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philosophy

Philosophy. Of lighting.

Gel colors I like

Gels and dichroics might seem antiquated to the new kids on the concert lighting scene, what with the abundance of LED sources floating around the stages these days. The fact remains, however, that as wonderful as LED lights are for their electrical efficiency, it remains very difficult to get certain colors from them because of the narrow-bandwidth nature of their output spectrum. This makes them prone to the phenomenon of metameric failure – where two materials that look the same under one light source (tungsten, say) look very different under a different set of lighting conditions. (Say, the sickly white emitted by an RGB-mixed white.) For the sort of design that I’m normally involved in, this isn’t an issue –… Read More »Gel colors I like

Some misty thoughts on color theory

Other than position and intensity, possibly the most striking quality of any sort of light that can be emitted in a concert context is its color. One of the questions that designers get asked, at least during those rare occasions that someone is actually wondering, is “How do you decide what color a song should be?” There are many different facets involved in the design of any particular scene – matching the energy of the lights to the energy level on stage, gobo selection, the angle we light the performers, et cetera. Today, however, color theory (or lack thereof) takes center stage. tl;dr: There are no rules: the design just has to feel right. Girl In Blue, by the author.… Read More »Some misty thoughts on color theory