"Lights are to drama what music is to the lyrics of a song." (David Belasco)
Welcome to my website about stage lighting. Stage lighting is a fascinating topic as it connects technology and the arts. The first occurence of stage lighting was in 1816 in the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. At this time, stage lighting with gas lights was all about bringing light onto the stage. Now, 200 years later, stage lighting is no longer a matter a simple illumination, but it has become an art itself. New technological developments over the last ten years, such as LEDs and DMX, have had a major impact on lighting design, allowing the light designers to create new light designs which had been impossible to implement in the past.
But there is more to light design then just making things visible on stage. Today, light designers pursue different goals or functions with light design. In order to fulfill the different functions, they manipulate the qualities of light by using the modern lighting technologies available today. Therefore, to be able to create state-of-the-art light designs, one not only needs technological knowledge regarding the available lighting fixtures and DMX programming, but one also needs to understand the basics of light design such as the functions of stage lighting, the properties of light which can be manipulated by the light designer and their relationship.
My website provides background knowledge (theory) you need to understand in order to be able to create a lighting design, such as functions of stage lighting and qualities of light. It also explains the state-of-the-art technologies you can use for stage lighting. Furthermore, it offers three tutorials to show you how to set up basic lighting equipment.
But there is more to light design then just making things visible on stage. Today, light designers pursue different goals or functions with light design. In order to fulfill the different functions, they manipulate the qualities of light by using the modern lighting technologies available today. Therefore, to be able to create state-of-the-art light designs, one not only needs technological knowledge regarding the available lighting fixtures and DMX programming, but one also needs to understand the basics of light design such as the functions of stage lighting, the properties of light which can be manipulated by the light designer and their relationship.
My website provides background knowledge (theory) you need to understand in order to be able to create a lighting design, such as functions of stage lighting and qualities of light. It also explains the state-of-the-art technologies you can use for stage lighting. Furthermore, it offers three tutorials to show you how to set up basic lighting equipment.