• Simple theatrical lighting on a truss.spot lights or a gantry for parties or concerts image by L. Shat from Fotolia.com
  
  Light and darkness, like actors, play key roles in the theater. Their presence on stage enables a story to be told through what is seen or not seen. Scene, mood, setting and time are all conveyed by means of lighting. The tools of lighting are intensity, color and placement. Lighting effects fall into three categories: color, movement and special. Each is a voice that speaks to the audience much like a picture---painting a thousand words---saving pages of description that would otherwise bog down a production.
  
  

Effects with Color and Pattern

• Color and pattern are the oldest ways in which lighting has been manipulated to create effect. These continue to be the most valuable tools in the lighting designer's (LD) toolbox.
  
  Color sets mood and scene and can designate time and place. Blue tones for example suggest night. Warm tones add life. Traditionally gels---a color medium attached to or mixed in a substrate material---is positioned in front of the lighting instrument so that it filters the light that passes through it. This allows on certain wavelengths of light to pass through while limiting other wavelengths. Today we also have a variety of LED fixtures that allow color mixing.
  
  As colored light falls on objects, which bounce color from their surfaces, they appear to "be" a certain color. If they do not receive light of that wavelength, they appear black. For example, lighting a red object with red light makes it appear red. Lighting it with green light makes it appear black. This is true in reverse as well. Light a white object with a colored light, and it will appear to be that color.
  
  Light may also be shaped through focused instruments such as ellipsoidal spots (a.k.a. Lekos). These lights have shutters that can be used to mold the light. Additionally, devices called gobos can be inserted into gobo slot to shape the light and suggest that the light is passing through trees or a window.
  
  

Effects with Moving Light

• Shifting light from one position to another draws the eye. Follow spots have long been used for this purpose as has turning one instrument off while turning another on. Today we have a vast number of specialized intelligent lighting instruments that can be programmed to move around the performance area.
  
  In addition, there are a number of projection devices and tools often built into intelligent fixtures that move light in different ways. Gobos on internal wheels or positioned in gobo rotaters can spin at a programmed rate. When combined with a soft, focused effects wheel, effects such as water reflections and flames can be simulated. Other projection devices use film loops and/or video to create more elaborate and realistic effects.
  
  

Effects with Specialized Light

• Specialized types of lighting create their own special effects. Strobe, blacklight (UV) and lasers fall into this category.
  
  Strobe lights are instruments that flash on and off at a set rate (or sometimes randomly). When flashed at a steady rate, they seem to stop motion, giving the action a jerky, animated feel. Random flashes simulate lightning strikes or sparkle.
  
  Blacklight or ultraviolet (UV) is light of a limited frequency that is invisible to the human eye. It causes certain pigments to fluoresce---or give off a glow when struck by the wavelength. These objects might have a glowing color under normal (full frequency) lighting but "pop" all the more under UV light. Other pigments give off no color or glow and appear invisible under normal lighting but glow certain colors under UV light.
  
  Thus you can make objects or scenery appear and disappear or appear to alter or transform by changing from normal "white" light to UV light.
  
  Laser (or coherent) light can be used to suggest laser beams, create star patterns or make drawing-type animations that move on surfaces or in the air (when haze or fog is present). Lasers today come in red beam, green beam, yellow beam and in full spectrum. Laser light (over 4 milowatts in power) is regulated by the USDA and requires a permit (called a variance) for public use.