Stage Lighting

In this section, I want to tackle the elements within lighting that make a well-lit stage. We will briefly touch on positioning, color, types of lighting, and brightness. Though this can get more complex, these are good places to start.

Positioning

Want to watch a video? click here: Where Do I Place My Lights? (5 Minutes to Better Lighting)

If we want to light a stage, we want to ensure the people and objects on it are lit well enough to be distinguished. 

Typically, stages are lit from the front of the stage and the back, allowing more options for lighting. For the budget-minded the minimum is to light the subject from the front so the audience can clearly see them. You'll want a minimum of two lights, one on both the left and right-hand sides of the front of the stage.

 This resource here is a great way to visualize how different angles can light a subject: Stage Lighting for Students

Example of Excellent Preacher Lighting

Color and Temperature

If we want to light a person, we want to ensure the people and objects on it are lit with colors that don't clash. Also we want to ensure those people don't look ill or unwell.

Temperature: Generally, you want to light the stage with lights that aren't too yellow or too blue, as both make the subject look bad. If you are looking at different lights, the color temperature to go for is 4000 kelvin.

https://prochurchlights.com/best-stage-lighting-color-temperature-for-churches

If you want to add color to your performance, make sure that the colors chosen don't conflict with each other, or wash out the performers like this blue image below. 

Example of Bad Color

Types of Light

Spotlight: This light casts an intensely focused circle of light onto the stage. These are great for tracking performers as they move about the stage, adding more intensity to performances and giving extra focus to a specific item. Keep in mind that they are quite bright!

PAR Can: A PAR can (parabolic aluminized reflector) is an extremely common way to light stages. These don't have focus, tracking or zoom options, but are the staple for general stage lighting. You can use standard bulbs or LEDs to get greater color control.

Floodlight: These are large lights which do not have lenses. They can be manually controlled, but are used mostly for general lighting.

Cyc Light: Since a "Cyc" is just another name for a large cloth backdrop, think of this light as a way to light large back walls or backdrops. This light gives an even wash of light across the surface, and can be positioned at a high angle to not interfere with the performers / preachers.

Strip Light: Similar to the cyc light, but with a wider spill. Instead of it being one light there are now multiple lamps in a row, allowing you to light a broad amount of space at once.

Brightness

Ensure that the amount of light you are pushing onto the speaker is enough so that they are clear to viewers. However you do not want to light them so much so that they cannot see or appear unnaturally.

For preaching after 180s, you will want to ensure there are at least some sort of house light for the preacher so they can see the audience to see when anyone raises their hand. 

Lighting a room

Church Service: For a church stage, you want at  least 2 lights that are to the left and right of the stage. Make sure they are not at eye level; to avoid blinding the preacher. Ensure the color temperature is a natural 4000k so they do not look unhealthy. 

Concert/180: You have more freedom with color and positioning, but generally you will want lights in the front and back of the stage. If you are going for a less energetic feel, stick with two colors and light from the left and right respectively.  Refer to the color wheel for complementary colors to use.

Color Wheel

We can use DMX to accomplish the above concepts 

What is DMX?

This video also covers this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3jM_rbILhs
DMX stands for Digital Multiplex, and is simply a protocol or language that can control machines that receive that signal. With respect to lighting, we can use DMX to send an array of commands that will turn on/off lights, change color, move angles, dim, swell, flash, follow patterns, and much more. This is accomplished through running DMX cable from our software (typically a usb to DMX converter) to the lights we are trying to control. One awesome thing about DMX is that you can chain a great deal of lights together and have them all receive different commands through the same cable!

DMX Addresses and Universes

Video on Addressing: 

Every DMX software has something called a Universe, which is a set of 512 channels. Think of a channel as a control for different parameters like color, intensity, strobe, or rotation. Each channel has data values of 0-255. The higher the value, the more intense that effect is (e.g, decreasing the brightness of a light will cause it to fade). Each light gets a set of channels in this Universe called an address. This can take anywhere from 3 to 7 (or even more) channels in the universe. If we had a light that needed 3 channels to communicate, we could assign it a DMX address of 4, it would take up channels 4-6 in that Universe. Any signals we sent to channels 4-6 would be received and executed by that specific light. We could assign another light the same DMX address, and both lights would follow the same commands. This is useful if we want lights to work exclusively in tandem, but generally you want individual control over each light.

Understanding DMX: https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/understanding-dmx/

DMX vs XLR:

A video if that's more your speed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqeK2bw0Z1w 

A video on running DMX Cables: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1p6eguzYkE 

These are not the same! XLR is for use with sound systems, not lights. If you switch these two cables up, you will have issues with signals to your lights / sound. Avoid mixing them up! More on XLR here: https://www.musicrepo.com/audio-cable-types/#h-xlr-mic-cables  

DMX Terminators

One thing to touch on would be terminators- You will want one at the end of every DMX chain to stop the signal bouncing back and misfiring lights. 

https://djroundabout.com/are-dmx-terminators-necessary/ 

DMX Software: Free and Subscription Based

Overview on basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iRP7NPqkm0

If you are managing your system via a computer instead of a dedicated DMX box, you have a lot of options. Here are a few solid free and paid versions:

Free

QuickQ lighting (easier on beginners): https://chamsyslighting.com/products/quickq?variant=7841704738852 

MagicQ lighting (more complex): https://chamsyslighting.com/products/magicq?variant=7841688715300  

grandMA 3: https://www.malighting.com/special/grandma3-software/  

lx studio:  free for non-commercial use http://lx.studio/ 

Subscription Based

Lightkey: Solid, Mac-only program. Subscription based. Very intuitive and easy to learn. Would recommend if you can afford it.

https://lightkeyapp.com/en 

Other References

Color Temperature: https://retrofitcompanies.com/led-lighting-understanding-color-temperature/ 

This is a fantastic article for an overview of lighting: https://illuminated-integration.com/blog/stage-lighting-101/

A lot of the below website's info is great and helpful, but they are trying to upsell you a training course (which you don't need):

Physical Lighting Console vs Lighting Software To Control The Stage Lights At Your Church: https://prochurchlights.com/lighting-console-vs-lighting-software-for-my-church

Color Temperature: https://prochurchlights.com/best-stage-lighting-color-temperature-for-churches

How many light fixtures do I need? https://prochurchlights.com/how-many-lights-do-i-need-to-light-my-church-stage