Stage lighting is a flexible tool in the production of theatre, dance, opera and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in the pursuit of the various principles or goals of lighting.
stage lighting requires certain parameters, like the intensity, form, color, direction and movement. The widely adopted lights for stages are spotlight and floodlight. Spotlight fixtures are ideal for area and wash lighting applications. Floodlight fixtures include, scoops, box floods and strip lights. Plano-convex spotlight is useful in providing acting area lighting and localized lighting to specific areas of the stage. They have no beam controls like shutters, iris, and barn doors. The ellipsoidal reflector spotlight is a common fixture for large stage lighting applications. The fresnel spotlight provides adjustable beam spreads, generally used as an efficient means of providing acting area or color wash lighting.
the spotlight with parabolic aluminized reflector fixtures, are highly efficient and these fixtures are particularly useful for acting area and wash lighting. They are also usually the fixtures of choice for color wash and back lighting for entertainment productions. Pin spots can be very useful for providing accents, highlights and specials.
Stage lighting fixtures are available in different ranges in wattage from about 300 watts to over 10,000 watts in size and capacity and various designs. There are four main qualities or properties of stage lighting. They are intensity, color, pattern, focus/position/hanging. Stage lighting has several functions, although to allow for artistic effect, no hard and fast rules can ever be applied.
The functions of stage lighting include - illumination: the simple ability to see what is occurring on stage, revelation of form: altering the perception of shapes onstage, focus: directing the audience's attention to an area of the stage or distracting them from another, mood: setting the tone of a scene, location and time of day: establishing or altering position in time and space. Blues can suggest night time while orange and red can suggest a sunrise or sunset. Use of gobos to project sky scene, moon etc, projection/stage elements: lighting may be used to project scenery or to act as scenery onstage ,plot: a lighting event may trigger or advance the action onstage, composition: lighting may be used to show only the areas of the stage which the designer wants the audience to see.
In the context of lighting design, a lighting instrument is a device that produces controlled lighting as part of the effects a lighting designer brings to a show.
There are a variety of instruments frequently used in the theater such as box/housing which is a metal or plastic container to house the whole instrument and prevent light from spilling in unwanted directions, light source (lamp), lens or opening that is the gap in the housing where the light is intended to come out, reflector - behind or around the light source in such a way as to direct more light towards the lens or opening.
