Light

Light Fixtures 102

(Relationship between lamp and housing)

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The light fixture is simply the housing for the bulb and bulb holder and a container so that the electricity can be carried to the bulb safely. All light fixtures have a few things in common Some safety features A method of turning it on and off, a safety screen or glass in case the bulb blows, a housing that will allow heat to escape but keep the light controlled. Features that affect light quality A reflector to bounce light from the backside of the bulb, forward, a lens of some description in some cases, a Spot / Flood mechanism. Bulb Single ended (bi-post) or double ended, the bulb position in the housing and colour temperature of bulb affect the output. Fixture / Control Accessories Barn doors to control spill as the light leaves the fixture, gel/filter or colour frames, scrims and snoots. More practically a means of fixing it to stands, set wall or anything else. This section looks at how these issues relate with each other, to create the various light sources,

Lighting Fixtures (or sources) Open Face Fixture The most basic of fixtures whose features include, a spot/flood mechanism (generally) and a reflector (but no lens). They use quartz bulbs, 50% of the generated light bounces off the reflector making a soft light and the remaining 50% shines straight out of the front of the fixture creating harsh light. They burn very hot and could melt or burn things if placed too close to them. There should be a safety mesh. Examples are 2k Blonde, 800w Redhead and 650w Pulsar. (See Sunguns) Soft Lights A variation on an Open Face fixture the difference being the shape and size of the reflector and all the light emitted from the bulb is reflected off a white concave reflector, creating a soft light. Examples; 1.6 Zap Light, 2.5 Super Zap etc. Cyc. (Cyclorama) Lighting Very similar to Soft Lights, the reflector is shaped in such a way as to direct light evenly over a cyclorama wall, the fixture is often in multiple "cells" like Groundrow, Pallas 1,2,4 and wired so that a different coloured filter can be placed in front of each of "cells" to make changing the colour of the eye wall simple. Larger single lamps are also available such as LTM 5k Cyc.

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Fresnel Fixture Uses a bi-post or single ended bulb, which stands upright in the fixture that has a silver reflector behind the bulb (50% reflected light) and a fresnel lens in front of the bulb. Accordingly the light is very controllable, in the spot position the lens causes a "hot spot" with a smooth wash toward the edges, in the flood position the light is evenly spread. Most Film and TV lighting fixtures are fresnel and range in size from 150w - 24,000 Watt. PAR Fixture The PAR (parabolic anodized reflector) fixture was originally a sealed beam light source; the bulb reflector and lens was one unit - like a car headlamp. The best current example being Maxibrutes and Minibrutes, the advantage is a "punchy" beam of light, excellent for bouncing or giving crisp edges and dark shadows, when used without bounce. The introduction of MSR bulbs has rendered the original PAR bulb redundant; the bulb is mounted bi-posts toward the back of the lamp and a highly polished reflector surrounds the entire bulb. All the light produced by the bulb is reflected off the shiny surface. Modern PAR lamps have a choice of Spot, Medium, Wide and Flood lenses that can be placed in front of the fixture; some manufacturers also include a fresnel lens too. Daylight PARs are available from 125Watt to 12,OOOWatt - (an 18,000 Watt is being developed) Silhouette Available in both Tungsten and Daylight this is a projector type fixture; the light passes through two adjustable concave lenses giving the opportunity to make light patterns with crisp edges. Typically seen as a follow spot or lamp that utilises Gobos (steel template) to cast patterns on backdrops. A Dedo light is an example of the silhouette principal. Available as constant Tung from 650 - 2500 Watt. Silhouette fixtures are also available to suit flash heads, either as one piece or an attachment that mounts on the front of a flash head. Sungun A battery operated light, typically open faced - other than a safety glass and available as Tungsten or Daylight. Usually run from 30v rechargeable sealed batteries whose life is approx. 30 - 45 Minutes and may take as long as 3 hours to recharge.

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Standard Flash Head A quartz flash bulb is mounted alongside a modelling bulb and both are often protected with a glass cover, which protects the "talent" from exposure to UV rays, softens the light and in some cases alters the colour temperature. The modelling lamp stays on at all times, while the flash bulb is fired in sync, with the camera. Flash lamps can get extremely hot under heavy use and accordingly some units have fans built into the head. A broad variety of sizes according to manufacture. (500 joule - 8000 joule) Twin Head Generally similar to a Standard Flash head, but it houses two flash bulbs (the head lead splits to two feeds). The advantage for the photographer being that they can get twice the joules (light output) in the same head. Typically you will need 2 packs to run one twin head! Ringflash The Ringflash, as its name implies is a circular tube, or a variety of individual sources arranged in circle. The cameraperson will generally put the camera lens through the centre of a Ringflash; the effect being that the light source loses any clearly defined direction, as all the shadows are thrown behind the subject. Mostly used for beauty shots, sometimes through a large silk to spread the light to appear as a larger source. Will often cast a "halo" shadow around the subject. Strip The same principles as other flash lights but is a long thin light, similar in shape to a fluorescent and used primarily for head to toe shots. Often diffused through "strip" textiles.

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Spot

Fresnel

Convex

Modern PAR

Modern PAR + interchangeable

loncoc

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Softlight

Silhouette

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