on the topic of stage lighting. Virtually any library will have something. Two popular book choices on CB are Shelley's A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting and Gillette's Designing with Light, but anything the library has will be helpful and cost nothing unless you forget to return it by the due date.

The subject of lighting a stage is just too complex to cover comprehensively in an Internet forum. Reading a book, even if a bad one, will give you the foundation to ask more detailed questions here. All that having been said, a good Internet primer is at Stage Lighting 101.

 

[J0rdster]

Here are some main differences between theatrical and dance lighting:

Theatrical Lighting- Main objective is to light the actors to see the action on stage. Everything else is secondary, including making it pretty. Your best resources will be front/face light (FOH, boxes/coves, 1st Electric) and wash lighting (onstage electrics). Front/face light should generally be lit with ellipsoidal fixtures, i.e. Source Four. While wash lighting can be accomplished with ellipsoidal fixtures, the most effective wash lighting comes from fresnels.

Dance Lighting- Main objective is to make it look artistic and pretty. You do this through the use of minimal front/face light, only enough to see chorus dance numbers amply, and use followspots during solos/duets. The rest of the magic should be created by using patterns (gobos), side light (booms are ideal), downlight and backlight, as well as cyclorama lighting. You'll also find that using haze in dance shows helps.

 

[venuetech]

Jeffrey Salzburg and Judy Kupferman have a nice lighting primer page.
Stage Lighting for Students

you-tube may have some basic instructional type things search for (stage lighting/ theatrical lighting)