Last week we looked out across our workspace and realized how many different shades of 'white' there are, and how it messes with our perception of colors as we pass design ideas through the work flow. This week, we'll look at how we might make adjustments to the lighting so that we have a more consistent illumination as we move from space to space. To move forward, you must move backwards through the work chain.

Backstep #1A

The Scene Shop / Paint Shop. This may be the same space, or different spaces. In some theatres it is the stage itself. Any place that scenic artists are painting needs to have the same color content to the light that the stage does. Change the fixtures to produce the same CCT and quality (Color Rendering) as the stage light. OK. Here is a stumbling block: That’s probably going to be expensive. Welcome to the cost of doing it right. Energy Efficiency can be a concern here, too. The Scene Shop is probably illuminated for more hours per work week than the Stage is. However, the color quality requirements of what your crew is doing may only be affected a small portion of that time. The sawing, banging, welding phase is typically a more drawn-out process than the painting phase, so why not install two sets of lights? One crappy lighting system for the grunt workers, and one calibrated set for the artists? Really!? Did I just say that out loud?

I didn’t mean it. (Really! I didn’t) I said it because this seems to be a prevalent thought process. People somehow think that two lighting systems are cheaper than one. I don’t know why, but I hear it all the time. Go figure.

Don’t do it. Get one good set of high quality lights and use them. Less stuff to buy, less stuff to break. You’ll never hear the carpenters say “Hey! This light’s too good! I can see what I’m doing. Turn that off!!”

Part of controlling the quality of the light is controlling the quality of the reflected light. Shine a white light on a red wall and you get a red reflection. Simple as that. Don’t do it. Paint the walls, ceilings, floors, cabinets, etc. a color-neutral finish. Color neutral means that it lies somewhere between xxxxK White and Black. Not a bluish tinge. Not a greenish tinge (why do people insist on painting Green Rooms green?). Not brown. Not yellow. Not cream. You get a choice of White, Light Gray, Gray, Dark Gray, and Black (or somewhere along that range). If you tint the surfaces, then you tint the color of the light that bounces back on the scenery you are trying to paint.

Back Step #1B

Faces are scenery. Skin is scenery. How can you hope to paint it if it is not properly lit? If you go into most Dressing / Make-up Rooms you will typically find fluorescent light in the ceiling fixtures (sometimes four or five different colors, too!), God-only-knows what color walls and countertops, and as many as ten or fifteen different types of lamps surrounding the make-up mirrors. And hideous carpet / floor tile patterns. Out with ye demons!

How do you match that to the Scene Shop? One room has a twenty or thirty foot tall ceiling, the other room has an eight foot ceiling. Completely different types of fixtures and lamps, too. No one said this would be easy. Sometimes you have to settle for ‘close enough’. In reality, if you can even get near to ‘close enough’ you are going to be waaaay ahead of your current situation. This is a multi-point attack: Paint the walls / ceiling, resurface the countertops and millwork, re-carpet / re-tile the floor, re-lamp the fixtures. Document the lamp types and demand that the physical plant re-lamp with only the approved products. NO SUBSTITUTIONS. EVER. That is what got you in the predicament you are in today – the physical plant buys lamps by the truck-load from the cheapest vendor and pays no attention to the CRI, CCT, or any other lamp parameter. You gets what they gots. That will have to change. Don’t let them bully you into buying your own lamps. You have justifiably special needs. It is their responsibility to satisfy them.

Energy savings can be a really good reason to re-do the lighting in the Dressing / Make-up Rooms. Explain to them how expensive it will be to air condition and re-lamp the rooms with conventional color calibrated lighting that provides 100fc at the performer’s faces. It adds-up quickly. Solid State (LED) lights can easily be affordable when you look at the operational and maintenance costs of conventional lights and the heat they produce that must be removed by the HVAC system. Yes, there are LED’s that provide the color quality that is needed (and thousands that don’t).

Back Step #1C

Fabric, Shmavrick. Grab a swatch and let’s sew! Costume fabrication itself is just the assembly of the parts previously selected [sarcasim]. If you can separate the work area where the fabric selections are made from area where the fabrications is performed, then you can reduce the need for color correct lighting. NOT TRUE. Costume fabrication is very detailed work. It requires both a high quantity of light and a high quality of light. This is both an ergonomic factor (eye strain and worker fatigue) and a safety concern. Poor lighting can easily be a leading cause in garment workers running their hand through a sewing machine or a shear. That hurts. A lot!

Just as you did with the Dressing / Make-up Rooms, refinish and re-lamp so the space is color neutral at the ‘standard’ color temperature for the facility. Costumes should not change colors as they move from the Costume Shop to the Dressing Room, then to the Stage.

Back Step #2A

Working back through the design process, the calibration of the color based technology equipment is necessary. This involves purchasing a color calibrator tool and some software. The objective is to set the color capture and reproduction of all the tools in the electronic chain so that they are true to a known reference standard. This can only be successfully done once the room surfaces and lighting have been standardized.

Usually the first step is to calibrate the video monitors. There is hardware / software that will adjust the Color Lookup Table (CLT or CLUT or LUT) so the monitor is producing the most accurate rendition of each color that it is presented to it by the computer. Every computer monitor / tablet that is used in the department, and even those provided by the students, should be calibrated to the same standard using the same calibration tool.

Scanners & Cameras can be calibrated by a similar process, except the device is presented a color reference chart and then it is checked against the calibrated monitor.

The final step is to calibrate the printers. Once the scanner is calibrated, the resulting output from the printer can be rescanned and the calibration software will adjust the printer to match. This is an iterative process that can take several passes before the results are consistent.

When finished, you can readily see that the color chart, monitor, and printed output is fairly consistent throughout your facility (at least for the rooms that have the lighting standardized, and within the capabilities of the devices being managed to be color calibrated – you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear).

Teaching your staff and students about the need to keep everything calibrated to the same reference standard can be a good experience for all. It helps everyone understand how differences in workspaces, lighting, and tools can affect the representation of colors. Without this type of consistency, the translation of ideas from conception to presentation can be fraught with inconsistencies.

Back Step #2B

More and more we find ourselves video recording our rehearsals and shows. The entire video processing chain from cameras, to control booth monitors, to large scale display devices can introduce unexpected and undesirable shifts in the color quality of the images.

The first step is just like all the other spaces: Correct the color content of the lighting and reflective surfaces in the video control booth.

Next, just like you would do with the computer screens, you calibrate the video monitors.

And just as you would calibrate a still camera or scanner, you can calibrate a video camera. It typically involves a color chart that is placed on the stage under the same stage lighting conditions that the performers will be performing. The camera is adjusted so they present the correct colors to the control booth monitors.

For video projectors and LED video walls, the process is similar to the video monitors. Send in a test pattern and adjust the colors so they match the calibrated source.

In the end, you should be able to hold a production sketch up beside a television monitor or large format display and see the same colors in the costumes and set pieces.

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A few cautionary notes:

Solid State (LED) lighting offers a lot of benefits to the operational costs and consistency of the lighting throughout a performing arts facility, HOWEVER, this is a new era in illumination technology, and with it comes many pitfalls with regard to color quality, coverage patterns, glare, and product selection. Getting a lighting consultant that has experience with theatre and LEDs can be beneficial to this type of renovation project. Having access to a lighting meter that can provide color quality and correlated color temperature readings can be very helpful in determining which light sources and reflective surfaces are affecting your workspace, and which ones are not.

Calibrating video monitors, printers, cameras, and large scale displays is part art, and part science. More recently the science is taking-over as the calibration tools get better.

Consider a collaborative effort between departments for the purchase and training for calibration tools. Your allies can be print journalism departments, photography departments, art departments, video departments, and even campus facilities like ballrooms and conference centers where presenting well-adjusted images can be of benefit to all types of audiences. Shared resources can reduce expenses and improve the working environment.