Tips For Educational Theatre -
Color & Light

"I usually just think of light as light - how do I get started with understanding and using color to light a play?"

Lighting Design and Photo by Ellen E. Jones - all rights reserved

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What does color do?

Sculpt performers and scenery
Enhance color of costumes & scenery
Establish mood for the viewer
Establish given circumstances - for example: is it night or day; are the characters inside or outside
Emphasize the style of the piece
Focus the audience's view - at the simplest level, provide visibility
Create visual texture

We see all shapes defined by highlight, shadow and color. The more colors we use, the more sculptural objects, including performers, appear. However, we want to balance the sculpting effect with the number of colors the audience is aware of when lighting realistic or naturalistic pieces.

Ok, I want to use color and I have all these gel swatch books - now what do I do?!?

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Take a deep breath. Selecting color for lighting can be a daunting task. If you feel overwhelmed, call us (1-800-243-4950) and we'll talk you through the process in relation to your production.

A few general rules of thumb are:

Use less saturated colors for actor's faces.
Each skin tone is unique and may respond differently to a particular color. What looks terrific on one person will not necessarily serve every other performer in the piece. Be prepared to make adjustments.
More saturated tones can be used to sidelight and backlight actors.
Save the strongest colors for lighting the scenery.

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There are several major manufacturers of color filters for lighting. Some products are made of glass and used internally and others are filters placed in front of the lens. Sold in sheets, to be cut to your fixture size, these thin plastic materials, are the economical, easiest to use and most popular. The most popular, widely used brands of color filters are Rosco, Lee and GAM (Great American Market).*

Tips to understanding the swatch books

The Lee swatch book is not in numerical order; they are in spectral order. If you flip the Lee book over there is a numerical listing with color numbers, names, and page number where each color is. The page numbers are on the back of the paper separators.
Rosco has added many new colors through the years. Many of the new colors are 3 digits beginning with 3. To keep colors that are similar together, the books have the 300's interspersed with related colors. For example, the color sequence is #09, #10, #310, and #11.
All of the manufacturers include graphs behind each of the color samples. They all operate the same way. To quote the GamColor swatch book:
"The graph on each page shows the transmission curve of the color plotted against the visible spectrum. The T% indicates the total transmission through the filter."

Maybe the spectral graph is more information than you need, but the T% can be very handy. For example, if GAM 655 Rich Green has a T% of only 11%, how much light am I left with once I put it in front of my 500 watt fresnel?

How Gel "Works"

Visible White Light is actually a combination of various colored wavelengths

(Image at left reproduced from Michael Gillette's book Designing With Light.)

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet

Color media (gel) filters the white light. It allows certain color wavelengths to pass through the media. It absorbs others and releases the energy as heat.

(Image at left reproduced from Michael Gillette's book Designing With Light.

Remember, color filtering is a subtractive process - you are removing colors from the visible spectrum, allowing the desired colors to pass through. The more saturated (purer) the color you are filtering for, the less light is transmitted.

Picking A Color

A frequent mistake is trying to determine how a color will work by holding a swatch up to the light and looking through it like sunglasses. This tells you exactly nothing.

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To test colors, put them in front of a light source and look at the result on skin tones or fabric.

For the most thorough understanding of how a particular gel will work you will want to look at the resultant color on a variety of surfaces including skin, costume fabrics, scenic materials, etc.
For best results, use a light source similar to the one you will use on stage.
Experiment - try several alternatives, and reserve the right to change your mind.

"In my swatch books, I see samples that aren't really any color -what are they for?"

Most gel books also include filters that are used to "diffuse" light and others that are used to simply reduce transmission, in effect dimming a light source without significantly changing the color.

Diffusion

Diffusion spreads light in special ways depending on the specific version of the product. For example Rosco 160 is a Tough Silk with striations that diffuse the light "directionally." In this case, the light spreads perpendicular to the stripes - you determine, by the way you orient the filter, whether the light is diffused left and right or up and down. Rosco 119, Light Hamburg Frost, is a popular omni-directional diffusion that spreads light in all directions without losing too much intensity. However, keep in mind that spreading the beam will always decrease intensity, so this is not the way to deal with an instrument shortage by covering more real estate.

Neutral Density

Neutral Density Filters decrease the intensity without impacting the color because they filter out wavelengths across the entire visible spectrum. Rosco 99 looks grey in the swatch book, but it does not really turn the light grey. It is a simple neutral density filter. Some people find it helpful to compare neutral density filters to closing down the F-Stop on the camera.

Photo/Production Credits
	The Philadelphia Story - Mike and Tracy 's encounter - Alan Carr Theatre, Lake Forest, IL; Photo copyright Ellen E. Jones; Scenery & Lighting Design by Ellen E. Jones; Directed by Dr. Louise C. Mason
	Orestes by Sophocles Clytemnestra's sacrifice to the Gods - Kathleen Mullady Theatre, Loyola University, Chicago IL; Photo copyright Ellen E. Jones; Lighting Design by Ellen E. Jones; Scenery and Costumes by the late John H. Brooks; Director by Dr. Sarah Gabel
	The Tempest - after the storm - University of Florida Constans Theatre; Photo copyright Ellen E. Jones; Lighting Design by Ellen E. Jones; Scene Design by William Jacobsen; Directed by Dr. Judith Williams
	Ghost of Hamlet on the Battlement - Stephen Foster Memorial Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA; Photo copyright Ellen E. Jones; Lighting Design by Ellen E. Jones; Scenery by Stephanie Miller; Costumes by Don Mangone; Directed by W. Stephen Coleman