Your favourite colour combinations

[eucalor]

I've just recently started doing some volunteer lighting work, and could use some pointers. The stage I'm usually working at is about 5.5 by 5.5 meters and I typically have 20 par64 and a couple of fresnels and profiles available. The bands that play here range from heavy metal to country.

 

I'm beginning to get a hang of how to set the lights to get a good effect, but I'm not very good at colour combinations, especially not the variations of the different colours. Too often I find myself with R27, 195 and OW, and it gets boring after a while.

 

I was hoping you could help me out with your favorite combinations for a small stage. The gels I have to choose from is most of the Rosco Supergel and Eurocolour series.

 

 

(hope this is understandable, english is not my first language)

 

 

eucalor

[peter]

My current favorite is to mix a lavender and a 'teal' green - somethign like #58 and #93 would work well. The good thing is that they add to produce almost white, so depending on levels, you can fade between the two. Bit more jazzy than you're probably looking for though.

[Just Some Bloke]

Firstly your English is excellent: I had no idea it wasn't your first language till you said so.

 

Secondly, I would advise using the Pars as backlight in strong colours and the fresnels and profiles doing face light and specials.

 

On then to your question. You could use primary colours and mix them to make interesting combinations or you could go for contrasting colours which just happen to work well together. The most important thing is to pick colours which fit together for whatever reason. Personally I'd also use white in the backlight for rock bands but not for country who'd prefer softer colours.

 

I'm loath to suggest actual colours because if you want to learn lighting design you'll do better by trying things yourself and seeing which you prefer!

 

Have fun.

[Modge]

I have to agree with everything just some bloke just said (espally with regard to lamp placement) but I'll give you some advice on colour any way on the grounds that I'm always asking for advice on colour combo's also. It does of course depend on the band - the heavier the band the more saturatured colour I'd go for. Open white back light as suggested above and flashed really quickly for heavy bands other wise all sorts of things look really good - red and blue (primary) if they're not too heavy. lue and green maybe I've used and had work also a long with green, orange and just the right purple. I'm crap at remembering numbers and work in lee rather than rosco numbers at the best of times I'm affraid. Steall idea's from stuff you see else were that's worked.

[Ken Coker]

The only thing I would add is perhaps use a Quarter/Eight blue rather than O/W....kid people you have some fancy daylight source...and, if you have a few spare profiles get out the power drill and make some hole type gobos for back light - similarly in quarter/eight blue.

 

Other colour combinations that work well with bands and small stages, I find, are pale gold or deep brown with a very thin white line on the top in a glass! Yumm

 

Ken

[Guest lightnix]

Hello eucalor, welcome to the Blue Room

 

I generally use the Lee range myself (it's what I'm used to), but my own basic colour combination for concert & band lighting is...

 

White (maybe with very light CT Blue, as suggested by Ken)

Orange

Magenta

Blue

 

I find that any two of these colours work very well when combined. To these I'll often add one of the following...

 

Lavender

Cyan

Red

Amber

Green

 

usually in that preferred order, although it depends on what sort of band is playing or the occasion. For example: a Halloween concert might push red and green higher up the list.

 

I generally try not to use more than three colours at one time and maintain one basic colour combination for each song, with a few variations in angle, but that's just me.

 

Apart from that, I often get inspiration from the Natural World: clouds and skies, sunrises and sunsets, land and seascapes, rocks and minerals, along with paintings and other works of art. I try to analyse what part colour plays in making them attractive, or contributing to the feeling they create and then try to turn it into lighting.

 

Have a look at these previous discussions, they may give you a few extra ideas...

 

Rock Concert Lighting

Music Lighting, Inside Drums

Help with a 4 colour Wash, Which 4 colours?

Light show

Live band lighting, sorry I know it aint theatre

[eucalor]

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

I have already read through most Blue Room, alt.stagecraft, rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft and lightnetwork threads about colours, but most of them are either very theatre-related, or just state "a warm colour", or "a orangy red" etc. My problem is that I find it hard to see what specific colour combinations work well together, just using a swatch book. Suggestions like this:

 

White (open)

Orange (Lee 158 or 135 for something more saturated)

Magenta (Lee 128)

Blue (Lee 119 or try 132 for a lighter shade)

 

give me a starting point, somewhere I can work from and find other colours to match. If you got any specific combinations like this, they would be very much appreciated.

[vinny baby]

yeah I concur with whats already been said, I tend to use saturates for heavy band work.

 

I personally love using red, and a deep magenta combined in a state, the colours are close to each other but the effect is great.

 

for the softer country styles, I tend to use pastels. I very rarely go mad at these type of events as OTT lighting isnt really needed, so I usaly go for some soft washing, and stick to ambers, oranges, straw type hues.

 

I would stick to using your profiles, fresnels for face lighting. maybe colour a few with some off gel, (gel that has faded) just to give a hint or tone. Dont use strong faded colours it doesnt look nice, I would go for faded light pinks, flesh tones.

 

I would also try to put some ground lighting in, like some floor pars, this will help layer the effect a little, and add some nice highlights, specialy for the country stuff.

 

a fan of open pars behind the drummer also looks good, specialy if the lamps are powerfull 1k and above ect, use them as stabs. The same could also be acheived from above.

 

vince

[Jamtastic3]

I like using reds, blues, cyans and magentas for backlight when it comes to band nights. If its more heavier metal bands, I'll probably set up fans of pinspots which actually work alright.

Try using side lighting, set at near chest height. I use it all the time and without front light looks pretty awsome when you have a lead guiatrist, lead vocalist and bass guitarist all in the same line of light. I usualy use red, blue and orange side lighting, sometimes changing the orange with congo blue which looks really good on its own.

 

Technique wise, I tend to use colder colours or less saturated colours for choruses and where there is just the vocals, probably just sidelighting will do. With moving lights, less movement and pattern are used compared to the chorus. When it comes to choruses the colours change to being more stronger like reds yellows, possibly open whites. With metal bands its usually flashing open white with symbol crashes or strobing with there is an 'air guitar' instrumental.

But it all deends on the style of the bands and live acts I suppose and the kind of venue you are in, I mean for more unusual live acts that use only synthesizers or no vocals, the lighting tends to be more artistic/absract: slow fades, no frontal white light, pure saturated colour, more moving light emphasis. I dunno, just passing on my techniques.

[Guest lightnix]

Have a look at the demo version of Color Wheel Pro, a piece of software designed to help you "create harmonious color schemes based on color theory".

 

I hope that helps a little more. Even then, remember that it's only a theory and many successful lighting designs have worked because they have broken the "rules".

 

A lot of it is down to experimentation. Try playing with your Rosco swatch pad (sample booklet) and some small torches (Mini Maglites are perfect for this), ideally in a dark, smokey room, to see how different colours work with each other (or not). See what effect they have on different coloured surfaces.

 

Above all: play, have fun and enjoy yourself

[Just Some Bloke]

maybe colour a few with some off gel, (gel that has faded) just to give a hint or tone. Dont use strong faded colours it doesnt look nice, I would go for faded light pinks, flesh tones.

 

vince

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I can't recommend using faded gels intentionally, I'm afraid, because the next thing to happen to a gel once it's faded is that it gets a hot spot which is white with colour round the outside, then not long after that it burns through. There is a whole swatch book out there to explore: if you want a colour that is like 103 (straw) but with less colour then use 159 (no colour straw) or try 249 (quater minus green) as a "faded pink" or try 003 (lavender tint) or 218 (1/8th C.T. blue) or 223 (1/8th C.T.O) for those other colour tones. There shouldn't be a need to use burnt out gels just to get a "hint or tone".

[Stu]

Two colour combinations I love are 716/180 and 716/139... 716 is a nice deep blue, which is just different enough to 119 to make it disimilar yet is along the right sort of lines. And it goes extremely well with 180 or 139.

 

Anyway if I had to pick 4 colours for my overhead rig I'd probably go for

 

716 Mikkel Blue

139 Primary Green

180 Dark Lavender

#349 Tropical Magentra or L158 Dark Orange

 

Then I'd try to get a couple of contrasting colours from the floor level - going for something like L106, L200 or L707/181 here.

 

Adding to what 'nix said here, I normally try and keep to just two colours on the stage (with perhaps a third from the floor) because, as 'nix once told me - the stage ends up looking like a fruit salad! Something thats always stuck with me :) I'd also get some breakup gobos in there, and perhaps use the fresnels for a tightly focussed (i.e. spotted right down) backlight.

 

Stu

[Ekij]

My current favorite is to mix a lavender and a 'teal' green - somethign like #58 and #93 would work well.  The good thing is that they add to produce almost white, so depending on levels, you can fade between the two.  Bit more jazzy than you're probably looking for though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Peter, What colour is #93? My swatchbook has nothing between #90 (Dark Yellow Green)and #100 (Spring Yellow). Are you talking Lee colours and if so why is it missing from my (recent (Nov 04)) book?

;)

thanks.

[Just Some Bloke]

Peter, What colour is #93? My swatchbook has nothing between #90 (Dark Yellow Green)and #100 (Spring Yellow). Are you talking Lee colours and if so why is it missing from my (recent (Nov 04)) book?

;)

  thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The # sign is usually used to represent Rosco Supergel. In this range there is a #93 which is called 'Blue Green' and is very similar to Lee 219.

 

HTH

[Mars]

343 & 116 (alien)

135 & 183 (streetnight)

anyred & 219/241/242(/243) (unred?)

213+203+052 (tl)

100 & 328 (saccharined)

(I haven't much Rosco / Gam in stock, so all # are Lee)