Lecture 9-Lighting Fixture Technologies

Question 1

What is a light?

Answer 1

Luminaire/instrument/fixture/unit/lantern/head
Bulb=household lightbulb.
Bulbs for film and TV are usually called globes or lamps.
Practical- a household style bulb that is used for film and TV is often colour balanced.

Question 2

What is a hard and soft light?

Answer 2

Hard light:light that casts distinct shadows.
Soft light: light that casts minimal or diffuse shadows.
Hard sources can be made soft e.g. Gels, silks bounce, umbrella, bounce board, foam core, walls etc.
Soft sources cannot be made hard.

Question 3

Define open face:

Answer 3

A fixture that does not use a lens, beam focused through reflector, PARs use parabolic reflectors instead of spherical.

Question 4

Define closed face:

Answer 4

A fixture that does use a lens, fresnel uses a spherical reflector and a special type of lens. Some PAR units use a simple lens.

Question 5

Define fresnel lens:

Answer 5

Compact lens with some focusing ability as conventional lens, made thinner by removal of non-refractive glass area.

Question 6

Define the housing, bail/yoke, baby mount and junior mount:

Answer 6

Housing: the main body of the fixture.
Bail/Yoke-mounting point for the unit where the housing attaches to the stand.
Baby mount-receptacle for 5/8” pin from stand.
Junior mount-1 1/8” pin (spud) that goes into a receptacle on the stand.

Question 7

Define spot and flood:

Answer 7

Spot-beam is brightest in centre and falls off rapidly, maximum level of lamination from unit.
Flood-beam is roughly even over beam area, lower level of illumination but mostly even across spread.

Question 8

What do smooth and textured reflectors do?

Answer 8

Smooth-create hard beams of light

Textured and matte create softer beams

Question 9

What beam patterns do spherical, parabolic and ellipsodial reflectors create?

Answer 9

Spherical-creates a broad beam ,
Parabolic-even beam with parallel rays,
Ellipsodial-beam focuses to a point - spot light

Question 10

What are simple ways to control illumination level?

Answer 10

Change spot/flood adjustment, alter distance between the unit and the subject, scrims-metal mesh screens that reduce light

Question 11

How much do single and double scrims reduce illumination?

Answer 11

Single scrim-reduces illumination by 1/2stop denoted by green,
Double scrim-1 stop denoted by red

Question 12

What do barn doors do?

Answer 12

Allow general control of beam, will, limit the area where light hits creates a rectangular pattern.

Question 13

Define snoot:

Answer 13

Limits beam to a circular pattern

Question 14

Define nets:

Answer 14

Same as scrims but are stand-mounted

Question 15

Define flags:

Answer 15

Opaque matte black cloth on a frame that blocks light from hitting certain areas, when close to the subject, sharp shadows are cast

Question 16

Define bounce board:

Answer 16

Typically polystyrene or foam core sheet held by a stand to enable a soft light source to be created from a hard source.

Question 17

Define shiny board:

Answer 17

A large reflector on a stand to bounce light into an area, often two sided with a harder and softer surface, usually used to direct sunlight

Question 18

Open face units, prime units and broad units and their application and fixtures:

Answer 18

Open face- best suited to bounce light or point source light
Prime- have spot/flood control, barn doors and scrims.
Broad have fixed spread and are best used for backgrounds.

Question 19

Fresnel applications:

Answer 19

Named for their lens, tungsten or daylight balance, best all-round unit for direct or bounce use, available in a wide range of sizes and illumination- 200W to 50KW

Question 20

Sealed beam units applications:

Answer 20

PAR lamps work similarly to car headlamps with elliptical beam, available in various spot or flood patterns, lamps can be rotated to orient beam direction, alone work well as point source groups can light areas.

Question 21

Applications of soft lights:

Answer 21

Limited amount of throw given the soft nature of the beam, best used as fill and to evenly light areas. Egg crates are used to control spill, chimera soft boxes convert a fresnel or open face to soft light, chimeras fit over the front of the unit and are removable.

Question 22

HMI applications:

Answer 22

Mercury Medium-arc iodide, produce about four times more light per watt than tungsten. Available in open face, fresnel, PAR, soft light etc.
Best for daylight sources and maximum illumination efficiency, sine wave based versions can flicker, square wave version don’t flicker but are noisy.

Question 23

Fluorescent applications:

Answer 23

Power efficient and cool running temp, very even soft beam, best for fill and even area illumination, ideal for interviews.

Question 24

LED units applications:

Answer 24

Very low power and very cool to run, compact size and easy to mount. Many have adjustable colour temperature and are dimmable, manly battery powered-great for car interiors.