Shutterstock
Church lighting designers and operators certainly face their share of challenges. But they also have abundant opportunities to be creative with lighting effects and new tools to support worship.
While it is safe to say that recent advancements in lighting technology have helped to shape the look of contemporary worship, new technology is only a piece of today’s powerful worship experience. Lighting directors agree that while intelligent, computer-driven consoles and fixtures are powerful tools, applying them in concert with basic lighting principles and creativity is the right recipe for truly engaging worship lighting.
Leveraging lighting control
Tim Logsdon is lighting director for Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. He works with the production team at Gateway’s main campus, as well as the lighting teams at five smaller satellite campuses. As Gateway’s powerful, dynamic worship experiences have evolved, Logsdon has seen that the services and the schedule don’t lend themselves to being closely programmed, and he favors a more interactive approach to lighting. “For us,” he says, “it’s a combination of having familiar basic effects available for our operators, along with providing them the tools and training to be creative when they feel led.”
“Our concept for lighting worship at all campuses is that the operators should ‘feel’ the room and the [expression] in the moment rather than struggling with the lighting console.” Tim Logsdon, Lighting Director, Gateway Church, Southlake, TX
Logsdon continues, “Our concept for lighting worship at all campuses is that the operators should ‘feel’ the room and the [expression] in the moment rather than struggling with the lighting console,” Logsdon says. As a result, his most effective lighting tool is a full-featured lighting console that can store the generic lighting effects that give operators a place to start. Since Logsdon’s concept empowers his operators by providing them with a library of premade effects, the less-experienced volunteer is less intimidated and, for more expert operators, the tools are there for them to be at their creative best. Each Gateway campus has a similar console, so operators at each location can expand on the basic library with their own stored lighting scenes and effects.
Front lighting people and things
Basic effects for a worship service begin with effective front lighting. This means focusing conventional PARs, LED fixtures or moving lights to achieve an even, white front lighting, one or more color washes with ‘specials,’ or dedicated key lights, to highlight a worship leader, singers, and other important elements on stage. For the best results with IMAG, video recording, or broadcast, it is important to light the featured performers from two points to give faces realistic dimension. Because cameras can provide the audience with the perspective of someone standing directly in front of the performer, any offending shadows on the face will be noticeable and may require fill lighting.
For the best results with IMAG, video recording, or broadcast, it is important to light the featured performers from two points to give faces realistic dimension.
Also from the front, powerful effects can be achieved by lighting the set. Worship sets run the gamut from blank walls and simple backdrops to complex designs with video walls and theatrical design elements. Each has benefits. Uplighting from fixtures placed on the floor can be very effective and an easy way to create interest in flat or mostly flat backdrops. Additional front or side lighting with gobos from a leko or moving light can create additional visual impact by adding texture and interest to an otherwise dull surface.
Lighting effects for three-dimensional sets require greater consideration. While abstract-looking sets can look great washed in color, sets that represent reality generally benefit from more white light, lighted as they might be seen in the real world. If you have a set with multiple layers, experiment with highlighting aspects of the design by placing LED lights inside the set. Directing light and gobo effects from multiple angles can really make multidimensional sets “pop,” too.
Backlighting and lighting the house
Not all of your lighting effects will come from the front. Backlighting is important because it separates key elements on stage from the background, providing definition for all the same elements (set and people) that you have lighted from the front. A simple white backlight wash is favored by many lighting professionals as a good starting point. Some worship designers prefer color backlighting musical selections and change over to a more conventional white wash for teaching and the message.
A simple white backlight wash is favored by many lighting professionals as a good starting point.
In addition to providing separation, backlighting can also be employed with haze to create dramatic shapes behind and over performers. These can be either symmetrical, with beams that appear straight or cross one another behind the band or focused asymmetrically to create interesting geometrical shapes. Logsdon has installed DF-50-style oil-based hazers at all the Gateway Church campuses and counts on them to support a dynamic lighting design. It is important, however, to note that Logsdon’s dramatic lighting effects are used judiciously so as not to detract from a musical performance, message, or the overall feel of the service. “Lighting effects have to be used in time and ‘in tune’ with the musical selections,” he notes.
With his lighting designs, Logsdon looks for new tools and innovations in lighting to help him design “past the stage.” He says, “The ability we have now to apply, and more importantly control, lighting around different parts of the room and use architectural lighting as an additional lighting tool presents both great opportunities and issues.”
New LED lighting fixtures for house lighting, for example, allow the lighting designer to extend the lighting design by matching or contrasting the color of the room with colors on stage. Logsdon cautions his operators to give careful consideration to how and when to employ house lighting. “It must be used sparingly and at the right times,” he notes.
Effects with moving lights
Clearly a flexible and dynamic innovation for lighting design, moving lights can be redirected as needed to perform multiple duties just about anywhere on the stage. They can act as more than one light by being quickly moved to cover new positions ahead of lighting cues, or as solo fixtures, or in groups to create dramatic effects with beams of light moving together. To take full advantage, many lighting designers like the effects they can get by placing “movers” on a mid-stage truss, or on the side at midstage, but they make for great effects from the floor, too.
“Lighting effects have to be used in time and ‘in tune’ with the musical selections.” Tim Logsdon, Lighting Director, Gateway Church, Southlake, TX
All of the powerful features and flexibility of moving lights, however, can be quickly overcome by their potential to be distracting. Using lights that move carries all the potential liabilities (offending intensity, misdirection, etc.) of static fixtures, compounded by the additional variables of motion and speed. If moving lights garner the attention of the audience at the wrong time, it will detract from the performance or message.
With close to 20 years of lighting design experience, Matt Moreland, owner of mattlights in Atlanta, has designed lighting for houses of worship in many different styles. “Each church has an idea about where they want to go with lighting. The effects that you employ for one church,” he says, “might not be right for another. So an important part of any lighting designer’s job is understanding the style of a particular worship service and choosing lighting effects that are appropriate for that church, and in that room.”
“If people leave talking about ‘the light show’ then you’ve missed the mark.” Matt Moreland, Owner, mattlights, Atlanta, GA
In his concert-style lighting designs for Free Chapel in Gainesville, Ga., Moreland has had to make important design decisions about where to use moving lights, as well as how to choose effects that will be right for the church’s different environments and mission. “Motion in lighting effects can take it all to another level or crash it by causing a distraction. If people leave talking about ‘the light show’ then you’ve missed the mark.” He reminds lighting designers any out-in-front lighting effects must have a reason and should match what is happening musically, the emotion of the service, and the environment.
Camera-ready lighting
Because Free Chapel’s main campus generates a multisite video stream, is broadcast to 120 countries, and has a live audience on Sunday morning, Moreland has an additional challenge of having to balance the lighting designs, choosing effects that meet the needs of all three diverse missions. Like Logsdon, Moreland has found that lighting effects that add depth and dimension to areas of the room past the stage can add to the overall production, as well as help the on-camera look. However, he is quick to note that not all lighting effects need to be complex to have impact.
“I can add simple LED PARs around the back of the audience with a contrasted color to the stage,” Moreland says. “On camera, it shows depth while matching the overall look of the service. More importantly, it shows worshipers who are taking part in the experience--not just sitting and waiting for the next thing to happen.”
For Free Chapel broadcasts, Moreland has learned that directly lighting seating areas can enhance the high and wide video shots, too. “It shows remote viewers what is going on in the room,” he says, “and makes them feel like [they] are there and more a part of the experience.”
It’s often the most basic lighting principles and effects, along with how and when they are used, that create the most powerful and immersive experiences for worship.
Even with the powerful tools available to production teams to create eye-popping and jaw-dropping lighting effects, veteran lighting designers agree that the most impactful lighting effects can be achieved on all levels with fundamental tools and minimal resources because the basic principles of good lighting remain the same. It’s often the most basic lighting principles and effects, along with how and when they are used, that create the most powerful and immersive experiences for worship.
