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Rainbow


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I did it with 7 coda's

 

Which colour did you double up on? You see, there's only 6 colours in a rainbow.

 

 

 

 

 

The reason many people think there's 7 is because they've never actually counted them and they believe what we're taught in primary school. When the number of colours in a rainbow was first codified, people thought that 7 was a magic number (magic isn't the right word but I can't remember the right one) and that a rainbow must therefore have 7 colours, so they invented a new colour which they called indigo and said it was there. It isn't. Indigo is just the changeover from blue to violet and not a colour in its own right. Have a look sometime and you'll see. Look at how much space there is between each colour and you'll realise that giving the same space for blue and violet as for every other colour leaves no room for indigo. Thus, there are, in fact, 6 colours in a rainbow.

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Thus, there are, in fact, 6 colours in a rainbow.

 

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but there aren't any distinct colours in a real rainbow as sunlight is a continuous spectrum of light. The colours all just change gradually.

 

However as most people expect the 7 colours they were taught about, it's best to provide them or you get half the audience muttering, "why isn't there any indigo in their rainbow"...

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Thus, there are, in fact, 6 colours in a rainbow.

 

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but there aren't any distinct colours in a real rainbow as sunlight is a continuous spectrum of light. The colours all just change gradually.

 

However as most people expect the 7 colours they were taught about, it's best to provide them or you get half the audience muttering, "why isn't there any indigo in their rainbow"...

 

I'm not joking in the slightest. Look at my previous post:

 

Look at how much space there is between each colour and you'll realise that giving the same space for blue and violet as for every other colour leaves no room for indigo.

 

It's a continuous spectrum of light but quite clearly can be divied up into 6 separate areas - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. If you try to find the indigo then you'll place it between the blue and the violet but it takes up a tiny space, much smaller than all the other colours. Again, take a look at a rainbow, allocate the same space for each colour and you'll find that there isn't enough space for indigo to be justifiably given its own name. Scientists have known this for a long time but when the colours were written it was regarded as important that there were 7 colours, regardless of the science. Here's a picture of a rainbow to help you.

 

post-354-0-46567100-1318271849_thumb.jpg

 

Finally, it's an interesting philosphical question whether we should give people what they expect or the truth. I think I might ponder that one a little longer!

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It's not a question of philosophy. It's a question of creating an effect that assists the audience is their suspension of disbelief.  

There would be no point in recording the sound of (say) a train going into a tunnel and using it in a show if it sounded like concord taking off just because it was right because it wouldn't tell the right story. Similarity, we don't light in a truly  authentic way. Well not most of the time anyway. 

So you should do what looks right, even if it's technically wrong, unless it's a science show about the seven colour rainbow myth of course. 

 

OT. Why does the sky on the inside of the rainbow look lighter than on the outside?  Is it just an optical illusion?

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OT. Why does the sky on the inside of the rainbow look lighter than on the outside?  Is it just an optical illusion?

 

google for "Alexander's Dark Band" (not ragtime band!) - the dark bit outside a primary rainbow, but inside the secondary arc.

 

Basically, the light that is refracted to form the rainbow has to come from somewhere - that's from the dark band outside the rainbow, so the bit inside appears brighter.

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hi

 

I have some gobos that work in sets of 3. each gobo being a slightly different size. each gobo is used in its own lamp with its own colour. focus them together carefully and you get a rather good rainbow.

 

I have several types. full rainbows and half rainbow etc.

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OK JSB, I now understand what you were getting at.

However in my opinion the indigo gives you a good excuse to use some congo blue and such an opportunity should never be passed by.

 

I have used the 3 gobo method Graeme describes and it looks really good if you're doing a cyc projection of a rainbow. If something more stylised is called for, 7 hazy par beams out onto the forestage can look equally good.

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Similarity, we don't light in a truly authentic way. Well not most of the time anyway.

So you should do what looks right, even if it's technically wrong,

Blue 'mppnlight' anybody?

Or, for that matter, amber sunlight...?

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