When considering the lighting on stage, there are a lot of options. There are flood lights, soft spot lights, profile spot lights, and then beam lights. From there, you get into having to decide if you want more lighting up front or toward the back and sides. Perhaps you may even want something in the middle. Then you may also find yourself needing a specific type of lighting to make special effects more appealing. The list can go on and on and for all of it, you must figure out first, how to choose the lighting for your stage to make it look the way you want it.

Understand Your Lighting

Flood lights are designed to put light over a larger area. They will be used if you want the entire stage to be well lit. Soft spot lights are more easily controlled lighting so that you can highlight an area of the stage, but if you want a precise light to be on a definite pin pointed area, you will want a profile spotlight in that area. If you only want lighting in the front or the rear of the stage you may want a beam light in that area. These are parallel lights that direct light like you would see when the sun is being partially covered by a cloud.

Position Counts

Even if you have the right lighting set up, if the position is wrong, the stage will not look as good as it should. This is often where a lot of stages fail in their appearance. It is kind of like the way sound works. If the speakers are wrong, it will not matter what is going on or how clearly people speak, they will still not come across clearly.

With lighting, if you have too much light in the front, your actor’s teeth and eyes will show up clearer than anything else, as will all other white or brightly colored items on the stage. If the lighting is cast from too low on the stage, it will immerse the actors in more of a shadowy way. Either of these things may be ideal in some situations, but if that is not what you want, it could throw things off completely.

This may also be impacted by if you want the actor or actress to appear as though she is moving around more than she is or falling/rising while on the stage, the lighting from the bottom side could make it appear more powerful because it can trick the audience’s eyes into seeing what you want them to see.

Lights Create the Magic

One of the best things on the stage is to make the audience feel as though they are seeing something that is out in the world, actually happening while they watch it, but without feeling as though they are watching an “act”. Having the ideal lighting situations can encourage the realism of your show. It is all a part of shadow play and setting the right mood while the characters are performing.

We understand how to create this magic because we already know how to choose the lighting for your stage. We can help you gain and understanding of it as well.