Cinematography, the art of storytelling with moving pictures, really encompasses two disciplines; Camera and Lighting – The latter of which we’ll be discussing today. Whether you’re aspiring to be the next Roger Deakins or just enjoy the camaraderie of working in a close-knit team, it is essential to know the tools available to you and what they can (and can’t) do. As technology progresses, many of them are becoming available using different light sources, however for simplicity, i have grouped them by how they typically appear.
So without further delay, here’s a rundown of 10 of the most common types of lighting fixtures you are likely to encounter on any film set…
“Hot” Lights
I’ll start with these as they are the more traditional lights, commonly referred to as “Tungsten.” These have high power requirements, run very hot, but are easily dimmable and arguably produce the best colour rendition of any light. (other than the sun) Have a read of our <upcoming> article for more info on the types of light sources and how they work.
1) Open Face / Flood – Redhead, Blonde
Pretty much the simplest (and cheapest) light available, these often come in kits of 3-4 fixtures. They have a tungsten halogen bulb with a separate curved metal reflector behind it to direct the light forwards.
- Redhead – 800-1000W (Red housing)
- Blonde – 2000W (Yellow housing)
The bulb is either fully exposed, or some have a thin metal mesh across the front to prevent hot shards of glass showering performers when they blow. This means that, on their own, they produce a very “hard” light with defined shadows.
Though they do have a set of black metal barn doors, these offer little control over the light, and are most useful for attaching gels to the front (Be careful to ensure a reasonable distance between the gel and the bulb otherwise they will definitely melt.) Consequently, they are best used to illuminate med/large areas (eg. smaller building exteriors), as bounce lights (off a wall etc), or shone through diffusion frames.
2) Fresnel
The workhorse of the industry, the Fresnel (The “s” is silent) lamp is ubiquitous. Ranging all the way from cute little 300W units… up to 20,000W and beyond (in tungsten). The main reason for this is their versatility – where an open face light spreads out in all direction, the special Fresnel lens focuses the light into a much more parallel beam… fully adjustable between approx 15 – 40 degrees via a knob on the back, and often the front of the unit too. They also have a set of barn doors, which are much more useful when controlling a focussed beam, allowing you to create stronger edges and defined shapes. (NB: They should be supplied with a steel safety cable for the barn doors – an essential if they are to be mounted high above people’s heads)
They can also easily be modified using soft-boxes and speedings, to create large soft light sources – have a look at this article for more detail about light modifiers.
Fresnel type lights are now available with virtually any light source – Tungsten, HMI and LED. None are necessarily “better” than the other, they all have their uses, discussed in more detail in our <upcoming> article on light sources.
3) “Par“ Eg. Arrisun
Named for its Parabolic reflector, these look similar to fresnels with a large housing and barn doors, but without the special lens integrated to the fixture. Instead they should come supplied with (at least) 3 lenses that can be swapped into the front of the lamp which can alter the beam angle… eg. Wide, Medium, Narrow. (Just be careful when swapping as they get very hot!) When compared to a fresnel of the same wattage, a Par will typically have a little more light output.
I should mention here that a new hybrid type of HMI lamp fixture has emerged in the last few years… It has a parabolic reflector, with indentations to focus the light like a fresnel… the bulb can be moved back and forth in the reflector (via a knob) to change the beam angle… They have become very popular combining the higher output of Par lamps with the control of Fresnels. Arri call theirs the “M” series (M18, M40, M90 etc)
4) Spotlight – Dedolight / Source4
Sometimes the 15 degree angle of your typical Fresnel is just not narrow enough… Lets say you want to shine a 2 metre wide spot on a wall that is 10 metres away? Thats where lights with specialist optics come in. Something to mention about both of these lights is that despite their small/med size, they get seriously hot… I have burned myself (or been close to) on both of these more than any other fixture mentioned here.
At the smaller end you have the classic Dedolight DLH4 – these typically come in sets of 3 with very lightweight (and compact) stands, separate power supplies and hopefully extension leads. They are basically mini-spotlights with a patented optical lens system providing amazing amounts of control… I cannot overstate how useful they can be for tucking into tight corners to provide backlights or creating accents / shadows in very specific areas of a scene.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Source4 (Commonly known in the theatre as a profile-spot) This has a long nose which holds the lens that has full adjustment for both beam angle and edge sharpness. Then further back, nearer the bulb, there are 4 metal sliders/paddles that can be pushed in/out to cut the beam into any quadrilateral shape you desire… Not so common in film use, but they also can be used with a metal stencil called a Gobo, to project a defined shape onto any background.
5) Open-Lamp-in-modifier – Briese / JokerBug / GemBall / Rifa
Though there is quite the variation in shape/size of these lights, they are worth grouping together to differentiate them from the more direct/hard sources. Often used more in studio environments than on locations due to the soft light they produce being popular for beauty / fashion work, this category of lights can save considerable space over adding modifiers to other fixtures to create softer light.
They typically have a soft box, or other diffusion material surrounding a dedicated (but exposed) bulb. e.g. A Gem Ball has a collapsing wire frame that is erected inside a fabric sphere… the bare bulb (e.g. 2KW) is then screwed into a socket on a frame that clips inside. This creates a very lightweight, powerful soft source that is great for lighting set backgrounds or creating a soft toplight that can be partially covered (aka. skirted) with black fabric to control the spill onto its surroundings.
6) Wendy / Brute / Dino (Par arrays)
With the rise in popularity of high-power HMI fixtures, these have become less used, however they still crop up now and again. They are probably more common in the USA than in the UK, though perhaps most famously used recently in Skyfall to produce the effect of a flaming Scottish house in the highland wilderness.
They are basically an array of tungsten Par38/64 lamps (with integrated reflectors) that create a huge quantity of light, perfect for large exterior work, recreating sunsets etc. Anywhere, you need a powerful hard, directional source. Their main drawbacks are the very large power requirements (e.g. an array of 4×6 500W PAR64 lamps needs 12KW of power!) and the fact that they create multi-edge shadows (that a natural source like the sun wouldn’t). On the plus side though, they are powerful enough to compliment / compete with real daylight, on a large scale.
Though the tungsten version has fallen out of favour in recent years, Digital Sputnik have created a similar array-type fixture (The DS System) using fully tuneable RGB LEDs… a true 21st century interpretation of this classic.
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“Cool” Lights
Though they typically have excellent colour rendition and high output, there is one major drawback of almost all of the hot lights mentioned above – low efficiency. A typical tungsten lamp converts 98% of the energy consumed into heat! Though this might be useful in a large studio for some extra warmth on those cold winter mornings, it certainly isn’t helpful when shooting an intimate scene in a small location with no air conditioning… and this is where other technologies can really come into their own. Increased efficiency not only means lower heat, but also lower power requirements, so they can often be battery powered for quicker setups and use in remote locations with no access to mains power. In the past, there were very few options for cool lights however the last few years there has been a large influx of LED products (all shapes and sizes) onto the market to supplement the existing options. Initially these had poor colour rendition and questionable reliability, but things have come a long way rather quickly. Some of the fixtures mentioned above are also now available using an LED light source, but to save repeating things, i’ve listed below the ones that most often show up exclusively as Cool lights.
7) Tube based – KinoFlo / Quasar / Digital Sputnik
With such a successful hold on 20th century office lighting (due to the extremely long life and improved efficiency over tungsten), it was inevitable that the ubiquitous fluorescent tube would find it’s way into applications for filming. As the light is emitted from the whole surface of the tube, this larger surface area casts a pleasing softer light, that usually needs to be controlled/directed.
The most common fixture for this is the KinoFlo. Though available in a few form factors, the most common is the trusty 4×4 (4 foot, 4 bank) – This is an array of 4 specialist tubes, (colour corrected and protected by a thin plastic outer tube) clipped into in a very durable fluted plastic housing that can be easily swapped out for different colour temperatures.
The housing has large flaps either side which act, to some extent, like barn doors, while a detachable grid sits in front of the tubes to give some directional control. The external power supply has independent on/off switches for each tube and a master “half” brightness setting (4’ vs 2’) giving you a huge amount of control over the output.
In the last few years LED tubes have started to appear that offer the same output, but with some great new features, like bi-colour temperatures, full RGB colour control, wifi, dmx, onboard battery, IP rating (for underwater), programmable animation. e.g. fire flicker, police flashes etc. The downside of them is typically the large upfront cost to reach the same output as the more traditional KinoFlo, but this will likely come down over the next few years. However the creative possibilities, especially for things like commercials and music videos are endless.
8) Multi-LED “1×1” – LitePanel / PixaPro
I have to admit that i don’t often see these on professional narrative shoots, they seem to be more suited to corporate gigs/interviews, but they are part of the evolution of LED lighting and certainly can be extremely useful. They do come in many shapes and sizes (like most panel / array lights) but the most common is the “1×1” – a square panel (often incorporating metal barn doors) with an array of approximately 256 individual classic-style lensed LEDs. The onboard dimmers typically only allow between 20% – 100% brightness – due to the minimum voltage needed to get the LED to light at all, but this is usually not an issue at all.
Many are also “Bi-Colour” where half of the LEDs are at 3200K and the rest at 5600K allowing you to crossfade between them to tune the colour of the light output. The last thing to mention is that, as low-voltage devices, they can easily be battery powered (often they have a V-mount plate on the back)… however it also means that they typically have external laptop-style power supplies that are usually not really designed and built for the demanding world of filming – they do not have integrated cable-ties, the connectors pop out easily and the cables often don’t reach the floor when mounted on a stand. (Ok, rant over!)
9) LED Panel (diffused) – Arri SkyPanel / Kino Celeb
Taking a rather big step up from the smaller 1×1 panels leads you into the realms of the now very popular Arri Skypanel. The most common is the S60, which is basically a heavy duty aluminium 2×1 panel on a chunky yoke with integrated diffusion, full RGB control, animations, DMX… all the bells and whistles. (It even has the major manufacturers’ colour gel product codes programmed right into memory) Now a staple of studios and location shoots needing a powerful soft source, they are hard to compete with, but at 13Kg for the main panel, plus an additional 3.5Kg for the power supply, these things are a bit of a beast…
Not to mention that they typically arrive in heavy duty flight cases with all the cables and accessories – certainly a two-man lift unless you want to cause yourself a serious injury. The Yoke typically has a 28mm (Junior) spigot, so you’ll need a suitably heavy-duty stand for it too. And while they can be run on two V-Lock type batteries, they can drain them down pretty fast.
Another similar product is the updated LED version of the (originally tube-based) KinoFlo, called the Celeb (onboard power supply) / Freestyle (separate power supply) that have almost all the same functionality as a Skypanel but are a little smaller and lighter, so are a little easier to deal with. The trade-off here is of course overall light output.
10) LED Flexible – Lightmat / Fomex
Where the 1×1 panels typically tended to use the more traditional lensed LED on a rigid circuit board, the flexible panels take full advantage of the small form factor and… ahem, flexibility (pun intended), of surface mount LEDs. This results in panels of any varying sizes that can be bent or rolled into all manner of curves and angled shapes (within reason) …and are so extremely lightweight that they can often be simply taped in place on walls and ceilings, above doorways, windows and hard-to-reach places with the minimum of fuss… plus in the unlikely event they weren’t rigged well, couldn’t possibly hurt anyone if they came loose. Another big plus is that as these are aimed at a more “professional” market, they also tend to have locking connectors on all the external power supplies… even if you do end up with a rather confusing mess of wires to deal with.
Final Thoughts…
Though this list is not exhaustive, you can see there are so many different types of lighting fixtures that each have developed different characteristics out of specific needs. There is never just one tool for a job, and many have significant crossover in the sorts of tasks they can perform. But it is always worth remembering that film making is an art form and though time and budget always play a significant role, it is your creativity and lateral thinking that will really make the difference… even if you only have a floodlight, a shower curtain and a roll of gaffer tape.
Which brings us to another area of lighting that may well be even more useful and accessible to you (or something you need to work with), whether on a set or on location – Check out our article on “Practical Light sources” (eg. Lamps, TV / Laptops screens, Torches, Candles, Fire etc)