Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ted Christensen]

I was wondering what everyone is using for face lighting besides traditional par cans.


Thanks for your input.

[James Feenstra]

Follow spots, Lekos, Fresnels, Moving Lights, LEDs....depends on the situation/venue/budget

My preferences are follow spots or Lekos for the most part....although it's really situationally dependant on what the show itself is

[Ted Christensen]

I havent found a LED light that will suit me for face lighting. Havent tried just a true white LED fixtures yet though. Just Chauvet Slim par pro tris/ and lower. 

A smaller beam is what im looking for instead more of a wash.

Moving Heads would be great, hard to find good ones cheap though.

Im looking for stuff that will work well for live acts ranging from bar gigs to outdoor.

Face lighting will primarly be on sticks off to the side of the speakers.

Maybe LED pinspots? I would like to stick with LED if the results are good/bright enough with 4 fixtures a side face lighting.

[Thomas Bishop]

My typical front lighting rig consists of Source 4 lekos or pars for whites and LED's for color wash.  The gig I have coming up is a standard 5 piece band.  I'm doing 50 degree lekos for specials and Colorkey IP65 RGBA's to fill in the gaps.  I've found I can get fairly close to an incandescent look with the LED's.  Not perfect, but it does the job.

[James Feenstra]

Since you're likely looking for something small scale, microh makes a decent a/w zoom par for ~$500/fixture

They go from 10-60 degrees so can be both a spot and a wash if necessary, and will color incredibly close to tungsten. Could couple them with the rgb zoom and you've got every color of front lighting you could ask for.

I'm sure other companies make similar products as well

[DanGlass]

I have had great experience using the Chauvet LED PAR 64-VW (variable white) and it looks great. I used it on outdoor concerts and for HDTV shoots.  It looks just like a short nose traditional par (chrome) and has a really good punch and wash.  I have measured the output with a color meter and was able to mix a tungsten out of it.  Chauvet has since discontinued it for the tour version but you can still find new ones around.  I have been buying them for around $250 on average.  At this point my front truss is 100% LED fixtures with a mix of variable white and rgb.  I know that Chauvet has a bad rap for quality but so far I havent had any big problems with them and them most I have had to do is mess with a couple of wires that came loose during transport.

[John Strzalkowski]

Do you happen to have any pictures of people in the VW light? I was interested in those when they first came out, asked a whole bunch of people about the quality of light and if it is similar to a traditional source, and I got no answers, and noone had them in stock... Would love to see what they do for skin.

[DanGlass]

Sorry, i dont have any photos handy.  The thing that i really like about them is they are variable so if I am outside or in a space that has some daylight i can mix the color for that and if it is on a stage i can mix it to match the tungsten sources.  I bought one to test cause I was nervous about what i could actually do with them.  I brought them into a tv studio that shoots HD and put them through a battery of tests.  It passed with flying colors so I purchased a bunch more.  One of my favorite examples of color mixing is when I use them in concerts that are shooting video.  If the moving lights use an arc source (or LED) lamp the beam usually shows up as a cold blue because the video crew will set the cameras for the talent lighting. The talent lighting traditionally is a tungsten source and this is what causes the movers to be blue on video.  if I mix the pars to match the movers then all of the lights on the stage wil come across on video as a nice natural warm, or at least match depending on how good the video crew is.  The only thing you may need to do is put a light diffusion on the pars because they can really seem like a bright pin light to people on the stage. Adding a little diffusion will keep everyone happy without sacrificing quality.

[Steven Leonard]

I was wondering what everyone is using for face lighting besides traditional par cans.


Thanks for your input.

I use 4 S4 Lekos for front light (2 Light trees with 2 fixtures each on t bars/stands at 45 Degree angle to stage). I usually use R33 or BA. If it is a really wide stage I will put some S4 Pars on the floor in front at the center.

My color wash behind the band is 8 Elation Opti Tri pars.

I am not ready to jump to LED front lighting and you cant argue with the build quality of ETC Source Four units.

Personally I think LED front light looks a little tacky but that is not to say the technology will change with time. It seems like it gets better by the day!

[John Strzalkowski]

Sorry, i dont have any photos handy.  The thing that i really like about them is they are variable so if I am outside or in a space that has some daylight i can mix the color for that and if it is on a stage i can mix it to match the tungsten sources.  I bought one to test cause I was nervous about what i could actually do with them.  I brought them into a tv studio that shoots HD and put them through a battery of tests.  It passed with flying colors so I purchased a bunch more.  One of my favorite examples of color mixing is when I use them in concerts that are shooting video.  If the moving lights use an arc source (or LED) lamp the beam usually shows up as a cold blue because the video crew will set the cameras for the talent lighting. The talent lighting traditionally is a tungsten source and this is what causes the movers to be blue on video.  if I mix the pars to match the movers then all of the lights on the stage wil come across on video as a nice natural warm, or at least match depending on how good the video crew is.  The only thing you may need to do is put a light diffusion on the pars because they can really seem like a bright pin light to people on the stage. Adding a little diffusion will keep everyone happy without sacrificing quality.

The variable color temp is definitely a plus that I was interested in, simply because for some instances, I like the cold white that LED units typically give out, but for the most part I need the tungsten warmth.

How good is the color consistency? The unit's I saw (cheap chinese crap) had a problem with a consistent even color (In the center of the washed area the color was mixed well, but on the edges the 2 LED's did not blend well leaving a different color temp on the outside of the wash, than the inside). That is a problem for me when I do runway lights (fashion runway), and the color temp changes as they walk up and down the runway. (Video guys would probably hate me for it).

To stay on topic, I use S4 Leko's or S4 Pars to front light, I find this to be the typical setup. You can also try some stage border lights (L&E Microstrip) if there is little to no space to hang or side light nicely.

[ProSoundWeb Community]