lighting

1. Rachel O’Riordan
Investigate andexplain
Portable lighting equipment
Equipment which can be easily positioned, transported and moved
Redheads-
A redhead is genuinely used to create hard light, which then create hard shadows.
The Power rating is normal 800w.
Red heads can be used as a key flood light for large areas, but are also useful as fill
and backlights.
Price-£100
Examples and uses
Red heads can be used in any media production, as they create an effective hard
light.
They can help remove shadows and they are a good cheaper
alternative to much harder flood lights.
Redheads are additionally used as back lights and key lights in
media productions and photography
 It is open faced
Blondes-
This piece of equipment is a larger than a redhead however it
is very similar, the blonde therefore makes the light more powerful than a redhead
and brighter, they are additionally often used for flood lighting, that is very powerful
and bright. There tends to be more than one blonde on set to really help illuminate
a stage or brighten up a field.
The power rating on blonde lighting is 1000 /2000 watts
Price-£150
Examples and uses
These examples are very similar to that of a redhead, these are often used in schools
and smaller media productions compared to that of a huge flood light and are less
expensive than other alternatives, however they are
not cheap.
Practices-
Practical’s can be any source of lighting which is situated in the scene or the shot, for
example this could be a lamp which is situated on the table next to the actors but
still in this scene and turned on, therefore it is basically part of the set and the

2. Rachel O’Riordan
‘world’ in which the scene is set. It is anything object within a scene that needs to be
electrified.
The power rating of practical’s tend to be low, it is stage lighting used to create the
effect of the light source.
Practical’s are a great way to help create depth in a scene. Whilst still being easy to
set up and being efficient
Practical’s can be interior or exterior (inside or outside) for example a street light is
exterior and a lamp on a table is interior
Price- can vary as it can be anything/object on the
set
Practices have been used in many films including
sky fall
For example the lamps are the practices, these help
give depth to her dress and the environment
around her
Reflector boards-
Board Reflectors are basically boards with one side having a reflective surface that
are independent from any light source.
Board reflectors can be used to create a directional light
They can also be used to control the shadows and highlight contrasts in various
lighting situations (outdoors mostly). And display the contrast between artificial and
natural lighting
The bounced light from a Reflector board can either be the key light or the fill light.
Price-£10-20
A reflector does just what it says: it reflects light. Therefore it can be used to
brighten up a dark scene using artificial lighting.
Reflector boards can also wash out imperfections making the subject look better and
clearer.
As this picture displays ‘reflector boards’ can be hand held
and/or posited in order to ‘portably’ be moved around
which will be beneficial in order to get the perfect lighting
Scrim/diffuser-
A scrim is used in media productions to decrease the intensity of light.
-In order to identify whether the light source is hard or soft it is dependent on the
shadows in which they produce.
 Hard lights- have shadows with very sharp edges
 Soft light- shadows with soft edges

3. Rachel O’Riordan
A scrim tends to be situated close to the subject, which is much more aesthetically
pleasing due to the light being spread out and therefore not being harshly intensified
on the subject
Price-£150
Diffusion changes the relative size of a light source.
 Diffusion Paper, is used to soften the lighting up Price: $12
 A flash diffuser, spreads the light from the flash of a camera. Therefore the
light from the flash of the camera will not simply be projected strait at the
subject rather it will spread out and evenly distribute (diffuse) the light across
the set
Studio Lighting
Spotlighting-
Spotlighting is used when the light is being concentrated on a particular thing or
subject. This is used to create intensity on a particular thing and draw attention to it.
 Spotlighting is additionally used when a high powered light is focusing on
something
 spotlight operator are the ones whom are in charge and then using a
‘tracker’ (which is used in our school) follows the subject
 Spotlights have a lens which can be manually focused
Uses and examples
Often used when in musical productions, theatre etc. Spotlights can be set up
anywhere in the theatre (for example) from the back, at the front or from up above
Price-£15,000
Floods
Are high intensity lights which are broad beamed and high intensity lights, which are
most commonly used when lighting up a sports field
Price-£700(depending on how powerful)
Example of floodlights and uses
o The lights which light up the Olympics and big football stadiums, these are
huge very powerful lights
o Used so that there is clear and visible light over the stadium
The main floodlights in football stadiums are £35,000-£50,000, these are usually
LED

4. Rachel O’Riordan
A common misconception would be that floodlighting is directional lighting, it is
not because it is light which covers over a wide open
space therefore not directed anywhere particular
Gobos
Are stencil like structures/materials which are placed in front of the light source
which therefore creates shapes which are then emitted out.
 Gobos create symbols of lighting or shadows
 Enable the desired pattern of light through, projecting the pattern of light
onto the subject or wall
Different materials are used in the gobo, these include, metal, glass and steel
Examples and uses
Include Projectors, which may be used in a presentation and simpler light
sources-Simple gobos, these are often used in nightclubs because they
create moving shapes, which is fun and original
This piece of equipment is positioned between the light source and the
lenses
Price-£15-100
LED lights
Advantages
 cold running- meaning the battery will not die mid shoot
 lightweight-easy to move
 low power consumption
 95% of the power sent to an LED light is
transferred into actual light
 No problems relating to health
 No bulbs braking
 Portable ,easy to move around
Quality and positioning
The quality of the lighting and where the lighting is positioned in a scene and set up
Hard and soft lighting
Hard and soft lighting has already been touched upon
•Hard lights- have a small more concentrated light source with shadows with very
sharp edges
•Soft light- shadows with soft edges
These two kinds of lighting are created depending on the size of the light source for
example if the light source is greater in size compared to the object, this is called soft
lighting whereas if the light source is smaller compared to the object it is indeed
hard lighting . In addition, if the light source is closer to the object it will become
softer.
Uses

5. Rachel O’Riordan
There are many different circumstances when soft lighting is used for
example being used as a fill light, which will help remove any
shadows, in addition it can be used to reduce the amount of
blemishes on the subject.
Hard lighting is additionally used in many different circumstances to
create a really bright surrounding, for example chat shows like Alan
Carr. They are also used when creating a spotlight.
Soft lighting tends to be used in drama shows, which looks more like
normal day to day lighting rather than harsh concentrated lighting, it
could be light from window.
These prices can vary depending on the equipment used
Key, fill and back lighting
Key Lighting- It is the primary light source and is used illuminate the object/subject.
Key lighting is created using a ‘key light’
Price-£150-300
Fill Lighting-Is used to help in order to ‘fill’ and therefore remove shadows which
may have been formed by the key light, this therefore can help a production to look
more polished. For example if someone was having an interview on a TV show, one
would use a fill light to fill in the shadows
Back lighting- helps in order to create a difference between background and the
object inadditiion the back lighting is positioned behind the subject.
Directional lighting
Price-£85
Directional lighting is basically self-explanatory, it is lighting which is focused into a
particular direction.
A spot light would be an example of when directional lighting is used e.g. a
performer being on stage and only being able to see the performer due to the
concentrated light and nothing else.
They can also be used for security lighting. Directional lighting is effective as it can be
positioned in any direction needed
Temperature
Warm temperature lightingtendstobe used outdoors, sothatthe lightingislessharshon
people.(Thiswouldbe the lowcolourtemperature) whereascoldlightingisoften usedto
create brightlightina building(interior)
Colourtemperature isatrait of visible light whichisvital infilmandphotographyfor
example manybulbsandtable lampsemitwhite light,howeverthiscanbe separatedinto
manydifferentcategories e.g. warmwhitesandcool whites,which linktothe temperature,
‘warm’ beingmore relaxingand ‘cool’beingmore harshandcold. The measurementcolour

6. Rachel O’Riordan
temperature iscalculatedbyis ‘degreeskelvin’ andismeasuredadditionallybynumberson
a scale.
VeryCool lighting
VeryWarm light