Author: Mavis Napolitano

What Does a Lighting Designer Do?
A Lighting Designer uses the principles of light to enhance the overall aesthetic of a room, building or live performance. Lighting Designers can work in a variety of settings. One avenue is working with an architectural firm, where Lighting Designers focus on lighting in regards to energy efficiency. Another avenue for Lighting Designers is working in the theater industry, where one works with set designers to enhance the emotional affect of a production through strategic use of lighting. Other options include the music, movie and film industries.

While the specific skills that a Lighting Designer needs varies depending on industry, all Lighting Designers must be creative thinkers. The primary function of their job is to use light creatively in order to create a certain ambiance for a room or production. This involves applying technical knowledge of the four properties of light, which are …

There are some important questions that should be considered when planning a new project, specifically: Is “good” illumination important to your project? What is good lighting design and how is it achieved?

Light is a technically difficult yet astonishing medium that requires mastery of varied and continually evolving disciplines. A lighting design practice integrates the arts, sciences and business of illumination design and implementation far beyond concerns of visibility and horizontal footcandles.

Lighting designers work as part of a design team and, like architects, charge fees for services rendered. Professional lighting designers bring solid technical acumen and sensitive design technique to architectural and landscape projects. But the value-added services they provide can make or break the success of a project and, therefore, outweigh, the impact of their fee.

An owner or project designer may be unaware of the advantages an independent lighting consultant can bring to today’s design and construction …

In theatre and concert terms a Lighting Designer (LD) is somebody who defines the way in which the audience see a live performance. So that may sound a bit odd because surely there are directors and choreographers and so on, but if you think about it, you only see what is lit. The things that you don’t see are not lit – it’s the Lighting Designer that makes the choice between what doesn’t get lit, what doet get lit, and how it gets lit.

So whether we’re talking about Shakespeare or Punchdrunk or U2, behind all of those is a creative mind that is helping the audience get the story through revealing with light what they’re seeing, in a particular order in a particular way.

Responsibilities of a Lighting Designer

Lighting Designers work in a huge range of scales. The lighting team for an international touring band might be a …

A. Read the play. Imagine yourself the director, the producer and all of the designers. Consider how you’d like to see all aspects of the play produced and bring those ideas to meetings you have with other artistic personnel.

B. Meet with the director. Find out how the director wants to approach the production. Compare notes and see if can interest the director with your ideas for the show.

C. Meet with the production team. Decide how often the group will get together. Help develop a master calendar and determine deadlines for the group. Collaborate towards a final product that all agree is the best possible approach for this play, at this time, in this venue, for this audience.

D. Write your ideas down. Create a written approach to the design that you can give to the director for feedback. Explain what you feel the play is about and how …