Notes from Gillette’s Designing with Light

 …the most dominant element the designer controls  …derived from light

 quality that differentiates one color from another

 Percentage of a hue in a color mixture  Chroma

 Lightness or darkness  Tint  light colors are high in value  Shade  darker colors are low in value  Tone  color with middle value (black and white)

 Primary Colors  hues that can’t be blended from any other hues  Secondary Colors  created by mixing two adjacent primary colors  Complementary Colors  any two opposite hues that when combined create white in light or black in pigment.

light creates white light …………pigment creates black.

 Light receptor nerves  Cones  red, blue, and green light wavelengths  bright light  Rods  faint or dim light  interpret shades

 Uncolored stage light can wash color out of objects on stage  Compatible colors of light maintain color choices of scenery and costumes.

 Mood  Temperature

Colored filters only allow their hue to pass through. Colored filters only allow their hue to pass through. Subtractive color mixing can also be achieved by using two or more filters of secondary hues. Subtractive color mixing can also be achieved by using two or more filters of secondary hues. Reduces the intensity of the output. Reduces the intensity of the output.

 Happens when several hues are seen by the eye, added together, and when interpreted by the brain, appear as a different color.  The hues created are purely results of the cones in our eyes; they really aren’t created on the projection surface.

AAffects color blending FFive instruments would blend according to the amount of overlapping to light an actor from all sides. BBlending techniques: DDouble Hanging AAlternating Colors

 Two overlapping instruments colored with approximately complementary tints used to create a more vibrant white light.

 Physiological reaction results in the eye seeing shadow colors that are complementary to the hue of the source light

 Filtered Light  when white light passes through any type of filtering material (glass, plastic, air…)

 Gel  Originally made from gelatin and synthetic dyes.  Faded quickly, fragile when dry, dissolves when wet  Now made of plastic, but still called gel  Mylar or polyester  Rugged, long lasting, heat resistant  Variety of colors

 Glass  Infrequently used as a filter  Long lasting and fade resistant  Limited palette  Expensive, heavy, will shatter if dropped  Rondels – glass filters used in striplights  Red, blue, green, amber

 Dichroics  Newest color media  Work differently than other color media  Ordinary filters allow their own colors to pass through filter and absorb the other colors  Dichroic filters reflect the unwanted colors  Want red? Reflect cyan. Want blue? Reflect yellow.  Heat resistant, no tangible color fade, more effective filter (less light loss)

 Diffusion Filters  Diffusers – soften the quality of light  Soften edge of light and its shadows  Reduce hot spots  Reduce color fringes  Rainbow effect seen at the edges of some beams of light  Caused by refraction of the projected light  Varying levels of diffusion  R-100 Frost, Lee 216 White Diffusion

 Diffusion Filters  Focusers –  Striations or scratches on the surface of the media refract the light at right angles to the directions of the lines  Lee 228 Brushed Silk, R-104 Tough Silk  Cyc silks

 Color media manufacturers offer sample books  Gel swatches  Show color  Allow LD to experiment with halogen bulb flashlight  If two overlapping gels lit with a flashlight onto a piece of white paper produces a neutral gray means the colors are complementary

 Transmission information  Graph shows transmission of light measured in nanometers  Two gels with mirror images in graphs are complimentary  Transmission, Y, amount of light passed through the filter compared to unfiltered light