Stage lighting is incredibly important to the visual experience of a show, but how do you go about designing cool effects? Whether it’s a gig or a theatre production, you might have an idea of the kind of atmosphere and impact you want the stage setup to have, but putting it together can be difficult, especially if you’re a beginner in the world of lighting.
What’s a good starting point for smaller lighting setups? How can control and programming be easy? What kind of lights do you need to get the look you want? In our guide to stage lighting design, we’ll answer all these questions and more, so you can feel confident in not only the performance part of a live show, but the visuals too.
The aims and functions of stage lighting
On the face of it, stage lighting is quite simple. It lights up the stage and makes it easy to see the performers. In particular, this is what backlighting and spotlighting are for – making sure each performer is clear and visible. But stage lighting can do so much more than just that!
It also sets the scene and mood of a show. Think of a theatrical performance. The way the props in the background are lit makes it easy to follow what’s happening on stage, and the overall mood of the lighting helps reflect how the characters feel.
Think of a high-energy club with a DJ playing great songs as the lights strobe. The green beams of a laser slicing through the ambient lights can give you that electric feeling of excitement.
And finally, think of seeing your favourite band live. That feeling as the music on the speakers cuts out and the lights fade before the members of the band begin to play – the buzz and anticipation are aided by clever lighting design.
Light types
| Light Type | What Is It? | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| LED Par Cans | LED par cans are colourful lights that create either a wash of colour or static backing light for visual clarity on stage. Simple and easy to use, these are a great place to start with stage lighting. | Chauvet DJ 4Bar LTBT ILS LED Par Bar Lighting System |
| Spotlights | Spotlights help illuminate specific performers. This emphasises one person in a critical moment and brings the audience's focus to them. These are an ideal secondary choice once you want to expand from par cans. | ADJ Saber Spot RGBW |
| Moving Heads | Moving heads are extremely versatile lights that provide motion to light shows. With a wide range of possible effects, moving heads can project narrow beams, wider washes, spots, or patterned graphics called gobos. Some more advanced units may even be able to do multiple effects depending on how they’re programmed. | Orbit Moving Head Light with UV by Gear4music |
| Blinders/Strobes | Blinders create bright washes of light that face the audience directly and flash on and off gradually. Strobes do the same thing but can run far faster, creating exciting, energetic visuals that are great for electronic music, rock, and metal. Be careful when using strobes, as higher rates can trigger fits in those with photosensitive epilepsy. It’s safer to keep the strobe rate to no more than 4 Hz (four flashes per second) and inform potential audiences of strobe effects before shows so they can step out if they’re at risk. | Cameo Thunder Wash 100 W |
| Lasers and Multi-Effects | Lasers are excitingly sharp narrow beams of extremely high-frequency light. Lasers are often standalone or part of multi-effects fixtures that can create beam derby effects, moonflowers, beams, washes, strobes, and potentially ultraviolet light. Be cautious when choosing to use lasers, as the high frequency of these beams can cause eye damage to audiences; ensure you never point them directly at people and that you can legally use these frequencies in the region you’re in. | Cameo Wookie 200 RGY |
Stage lighting design – jargon buster
There’s a lot of terminology with lighting, so let’s take a look at the common names and see what we can clarify.
- Fixture: Fixture is a term used for a specific light. These may also be called a lantern.
- Lamp: Lamp is a lighting term for the bulb inside any given lighting fixture.
- Wash: Also known as a fill, a wash is a wide, consistent light of any given colour. Washes can stay in place from fixed par cans, or move around slowly from the motion of moving heads.
- Intensity: The level of brightness of a given light.
- Diffusion: Diffusion softens a light by dispersing it more evenly. This gives the light a softer, more distant look with less identifiable edges.
- Frost Filter: A kind of frame included in some lights, often spotlights. A frost filter diffuses the light.
- Barndoors: Barndoors are a set of metal flaps that can be attached to the front of a light to close off the beams, creating edges or limiting its coverage
- Gobo: A gobo is a panel that is placed between the lamp and the lens of a light to change its shape. They can be used to create animations or fixed patterns.
- DMX: DMX, or Digital Multiplex, is a control protocol for lighting. This can be used to program lights ahead of shows or control them live. Each DMX channel has a value for colour, intensity, and other parameters of LED lights.
- Gel: Gels are used to change the colour of fixed-colour lights, like spotlights, strobes, and moving heads.
- Colour Wheel: A feature on some moving heads and other fixed-colour lights that stores multiple frames with gels to change colour. Some fixtures will include this, others will not but may accommodate gels being placed on the fly.
- Prism: A feature on some lights, particularly moving heads and multi-effects that splits the beam into multiple smaller beams.
- Pixel: A term often used in light bars for groups of LEDs assigned to an individually programmable zone.
- Master/Slave or Primary/Secondary: This is a control mode where you pair two identical fixtures; one fixture follows the other. This means both fixtures trigger the same effects simultaneously without the need to program the second fixture.
- Sound-Active: This is a control mode for lighting fixtures wherein a built-in microphone will allow the light to react to music being played for time-sensitive visual effects.
Different lighting positions
Front lights
Front lights sit at the front of the stage, facing the performers. This is the first port of call for directionality and making people visible on-stage, but they can create a flat appearance if they’re not paired up with backlighting.
Par cans and moving heads are great for front lighting. Moving head bars like the Cameo Hydrabeam 400 RGBW are a good way to add movement to the front of the stage. Spotlights are also great here!
Backlighting
Backlighting helps fill out the dimensions of the stage, sitting at the back of the stage behind the performers. This is the ideal position for par cans and can benefit from multiple vertical positions at once.
For this, we’d recommend either single par cans like the Chauvet DJ SlimPAR Q12BT or a full-fledged standalone par bar like the Chauvet DJ 4Bar LTBT ILS.
Downlighting
Downlighting comes from above the stage and can help fill in vertical spaces. Since we’re used to lighting coming from above the source, this can help finish off a sense of space during performances.
Side and high-side lighting
This is a final detail that may not always be necessary. It’s generally preferable to have raised side lighting at a 45-degree angle, but direct side lighting can help the profile of performers stand out more. Profile and spotlights like the ADJ Saber Spot RGBW are ideal for this position.
Basic stage lighting techniques
Colour mixing
The colour of your lighting can really set the scene. Colours can place the audience in the environment you want them to be in and make them feel the emotion you want them to feel. Mixing your colours is a great way of adding more depth to this.
Most LED lights with colour mixing will let you balance the levels of the available base colours of its bulbs. For example, with RGB LED lamps, you can balance the ratio of red, green, and blue to create a surprisingly wide palette of colours. With more advanced fixtures, you may be able to blend additional colours like white, amber, yellow, and even ultraviolet.
Gobos/patterns/textures
There are a lot of ways of adding more unique visuals with graphics, animations, and textured effects. Moonflowers, also referred to as flower effects, offer circular shapes in concentric rings. Gobos can create patterns of light or even text and with more advanced fixtures, potentially moving images! Water effects create soft, diffused coloured light that shifts around a lot thanks to textured glass lenses.
All of these lighting types can either help create a sense of environment that enhances the setting of a scene at a theatre show or heighten the mood in musical performances. The Chauvet DJ GigBAR 2.0 and Cameo Wookie 200 RGY are our recommendations for adding those extra layers of lighting.
Fading and transitions
Light fixtures tend to offer a range of dimming curves to give you space to bring in and remove effects over time, change colours, and bring in new effects or lighting types. Modes like linear, exponential, and S-curve are quite common, affecting the rate of change of the light’s intensity with direct control or programming.
How to create an effective stage lighting design
Familiarise yourself with the production
Know what’s happening when. This will help you get some unique and specifically tailored effects for key moments. You’ll need to know when to emphasise the big moments and know when to pull back. Sometimes the best thing you can do will be minimal, sometimes it’ll be going all-out.
Lighting is a craft meant to compliment what’s happening on-stage, and not to grab attention for its own sake. So, talk to show directors, performers, or bands about the kinds of looks, moods, and emotions they’re after – this will help you heighten what’s already there.
Divide the stage
Creating a sense of space on the stage is key to making things stand out visually. To best do this, look at the areas of the stage and think about whether they need individually controlled lighting. Pick out the places that need this unique lighting and build a plan for what fixtures you want to cover these areas.
At its most simple, treating the centre, left, and right sides of the stage differently is a good start, but adding depth by having segments towards the front and back of the stage can really elevate a production. Identify the segments you want by working out where the performers might do something that’s worth highlighting or where they might repeatedly come back to.
Where does the vocalist stand most often? Will the narrator of a stage play have a specific position? Is there a solo in an orchestral performance worth highlighting? Design your segments around these moments and the fixtures you need will become much clearer.
Choose the right equipment for you
Now that you know where you want the lights and you know the production, think of the lighting effects that’ll complement it.
Rows of par cans are great for dimensional overall mood lighting, and spotlights are important for highlighting, but would lasers suit the performance? What about strobes? Multi-effects? Water effects? Do you need moving heads with gobos? Just think about the look you want and the effects that’ll work with the show.
Don’t overcomplicate
Sometimes simple is best. At points, you might want to leave the stage bathed in static white light. Knowing what the moment calls for is the real skill of a lighting designer, and sometimes the moment doesn’t really need anything at all. Some shows won’t need certain kinds of fixtures or effects at all.
Focus on the fundamentals: dimensionality and colour. So long as you do that, you can’t go wrong!
How to set up your stage lighting
Installing lighting fixtures is complex and requires a lot of expertise and equipment for safe setup. First and foremost, you should always make sure that everything is secure and if you’re not a professional lighting installer yourself, hire one.
Installers will use safety cables to attach fixtures to pipes or trussing, which wraps around the metal trusses and the handle of the fixture. Cabling will then be run overhead, with power and DMX cables. Some light fixtures can’t be set up hanging though, with lights like follow-spots being freestanding or placed on swivelling stands.
FAQs
What is the basic rule for lighting a stage?
The basic rule for lighting a stage is to ensure that all performers are visible while setting the appropriate mood for the scene. This involves balancing brightness, colour, and angle to highlight key actions and emotions, and avoiding shadows or dark spots on stage.
What are the four functions of stage lighting design?
The four functions of stage lighting design are visibility, mood, composition, and focus. Visibility ensures the audience can see the performers, mood enhances the emotional tone, composition creates a visual picture, and focus directs the audience’s attention to key elements.
What are the five steps in lighting design?
The five steps in lighting design are analysis, research, design concept, implementation, and evaluation. Analysis involves understanding the script, research gathers references, the design concept develops the lighting plan, implementation executes it, and evaluation ensures the design meets the intended goals.
Final thoughts
Lighting design is a great way to enhance any kind of performance, be it musical, theatrical, comedic, or even just a professional conference. A little thought can go a long way with lighting, improving the sense of space even with well-placed static-colour lights.
We’ve gone over the main types of light fixtures, how they can be used, and how to go about planning a show. Now it’s time to put your stage lighting design into practice and put on a stellar show!
Want to take your live performance to the next level? Discover more about live sound gear in our in-depth guides:
What is a PA System? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
A Comprehensive Guide to Live Sound Mixing
Condenser vs. Dynamic Mics – Which One Do I Need?
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