Since Seth and I are completely ADD and scatterbrained, I’m writing a post today on what I like to call “dynamic range”- except instead of talking about sound, I’m talking about lighting.

Everybody knows what dynamic range is in the audio world; it’s the difference between the loudest and softest sound.  Good bands vary their volume level drastically, dropping to draw you into a slow song and maxing out on an upbeat song for the encore.  As the light guy, you should vary your volume too.

Q: But wait!  I’m a light guy, there’s no sound level involved with my job, so what am I supposed to do?

A: This is where the dynamic range of your light rig comes in.

You see, just because you have 20 moving lights doesn’t mean that you need to have them all on all the time.  Or maybe it’s the 40 LED pars behind the band.

For big numbers, you can really create a lot of impact by using everything at once.  Even if you have a conventional rig, try using only backlight or sidelight during an appropriate time in your show.

When I’m designing a rig, I try to get as many different types of light(front, back, side, truss warmer, floor, etc) into play, because I know it’ll give me a lot of dynamic range to work with.  In my mind, each “element”(frontlight, backlight, LED’s, movers, truss warmers, etc) of your rig adds a little bit of dynamic range, allowing you to follow the band as the vary the sound level and complexity of their music, making them look very very good.  Hopefully that guarantees a call back to your phone for more work very soon!