Stage lighting
Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater, dance, opera, and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in this discipline. In addition to basic lighting, modern stage lighting can also include special effects, such as lasers and fog machines. People who work on stage lighting are commonly referred to as lighting technicians or lighting designers.
The equipment used for stage lighting are also used in other lighting applications, including corporate events, concerts, trade shows, broadcast television, film production, photographic studios, and other types of live events. The personnel needed to install, operate, and control the equipment also cross over into these different areas of "stage lighting" applications.
History
The earliest known form of stage lighting was during the early Grecian theaters. They would build their theatres facing east to west so that in the afternoon they could perform plays and have the natural sunlight hit the actors, but not those seated in the orchestra. Natural light continued to be utilized when playhouses were built with a large circular opening at the top of the theater. Early Modern English theaters were roofless, allowing natural light to be utilized for lighting the stage. As theaters moved indoors, artificial lighting using candles and oil lamps supplemented the use of natural light via windows and shutters. Key developments in lighting technologies and practices were developed alongside the scenic stage in Italian Court Theatres by architect designers such as Bastiano da Sangallo, Sebastiano Serlio, Leone di Somi and Angelo Ingegneri. Renaissance lighting techniques were developed across Europe and detailed clearly in the writings of two architects, the Italian Nicola Sabbattini and the German Joseph Furttenbach.In England following the Civil War all stage production was suspended in 1642 and no advancements were made to English theaters. During this theatrical famine, great developments were being made in theaters on the European mainland. Charles II, who would later become King Charles II witnessed Italian theatrical methods and brought them back to England when he came to power. New playhouses were built in England and their large sizes called for more elaborate lighting. After the refurbishing of the theaters, it was found that the "main source of light in Restoration theaters to be chandeliers" which were "concentrated toward the front of the house, and especially over the forestage". English theatres during this time used dipped candles to light chandeliers and sconces. Dipped candles were made by dipping a wick into hot wax repeatedly to create a cylindrical candle. Candles needed frequent trimming and relighting regardless of what was happening on-stage because "they dripped hot grease on both the audience and actors". Chandeliers also blocked the view of some patrons.
File:Shakedown 01.jpg|thumb|An example of stage lighting, trusses and LED walls are used during a WWE SmackDown Live televised professional wrestling show.
There were two different types of Restoration theaters in England: Restoration commercial theaters and Restoration court theaters. Commercial theaters tended to be more "conservative in their lighting, for economic reasons" and therefore used "candle-burning chandeliers" primarily. Court theatres could afford to "use most of the Continental innovations" in their productions. Theaters such as the Drury Lane Theatre and the Covent Garden Theatre were lit by a large central chandelier and had a varying number of smaller stage chandeliers and candle sconces around the walls of the theaters. Two main court theaters, built between 1660 and 1665, were the Cockpit Theatre and the Hall Theatre. Chandeliers and sconces seemed to be the primary lighting sources here but other developments were being made, especially at the Hall. By the 1670s, the Hall Theatre started using footlights, and between 1670 and 1689 they used candles or lamps. It can be noted that by the end of the 17th century, "French and English stages were fairly similar". There is not much written on theatrical lighting in England at the end of the 17th century and from the little information historians do have, not much changed by the middle of the 18th century. Gas lighting hit the English stage in the early 1800s beginning with the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theaters. In the 1820s, a new type of artificial illumination was developed. In this type of illumination, a gas flame is used to heat a cylinder of quicklime. Upon reaching a certain temperature, the quicklime would begin to incandesce. This illumination could then be directed by reflectors and lenses. It took some time from the development of this new Limelight before it found its way into theatrical use, which started around 1837. Limelight became popular in the 1860s and beyond, until it was displaced by electrical lighting. Lighting advances made in English theaters during this time frame paved the way for the many lighting advances in the modern theatrical world.
Functions of lighting
Stage lighting has multiple functions, including:- Selective visibility: The ability to see what is occurring on stage. Any lighting design will be ineffective if the viewers cannot see the characters, unless this is the explicit intent.
- Revelation of form: Altering the perception of shapes onstage, particularly three-dimensional stage elements.
- Focus: Directing the audience's attention to an area of the stage or distracting them from another.
- Mood: Setting the tone of a scene. Harsh red light has a different effect than soft lavender light.
- Location and time of day: Establishing or altering position in time and space. Blues can suggest night time while orange and red can suggest a sunrise or sunset. Use of mechanical filters to project sky scenes, the Moon, etc.
- Projection/stage elements: Lighting may be used to project scenery or to act as scenery onstage.
- Plot : A lighting event may trigger or advance the action onstage and off.
- Composition: Lighting may be used to show only the areas of the stage which the designer wants the audience to see, and to "paint a picture".
- Effect: In pop and rock concerts or DJ shows or raves, colored lights and lasers may be used as a visual effect.
Qualities in lighting
Intensity
Intensity is measured in lux, lumens and foot-candles. The intensity of a luminaire depends on a number of factors including its lamp power, the design of the instrument, optical obstructions such as color gels or mechanical filters, the distance to the area to be lit and the beam or field angle of the fixture, the color and material to be lit, and the relative contrasts to other regions of illumination.Color
Color temperature is measured in kelvins. A light's apparent color is determined by its lamp color, the color of any gels in the optical path, its power level, and the color of the material it lights.File:Avril Lavigne Stage Greatest Hits Tour 2025.jpg|thumb|Coloured lighting at an Avril Lavigne concert at Canada Life Place
A tungsten lamp's color is typically controlled by inserting one or more gels into its optical path. In the simplest case, a single gel is inserted into the optical path to produce light of the same color. For example, a blue gel is used to create blue light. Custom colors are obtained by means of subtractive CMY color mixing, by inserting combinations of cyan, magenta and yellow filters into the optical path of the lighting fixture. The inserted filters may have varying densities, with correspondingly varied percentages of transmission, that subtractively mix colors. Manufacturers will sometimes include an additional green or amber filter to extend the range of subtractive color mixing systems.
Lamp power also influences color in tungsten lamps. As the lamp power is decreased, the tungsten filament in a bulb will tend to produce increasing percentages of orange light, as compared to the nearly white light emitted at full power. This is known as amber shift or amber drift. Thus a 1000-watt instrument at 50 percent power will emit a higher percentage of orange light than a 500-watt instrument operating at full power.
LED fixtures create color through additive color mixing with red, green, blue, and in some cases amber, LEDs at different intensities. This type of color mixing is often used with borderlights and cyclorama lights.