1 of 5
Photo courtesy of Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, IL
2 of 5
Combining front and back lighting helps give the speaker more dimension
3 of 5
Front light only being used on a single speaker to highlight him away from his surroundings.
4 of 5
By adding in side light, the speaker is completely lit from every side to allow for additional dimension, and this makes the speaker appear more natural on camera.
5 of 5
This is how the camera may see a speaker with no additional lighting beyond ambient light.
With the cost and quality of video projection and camera systems improving steadily over the past several years, image magnification or IMAG is becoming extremely popular in the house of worship world. Thanks to this new technology, more and more worshippers are able to experience services as if they are sitting in the front row regardless of where they are in the church. While IMAG is a welcome advancement in technology, an additional element is needed to complete this package.
This element is lighting. Without lighting, the IMAG images of your services will not look quite right, even if you've invested in high quality projectors and screens, high HD cameras and all of the gear to connect them. Lighting can make or break your IMAG experience.
If you have ever walked onto a television news set and looked up, you will see a ton of lighting fixtures facing the news desk from the front, back and side. You will see fixture styles from Fresnels to ellipsoidals to soft boxes and everything between. We don't have to go to that extreme, but we can learn something from this example; getting light onto our subjects that we are putting a camera on is extremely important. This is where knowing the essentials of IMAG lighting comes into play.
Side light creates the “glue” between your front and back light, but can be the most difficult to reproduce.
Essential one – Front lighting. If you can only make one investment in a lighting package, this should be it. The importance of front lighting cannot be overstated. Front lighting ensures that your subject is going to be seen clearly and is highlighted away from their surroundings. For front lighting, there are two basic choices of fixture: Fresnels and ellipsoidals. Fresnels give more of a soft edge of light and are easily blended together. These are great for lighting larger areas and groups, like the choir. However, Fresnels are not good at covering great distances of space between the fixture and the subject or subjects that you are lighting. Ellipsoidals produce a harder edge of light and are better for illuminating a smaller area of light, like a pulpit or lectern. Ellipsoidals are perfect for throwing light over a longer distance of space, but are not easily blended together.
Either way, it is important that your subject or subjects are well lit from the front. Ideally, you should have two front lighting positions for each area that you want to light. This is because you do not want to focus your lights directly at the subject you are lighting. It is much better to focus your lights at an about 30-degree angle from the sides. This helps to evenly light your subjects and allow for natural shadows to occur and provide definition. Direct front lighting will appear extremely flat and will wash out the natural features of your subjects because there are no shadows created.
Essential two – Back Lighting. Back lighting helps to separate your subjects away from their surroundings. It is not as bright as front light, but is almost as important. Back light is almost always done with soft lighting. This can be produced by Fresnels or PAR lights. Again, the ideal is to have two positions for your fixtures to be focused back at your subjects, but as the light is coming from the back and shadowing is not as critical, one position is OK. The main purpose of back light is to provide a light to the top and back of the head or heads of your subjects and give them the additional “glow” that will assist in separating them from the rest of the area that is being picked up by the camera.
Essential Three – Side light. Side light creates the “glue” between your front and back light, but can be the most difficult to reproduce in a house of worship space. If for some reason you can't create a side lighting position, you may want to consider moving your front lighting positions a little wider to compensate for the lack of a side lighting position. Ideally, side light is direct focus. This is to say that side lighting is focused directly at the side of your subjects. Side lighting helps to create additional definition of your subjects by further highlighting them and evening out the combination of front and back lighting. Side lighting also helps to make sure that when your speakers turn their heads from one side to the other, they are not turning into darkness, which will look strange on camera. Side lighting is typically produced by Fresnel or PAR fixtures.
By combining these three essentials of IMAG lighting, you will be able to make sure that the investment you made in projectors, screens, and cameras was worthwhile. Keep in mind that the projector will only project what the camera can see and thus, lighting is an extremely important component. If you are unsure of exactly how to accomplish the results you are looking for, speak with a consultant. They are worth the money to make sure that you get the most out of your investment.
