Types of Theater Spot Lights
Lighting is a crucial element in theatre that can change the mood and atmosphere of the play. Theater spotlights are one type of stage lighting that is used to illuminate actors and objects on the stage.
Spotlights are intense beams of light that can be adjusted to focus on specific areas. They can also be accompanied by gobos or color filters for different effects.
Cyclorama Lights
Cyclorama lights are carefully crafted to achieve a specific purpose. Unlike other theater spot lights that might focus on certain actors or objects, these fixtures are designed to evenly light cycloramas—large, curved backdrops often used in stage performances and visual entertainment settings. This allows the cyclorama to appear seamless and consistent Stage Lighting Supplier in appearance and helps eliminate shadows that would detract from the overall look of a set.
Historically, lighting for a cyclorama has been a complex process that involved several different pieces of equipment. One common approach is to use a light mounted in a snoot, an accessory that can be placed over the light to reduce flare and stray light that could distract from the overall effect.
While snoots can be effective, they do not offer the level of control needed for some applications, especially when multiple cyclorama lights are required. A newer innovation in the field of theatrical lighting is a specialized fixture that is specifically designed for cycloramas. These fixtures can be hung either on top or bottom of a cyclorama and are equipped with an optical system that distributes light evenly across the surface. The optics can be symmetrical or asymmetrical and are capable of lighting multiple cells at once.
Other features of these cyclorama lights include a compact size and high power output. They can be pre-programmed with various color combinations to meet the needs of a variety of productions.
Fresnel Spotlights
As their name suggests, Fresnel spotlights use a Fresnel lens to focus and amplify light. This allows theater professionals to control the beam size and intensity, allowing them to create any desired effect. In addition to their versatility, Fresnel lights also offer greater efficiency than other types of stage lighting fixtures. Using a Fresnel light with a barn door or other filter can help prevent unwanted spill-over and maximise the amount of light being focused on the right areas of the set.
A Fresnel spotlight can be adjusted to spotlight a single performer, drawing the audience’s attention to that person. This is ideal for dramatic climaxes in theatrical performances. Once the scene transitions to a full ensemble number, however, the same Fresnel spotlight can be broadened to floodlight the entire stage. This ensures that every performer is well-lit and pops off the background.
Another type of theater spotlight is the Ellipsoidal. These spotlights offer longer throw distances than standard Fresnel spot lights, making them suitable for larger areas of the stage. They can also be used to light backdrops and large areas of the stage with a softer, more even glow than standard spotlights. Like the Fresnel spotlight, an ellipsoidal can be fitted with various filters and gobos to achieve specific effects. Some ellipsoidals even offer a zoom function to further expand the reach of their beam.
Follow Spots
A follow spotlight is a powerful device that can create some dramatic and dynamic lighting effects on stage. It is used to highlight actors, dancers, and singers by focusing a bright beam of light on them. This keeps the audience’s attention on the performance and adds a sense of drama to the production. Follow spotlights can be equipped with a variety of features and accessories to enhance their performance, such as gobo patterns, color filters, barn doors, and snoots.
The first followspots were known as limelight, created by a jet of Oxyhydrogen flame concentrated on a cylinder of Calcium Carbonate (lime). Today’s Single Row 5W LED Car Light Bar follow spots use electricity and HMI (Hydrargyrum Medium-Arc Iodide) or Xenon lamps to produce the same effect.
When choosing a follow spot, you’ll want to pay attention to the throw distance and its ability to stand out against whatever other light is present onstage. Then you’ll need to decide if you want it to come with effects such as gobos, dichroic color filters, iris adjustment, blackouts (dousers), or dampers.
Since these are powerful lights that are often used for long periods of time, it’s important to keep them in good working condition. Checking and performing maintenance on a regular basis can help avoid problems that can interrupt the show such as flickering lights, blurred images, or overheating.
Moving Lights
Modern theater lighting is unthinkable without moving lights. Invented for rock and roll shows by the company that would become Vari-Lite, they revolutionized entertainment lighting and brought more color, movement, and effects to a show. These lights are typically pre-programmed with a series of commands, which can be triggered by pressing buttons on a controller or sent through a computer to be run remotely. They can also be set to move between cues at varying speeds (depending on the make, model, and motor settings).
There are many types of moving lights out there ranging in brightness, size, effects and range of colors. Most have features like gobos that can take any shape you want, prisms that split the light into multiple beams and more, all in a small casing powered by a motor.
There are 3 main categories of moving heads that manufactures produce, these are wash, spot/profile and beam fixtures. Beam fixtures generally have the narrowest beam angle and are used for things like highlighting specific objects or Follow-spots. Wash fixtures have more general uses and will usually come with 1 or 2 gobos, an iris and most will have an animation wheel. Profile lights are more like spotlights and will normally have a sharper edge. All these different models all have their pros and cons depending on what you need the light for.