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wash/flood fixtures
Wash or Flood instruments are less specific than spot-type fixtures. They are good for throwing lots of light over general areas. Usually these types of instruments are used for color washes, rather than acting area lighting. None of these instruments are able to accept gobos, and they do not use shutters- though you can use an accessory called a barn door to roughly shape the field of light. Wash fixtures do not have a sharp edge like a spot fixture. Typically, the only control over the shape of the beam that is available to the designer with these fixtures is size.
These instruments are typically a bit less expensive than spot fixtures, and often make up a large percentage of theatre lighting inventories. They are not usually very good instruments to put in front of house positions, because of the lack of control over the shape of the pool of light. Traditional halogen wash fixtures for theatre usually use 500-1000w lamps. Wash fixtures (especially Fresnels) are also commonly used in television and film studios. Some of these are much brighter (up to 5000 or 10000w) because of the unique needs of the camera. LEDs are also becoming very common in wash instruments. There are also a number of smaller flood light style instruments that can be poked into small places on the set. Flood lights are also commonly used as work lights in theatres. Basically, anytime the designer is looking for a lot of light thrown in a particular direction, these are the instruments of choice. |
fresnelsThe 6" Fresnel is one of the most common instruments in many theatre lighting inventories. Most manufacturers make at least one (above left is the Altman 1KL model). Fresnels cast a soft, even pool of light. The size of the beam can typically be adjusted from big (Flood) to small (Spot).
Fresnels do not have shutters, but barn doors (above/right/top) are commonly put into the gel frame holder, in order to have some ability to shape the light. It does not work quite as efficiently as shutters, but it is an effective way to get a little unwanted light spill off of a wall. While the 6" Fresnel seems to be the most common (the 6" refers to the diameter of the lens), there are also fixtures that are bigger and smaller. 10" and 12" units are commonly found in TV studios, 8" Fresnels are in many theatres, and a very small 3" Fresnel (nicknamed the Inky) like the one pictured above at the lower right is a common set-mount or footlight fixture. They're very cute. |
Here's another great diagram from the folks at Harvard's Loeb Center.
The "Focus Knob" is the mechanism by which the lamp/reflector housing is moved closer or farther away from the lens, which in turn changes the size of the beam of light. When the lamp is closer to the lens, the beam of light is big (Flood)- around 70° on many 6" Fresnels. When moved back in the fixture away from the lens, the beam angle gets much narrower (Spot)- down to about 15°. This is a huge range! |
Fresnel lensThe Fresnel is named after the type of lens that it has. Above, see a cross section (thanks Wikipedia for this public domain image). These lenses were initially invented by Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses. He realized that the only part of a traditional plano-convex lens needed to refract light was the curve on the front. The rest of the glass in the lens just made it heavy (imagine a 6-foot tall lens for a lighthouse) without actually having an effect on the light. Effectively, he sliced a traditional lens into concentric circles, removed a bunch of unneeded glass and flattened the whole thing.
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par canThe first PAR cans were literally car headlights built into coffee can housings to create cheap fixtures for low-budget rock and roll shows. Traditional PARs such as the PAR64 shown above are not much more sophisticated than that, and continue to be pretty cheap. They do throw a lot of light, and are great for general color washes, but the trade-off is a lack of control over the shape of the beam and a relatively uneven pool of light.
PAR stands for Parabolic Aluminized Reflector, so like the Ellipsoidal, this instrument is named after the shape of the reflector. The beam is roughly oblong- some describe it as a rectangle, some as an oval. It's kind of both. In focus, an electrician may be asked to 'spin the bottle', which means to twist the lamp housing in order to present the oblong beam in the desired orientation. The most common PAR can in theatre inventories is the largest of the PAR family: the PAR64, which has about a 9" diameter lamp. Also available are the PAR56, PAR38 and the tiny PAR16, usually known as a birdie- etymologically 'smaller than par' (get it?). The birdie uses an MR16 lamp, and isn't really a true PAR, due to its lack of Parabolic Reflector, but it looks like a mini-PAR can so we'll leave it here. |
"New style" parIn the last 20 years or so, many manufacturers have begun selling 'new style' PAR fixtures. The major difference between old and new style PAR fixtures has to do with the lamp.
Lamps for traditional PARs are built as a whole assembly: the reflector, lamp and lens are all one piece. These lamp assemblies can be swapped out to get a wider or narrower beam spread. On new style PARs, the reflector and lamp housing are built into the fixture and lenses can be swapped on the unit as needed. The beam continues to be somewhat oblong, but with new style PARs, the beam is oriented by just twisting the lens. |
Par lensesPARs lenses come in a variety of different 'beam spreads', though the denotation is much less specific than in a spot fixture.
Link to graphic |
led wash fixturesAs LED technology advanced, and the lights became bright enough to use in theatrical settings, the wash fixture was the first to utilize it. While these fixtures are sometimes called LED PARs, they are not really PARs, because of their lack of Parabolic Reflector. However, because they are often built in the same housings as "New Style" PARs, we'll let the name stand.
There is a huge range of quality and cost in these fixtures. Some are as cheap as $100, and others run into the thousands of dollars. Largely, you get what you pay for. Some of the fixtures are sold as "DJ Equipment", and while this might be great for special effects 'ooh and ahh' at a wedding reception, it rarely gives off the kind of intensity that we need in the theatre. All LED fixtures are controlled through DMX, and most have a huge range of color options. There is much more information on this in the color section, but as an intro, LED fixtures are described based on the different color LEDs that are on board. An RGB fixture has Red, Blue and Green primary color LEDs which in theory should be able to mix any color of light in the spectrum. Because theory is sometimes difficult to attain in real life, there are also RGBA (amber), RGBW (white), and RGBAW fixtures. ETC's Selador and Lustr engine uses seven different colors of LED to easily create any hue in any saturation needed. |
other flood fixturesScoops and other flood lights are big and bright and cover a wide area. The fixture on the left above is a theatrical fixture sold by Altman, but a designer or electrician will sometimes just pick up a couple similar units at a home center. Sometimes we call them HDLs (Home Depot Lights).
These types of floodlights are most often used for work light. They are the least controllable, but are very useful when trying to light up dark corners without much subtle nuance. Sometimes when visibility is all that is needed, we'll just hang a "Raisin Bran Light Plot"- you know- "Two Scoops" All joking aside, though- lights like this have their use in a theatrical setting. Sometimes a designer wants a single point blinding light. Most theatres have a couple 1500w Scoops kicking around, and they are great for this purpose. I know a designer who is very fond of using stadium lights in designs- yes, real stadium lights. In a stadium there are arrays of dozens of them, but in a dark theatre one or two seem brighter than the sun. Every tool to its purpose... |
Most images, except where noted are from BMI Supply, a fine theatrical equipment supplier in upstate New York