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Portable lighting equipment

Redheads-A redhead is a lightweight, multi-purpose light ideal for any location. They are useful for key flood light for large areas or they can be useful as backlights. They’re typically used for TV news coverage and TV film commercial as well as

industrial films and they work well for stages in schools or small TV studios as they are portable and light. However they aren’t used for the main source of light as they’re not powerful enough. The power of the light is around 800W. They are called redheads because most of these lights are red. The

price ranges from £120 - £200 per unit. Blondes-A blonde light is larger than a redhead. The lights can be from 1000 to 2000 watts making them extremely powerful at giving off a large amount of light. They are useful as floodlights and for lighting large areas whilst providing more than enough light for interior shoots and can be used for exterior to fill out shadows created by harsh sunlight. They can be quite hot when they are on meaning they create an uncomfortable environment for the work crew. They range from £225 to £400 pert unit. Practicals-These are lights that are visible within the frame.

Examples of practical lights that could be indoors are lamps and Tv’s and outdoors could be windows or street lamps as they emit light and enhance a scene. The lights can be aestichally appaling but also keep the scenes looking real whilst adding depth. This

source of light id cheaper and more practical than electric lights but sometimes they may not be effective.Reflector Boards-Reflector boards reflect light from its surface to get a larger light source and to control the shadows

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and highlights. The reflector board gets positioned close to the light source making the lought bounce off monto the object. They vary in size, some are small for smaller objects and some are large for larger objetcs. There are four main types of reflector boards:

White reflector boards- gives a neutral reflected light and is useful for outdoors as it provides fill light to even out the lighting of the subject.

Silver reflecter boards-This adds a saturated look and usd when highkey light is needed.

Gold reflector boards-creates a strong yellow-gold tone, adding colour to the temperature of the subject.

Black reflector boards-this doesn’t reflect light, it creates shadows on certain areas of a subject.

Scrim/diffuser-A scrim reduces intensity and harshness of light. It gives soft light and are sometimes used to not get a strong, vibrant light. It helps spread the light out to make it less powerful. The diffuser will help spread the light out and make it less powerful so the light isn’t overpowering the subject. The price ranges from £10 to £150.

Studio LightingSpotlighting-this is a strong particular light that is focused on a particular spot on a small area of a stage or TV studio to make the object, person or group to make them extremely visible within the area. Spot lights are commonly used in concerts, theatres and musicals. The spotlight are owned by a spotlight operators. The spotlight operator manually moves the spotlight following the subject on the stage. It is used to draw attention to the object. A spotlight

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typically includes a lens which can manually be focused, a strong light source and some spotlights can be fitted with ‘colour gels’ to change the colour of the beam to create a variety of effects. Floods-Floodlights are broad, beamed artificial lights that let off a high intensity of light. They’re typically used in playing fields during low key light conditions. It gives a powerful illumination over the large areas meaning sports games can be held after day light as the flood lights are powerful enough to cover the majority of the playing area. The highly common floodlight is the ‘metal-halide lamp’ which has a bright white light. This light is 75-100 watts. The average playing fields flood light price is £35,000 to £50,000.

Gobos-A gobo is plate or a screen which shields a lend from a light source. It contolrs the shape of he light that I being emitted meaning the light can be think, thin, small or large. There are different types of gobos. A metal gobo has holes which are in the shape of a pattern to get the wanted shape of the light creating different patterns and shadows. There are also glass gobos which are made with transparent glass and mirror to block light and produce black shadows on a projected image. They can be used with projectors or small, simple light sources. Some gobos are simple however some are complicated. Prices vary from £10,00-£500.

Quality and positioningHard and soft light-Hard light tends to produce shadows and gives a harsh effect upon the

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subject. The light source in hard light is much smaller compared to the subject meaning less light is being emitted however the light looks brighter in contrast to the shadows. Hard light comes from the sun of an off-camera flash. Soft light fills around the subject giving it soft edges. Soft light is used in cinematography to reduce shadows, it can make the characteristics of someone appear youthful making wrinkles less visible and overall it doesn’t produce as many shadows as hard lighting creating a more natural look. If the light source is close then it is soft light and if the size of the light is large the softer it is.

Key, fill and black lighting- The purpose of the key light is to highlight the dimension of the subject. It is the main light which is used. Using just a key light can light up a scene making it a high-contrast scene. For interior scenes, stage light is used for the key lighting and sunlight is used for exterior scenes. Lamps can also be used for key lights if they have enough brightness. A back light can be added to make the subject distinct from the background. The back light creates a flowing effect on the edges of the subject to also separate it from the background. Some back lights produce silhouettes if it is more intense than the key light. This is effective for photography. Also, theatres use back lighting to give the subject a three-dimensional touch. Fill light lightens the areas of shadows that are being created by other lights and can also reduce contrast of a scene. It prevents the shadows from being too dark.

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Directional lighting-This is lighting that is in a particular direction. A spotlight is directional light as it directs the light in a particular direction, the spotlight would be directly on a character who is on stage, following them and only covering them leaving the other areas without light. Whereas a street light isn’t directional lighting as they direct their light over a wide area. Directional lighting creates an atmosphere and can be positioned in any positioned to cover one main subject. Temperature lighting-Colour temperature is a characteristic of visible light that has an important part in lighting. Colour temperature is shown on the Kelvin scale and the colour appearance of the light that gets produced. Lights with a mid-range colour temperature (3500K to 4100K) have a neutral or white appearance. The light is more balanced in its colour wavelengths. Lights with a higher colour temperature have a cool or white appearance.

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