Matakuliah
Tahun
: O0382 – Dasar-dasar Produksi Siaran Televisi
: 2010
TECHNIQUES OF TELEVISION LIGTHING
Pertemuan 7
Studio Lighting Instruments (1/5)
In television production, lighting is one of important aspects. It controls
light and shadows for three principal reasons: (1) to provide the television
camera with enough illumination, (2) to help the viewer recognize the
image and the relation with its environment, (3) to create the feeling and
mood of the event.
Studio lighting instruments
Studio lighting instruments, luminaries, are designed to operate from the
studio ceiling or from floor standards and are accomplished with a variety
of spotlights and floodlights.
Spotlights
Spotlights produce direct, and well-defined light whose beam can be
adjusted. All studio spotlights have lens that help sharpen the beam and
mostly use 2 (two) basic types of spotlights: (1) Fresnel spotlight and (2)
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Ellipsoidal spotlight.
Studio Lighting Instruments (2/5)
Fresnel spotlight
It is lightweight, flexible and has high output. Its light beam can
be adjusted into 2 (two) positions: (1) flood position that gives a
widespread light beam, and (2) spot position that gives a focused, sharp
and clearly defined light beam.
The size of lighting instruments to use depend on several
factors: (1) the type of camera and the sensitivity of the imaging device,
(2) the distance of the lighting instruments from the object or scene to be
illuminated, (3) the reflectance of the scenery, objects, clothing and
studio floor, (4) the mood/ message to be conveyed through the image.
For maximum lighting control, lighting technicians prefer to
operate as few (but powerful) lighting instruments as possible.
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Studio Lighting Instruments (3/5)
Ellipsoidal spotlight
It produces a sharp, highly defined beam. In flood position, the ellipsoidal beam is
sharper than the focused beam of a Fresnel spot.
Ellipsoidal spotlights vary from 500 to 2,000 watts, but the most commonly used is
750 watts.
Follow Spot
It is a powerful special effects spotlight that is used to simulate theater stage
effects. Follow spot follows every action of the performers on stage such
dancers, ice skaters, or performers that move in front of a stage curtain.
Ellipsoidal spotlight is used to simulate follow spot in smaller studios.
Floodlights
Floodlights are designed to perform 3 (three) tasks:
 To produce highly dim (gentle) light;
 To act as principal sources of light (key lights) in situations where shadows are
to kept to a minimum;
 To slow down falloff (to reduce contrast between light and shadow areas);
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 To provide baselight and to adjust the spread of the beam so that the
unnecessary light spill can be minimized.
Studio Lighting Instruments (4/5)
There are 5 (five) basic types of floodlights:
a.Scoop: although its scoop like reflector has no lens, it produces
directionality with diffused light beam. Mostly, scoop has power ranges
from 1kW to 2kW (1,000 to 2,000 watts) and the 1,500-watt is the most
popularly used. There are 2 (two) types of scoops:
 Fixed focus that permits no adjustment of its light beam. The
diffusion of the beam can be increased by attaching a scrim-a
spun-glass material held in a metal frame-in front of the scoop.
Scream can also be used as protection to studio personnel from
the hot lamp inside the scoop shatters;
 Adjustable focus
b.Soft light and broad: soft light is used for extremely soft and diffused
lighting, soft light can also be used to increase the base light level. As for
broad (from the word broadside), it is the same with spotlight only it has
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a higher light output that causes more distinct shadows;
Studio Lighting Instruments (5/5)
c. Fluorescent floodlight bank
It is usually used for lighting permanent setups the type of softlight that
is lightweight, much more efficient, with color temperature ranges from
(3,2000K), (5,6000K), and (7,5000K) it can use less power. On the
other hand, it is large and has uneven color spectrum.
d. Incandescent floodlight bank
This consists of a series of high-intensity internal reflector lamps
arranged in banks of six, nine, twelve, or more spots. This instrument
is used to illuminate large areas from the distance and to act as a
daylight booster to make shadows more transparent for the camera.
e. Strip or cyc light.
This instrument is used to get perfect illumination of large set areas,
such as the cyc (cyclorama) or some uninterrupted background area.
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Field Lighting Instruments (1/3)
Field lighting instruments
The field lighting instruments are quite different from those of the studio
lighting instrument in terms of size, portability, and the use of
electricity. Field lighting instruments are divided into categories:
a. Spotlights: portable, lightweight, strong, efficient (provides great lights
output relative to the size of the instruments), easy to set up and
transport. The most frequently spotlights are the open-face spot, the
internal reflector spot (PAR lamp or clip light) and HMI Fresnel spot;
b. Small Fresnel spotlight: this low-powered spotlight (300 – 600 watt) is
suitable for precise lighting for a scene taken in actual living room
rather than in studio;
c. Open-face spotlight: due to weight considerations and light efficiency,
this instrument has no lens and therefore its beam is less precise than
that of the Fresnel spot. This light is also called external reflector
spotlight.
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Field Lighting Instruments (2/3)
d. Internal reflector spotlight: is used to light small areas, easy to use,
and excellent for providing additional subtle highlights and accents in
hard-to-reach areas. This light is also called PAR lamp (parabolic
aluminized reflector), or clip lights because they are usually clipped
onto things.
e. HMI light: a Fresnel spotlight that has proved successful in
elaborating EFP, large remotes and film productions. HMI light
produces less heat than the other incandescent lamp of the same
wattage since it is supported with Ballast-instrument that simulates
and supplements the outdoor light.
f. Ceramic HID light: works similarly with the HMI. It uses less power,
burns considerably cooler, and has much longer lamp life, smaller
and more mobile, its indoor color temperature is 3,0000K, and its
outdoor standard is 4,2000K.
g. Floodlights: most floodlights can be powered by 120-volt current or
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30-volt battery.
Field Lighting Instruments (3/3)
h. Incandescent floodlights: small, open-face instruments (with no lens)
that can be clipped easily onto a lighting stand or to other support.
i. Fluorescent floodlights:
j. Ceramic HID lights: the advantages of using portable HID lights for
electronic field production is that they use half the power of
fluorescent light arrays for the same light output, do not heat the room,
and have indoor and outdoor color temperature that are close to
normal standards.
k. Handheld and camera lights: relatively small, open-faced, and have
high light output. The camera-mounted lights, or also called camera
lights or eye lights, are battery-powered.
There are some tips of using lighting instrument for ENG: (1) run it off
a 12- or 30- volt battery, (2) change the beam from spot to flood, (3)
attach barn doors for further beam control, (4) put in various reflectors
and color-correction and diffusion filters, (5) hold or clip it on the
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camera, (6) use it with a light-diffusing umbrella.
Lighting Control Equipment (1/2)
There are some lighting control equipment and we must understand
that all related equipments are divided into 3 (three) parts: (1)
mounting devices, (2) directional controls, and (3) intensity controls.
Mounting devices
These equipment will support the lighting instruments and put the
instruments into its desired direction. The major mounting devices that
are specially designed and intended for studio lights are: (1) the pipe
grid and counterweight battens, (2) the C-clamp, (3) the sliding rod and
the pantograph, and (4) a variety of floor stands.
Directional Controls
These types of devices will help you controlling the direction of the
lights: (1) barn doors, (2) flags, (3) reflectors, and (4) diffusers.
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Lighting Control Equipment (2/2)
Intensity controls: instrument size, distance, and beam
There are 3 (three) ways of controlling the intensity of light without
using the dimmers: (1) selecting the right size of the instruments, (2)
adjusting the distance of lighting instruments to the object, and (3)
focusing or diffusing the light beam.
Intensity controls: electronic dimmers
The dimmers’ basic operational principle depends on electricity
they receive when they are producing lights. The more or the less voltage
they receive, the higher or the lower the lights they produce. If want to
obtain a blackout situation then allow no voltage (or at least an inadequate
voltage) to the dimmer.
There are 2 (two) operational systems adopted by the dimmers:
(1) manual dimmer calibration, and (2) computer-assisted dimmer control
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that can be switched to manual control.
Color Temperature
The term color temperature has no relation with physical temperature. It is
a measure of reddish and bluish color relative to white light.
How to control color temperature
There are ways of controlling color temperature:
Choose one of the color filters on the filter wheel inside the camera;
Raise the color temperature of the reddish light by putting a light-blue gel
in front of the lighting instrument’s lens, or increase the color temperature
by placing a light-orange gel in front of the lighting instruments;
When shooting an indoor scene that is partially illuminated with outdoor
light or by portable indoor lighting instruments:
–Decrease the high outdoor color temperature (bluish light);
–Increase the indoor color temperature (reddish light).
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Lighting in the Studio (1/3)
There are 7 (seven) important aspects that need to be understood in
relation with lighting in the studio:
Quality of light
Two types of light: (1) directional light, produced by spotlights,
illuminates a relatively small area with distinct light beam and produces
dense, well-defined shadows; (2) diffused light, illuminates a relatively
large area with a wide, indistinct beam.
Lighting functions
Lighting functions means the functions of the lighting and its
relation with the object to be lighted.
Specific functions of main light sources
There are 7 (seven) specific functions of main light sources:
key light, back light, fill light, the photographic principle or triangle
lighting, background or set light, side light, and kicker light.
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Lighting in the Studio (2/3)
 Specific lighting techniques: lighting techniques that are used for
specific television programs such as news, art/ dance/ theatrical
performance, etc. There are varied specific lighting techniques: flat
lighting techniques, continuous-action lighting, large-area lighting,
cameo lighting, silhouette lighting, chrome-key area lighting,
controlling eye and boom shadows, key light and eye shadows, and
boom shadows;
 Contrast: (1) contrast ratio, is the difference between the brightest
and darkest spots in the picture and contrast is determined mostly
by how much light objects reflect back to the camera lens not by
the amount of lights generated by the lamps; (2) measuring
contrast, ; (3) controlling contrast, in the studio contrast is
controlled by video operator or the shedder.
Some tips to avoid too much high contrast ratio are beware of the
general reflectance of the objects and avoid extreme brightness
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contrast in the same shot.
Lighting in the Studio (3/3)
 Balancing light intensities:
 The light plot: it shows (1) the location of the lighting instruments
relative to the set and illuminated objects and areas, (2) the principal
directions of the beams, and (3) the type and size of the instruments;
 Operation of studio lights: when operating studio lights; safety, power
and lamps preservation and the usage of studio monitor are 3 (three)
main aspects that need to be paid attention.
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