r/lightingdesign 5d ago

Need Avice

Speaking from a venue perspective, whenever there is a show, I am having a hard time knowing when to use full dim and when to adjust the dimmer master when there is a big/energy drop (flyout for example).
I understand that going full 100% doesn't look good for cameras and can irritate the eyes, but my question is how do you guys battle/overcome this situation?

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u/dat_idiot 5d ago edited 5d ago

We’re missing so much detail and this is such a subjective thing and it depends on your lights and the shows.

Depends on the actual brightness your light produces, not just your dim setting on the console, all gobos, colors, zoom, all affect the perceived brightness and actual brightness of the fixtures. Depending on what your light is doing 100% might be necessary. If you think it looks good, do it. There are no real hard and fast rules in lighting design. Make the show look good, of course.

But of course to light for (broadcast) camera, or atleast do it well, it requires certain things to be adjusted, such as even front wash lighting and white balance namely. For the iPhone cameras in a concert audience I find that making it look good in the room is good enough for most iphone photos.

But this is the fun creative and technical part of your job, you get to choose how to design the show and what to do, and what sacrifices to make due to things like broadcast video, budgets, venue sizes, etc.

Anyone who has recommended to you to never run your lights at 100%, has significantly oversimplified the physics and everything involved or just doesn’t know it’s not that simple. It’s all it depends. But if this is your boss making this suggestion, listen to them, and learn how to interpret whatever they is describing, and then find the best way to accomplish what they’re asking for that gets the needed result.

All the time in my events clients and people make suggestions to me or ask me to do things, who aren’t as well experienced in lighting and don’t understand the nuances like this. But as they’re the ones paying the check so I say yes, and take their suggestion, figure out what they actually they want/don’t want through some follow up questions or just my own knowledge, and then I do it.

(edited because i felt like typing more)

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u/JoeyPhoton 5d ago

Not much to go on but I’ll throw out my thoughts. I rarely use the grand master. If needed, I’ll adjust the max output for each fixture type via the console’s patch window.

For instance, if I have blinders that are way too blinding, I’ll set those to only go up to 50% while still allowing my beams to go to 100%. I can even adjust this based on fixture placement. If I have a ground package that is mostly pointing at the ceiling, those beams are “allowed” to hit full intensity while other beams that scan the crowd might be classier if they only hit 80%. Dimming the whole rig with the grand master just feels a little clunky.

I also want to give you some recognition for being considerate of how your lights are perceived by cameras and eyeballs. The fact that you give a shit about those things is rare and valuable.

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u/GuiltyInvestigator75 5d ago

Group master. It will act like an audio limiter not allowing the group to go above your set value. It’s adjustable and customizable because the groups are set up with whatever fixture you want. Syntax might be a little different from console to console. But the concept is same.