Watch this video to learn practical tips for lighting in a larger venue, how you can use different sets of your lights to make a cohesive, yet dynamic look on stage.
When it comes to a larger venue one of the main things you might be focused on is how to fill that larger space to put on an amazing display. You are not limited to a smaller space to don’t be afraid to expand your show to use all the space available to you!
Filling Your Space with Light
When you are going from normally lighting a smaller venue to a large one, the possibilities are endless to make it super engaging for your audience and it can be a lot of fun to put your show together!
What Comes First?
The very first thing to do when you begin working out your large venue lighting display is naturally to make sure that your talent is fully lit and can be seen by the audience. Once you are sure that you have a good handle on the stage area itself you can start to work your focus outwards to fill the entire space with light.
Placement
There are a number of different places you can effectively place your lighting fixtures. You can maneuver your lights to be over the stage, the audience, or even the backdrop to give a little something in the air there. You can also tilt the lights to use them to highlight the surrounding walls or ceiling.
You have the ability to create four or five different looks out of the very same set of lights by simply switching the placement around.
Adding Lights
Layering lights over each other, even raw, gives an amazing effect in a large venue without putting in much extra effort. One of the best things about working with a larger venue is the ability to take your lighting and use them to highlight the different spaces, creating truly beautiful and engaging effects.
During different songs, or different parts of your show or service, the fact that you have more space to place different patterns with your lighting can really make for a great show. This is definitely a benefit!
Negative Space
The concept of negative space in the lighting world talks about using black and using areas where there isn’t light to engage the eye. When you have a large venue to work with you are really able to play and experiment with this concept, ultimately creating a lot more movement within your show.
Using the negative space within your venue creates a bigger impact when you later go in and bring in the light to those spaces.
Closing
Taking advantage of all the space you have to work with rather than focusing only on the stage area really gives you a fantastic and unique impact for your show.
There are so many ways that you can take advantage of having a larger venue and it can be a lot of fun to work with the different patterns and placements. The biggest part of lighting a large venue and making it look amazing is to not simply focus on the stage and backdrop, but to branch out and use your creativity to make the entire space useable and engaging.
Getting to be creative with your lighting is one of the best parts of getting into this business or hobby after all!
