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[Hal Harrison]

Hello all,

I am trying to dive more into lighting and have purchased several LED fixtures and mounted them pretty sleekly (I might add) to lamp bars so they can easily be attached with cheeseboroughs to truss or tripod mounted for smaller gigs.  At this point in time I am trying to put some basic scenes together with complementary colors that I can use as a starting point for programming the LED PAR cans.  My first question is - what complementary colors do you guys try to stick with in your lighting scene designs for rock shows?  Secondly, since each of my fixtures are RGB 3ch color mixing LED PARs, and the fact that my controller has a 0-255 LED display which allows me to see a numerical value which I adjust values in between each color in each fixture when making colors, do any of you have any R, G, & B values to get really cool colors?  I know the standard color mixing like red and blue make purple, red and some green make orange, etc, but was really interested in some other, more flashy colors (would also like to get a really good yellow out of this idea) to begin building complementary color scenes with.  I appreciate any and all advice in this matter.

Thanks
Hal

[Jeff Foster]

What I find useful is to just look up pictures on the internet of concerts and see what light colors that they are using and then figure out how best to use similar color combinations on our light rig.  If nothing else, just google "concerts" and click on images.  Webshots has a bunch to look through as well.

As for color values, there's really not any exact numbers that I could give you as I have found that different fixtures require different values for the same (or similar) color.  I also have found that very few RGB only LED fixtures can give a good yellow.  The best bet is to start with RG on full and B at 0.  Then adjust the R or G values down depending on whether the light appears too orange or green.

The best way to get a good yellow is with RGBA fixtures, but they are markedly more expensive and you said that you already have the fixtures you want.

[len woelfel]

I've found using the same numbers that graphic artists use to be a helpful baseline.  If you search rgb color charts you'll find a bunch.  But even within similar sized fixtures you'll get some variation.  

[James Feenstra]

6, 58, 172

i picked 3 random numbers, see what you get lol

there's a retarded amount of color combination available with them

as far as complimentary colors:

blues and white goes with pretty much anything
reds goes well with purples, yellows, and oranges
greens goes with yellows, oranges and some purples (depends)

odds of getting a decent yellow out of a RBG fixture is difficult though

[Adam Geron]

CMY - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

Any single color or pair of the above often works.  Red, Green, Blue themselves can be a little harsh, but maybe that's what you're going for.

[John Strzalkowski]

With RGB cans the "white" is usually a shade of blue. So keep that in mind when someone wants an all white wash. I for some reason am stuck on using alot of purples/blues. I do "mobile club" work alot and they seem to be the best for that "dank" style lighting, that with a red pulse...nothing but delicious.

Like others have said Yellow is very nasty on most RGB cans.

[Duane Massey]

Yellow and white are pretty much worthless on low$$ LED's. I use a lot of mixes and pure colors, but probably pure green is the least common. Aqua, pink, purple, and variations are always useful, but very few combinations of green and red look good, especially if you're using them as rear washes.

Best bet is to experiment, and follow Jeff's suggestion as well.