Note the front fill lighting allows the side of the loco to be see, whereas it remains in gloomy shadow with top-light
In order to provide flexibility, this lighting will be duplicated in different colours, warm and cool colours and possibly open white as well. This enables the Lighting Designer to change the feel and character of the scene as required. Fifty years ago, when there wasn’t so much equipment about, there may only have been the one pair of lanterns per area, but one in a cool colour and one in a warm colour – and the tone of the scene would be altered by raising the level of one colour (coming from one side) and lowering the level of the other colour (coming from the other side). Crude, but effective.
Added to this one would have Top Light, Back Light and Side Light, which is exactly as it sounds, these all fill the picture and add the quality.
‘Specials’ – lanterns that are focussed to shine through doors and windows – provide shafts of sunlight or moonlight – the warm glow of candle-light… all these add into the mix to produce a nice design which work with the set to enhance the production.
Back-cloths are normally lit from close up to the cloth, by flood lights with special reflectors which shine less light at the top – which is closest, and more light to the bottom, being furthest away, in order to get an even spread of light over the whole cloth, and avoid the top being ‘hot’. Sometimes they are also lit from stage level, with the lanterns hidden by a ‘ground-row’ – a free-standing profiled piece of scenery, often hills or buildings in the distance, forming a silhouette.
Slow moving clouds may be front-projected onto a cloth by a special projector lantern, or Gobos used to project cut-out shapes onto the floor.
Theatre has for many years used tungsten lamps of the 500W to 2KW range (up to 5KW, for specials) as the natural colour of the tungsten theatre lamps is very good for stage use. Colour filters are used in front of the lens (and there are hundreds of colours!) which, together with the dimming capabilities provide an extraordinary palette for the Designer to work with.
LED lights are being forced on the industry, but they are catching up, as most do not have the required colour quality yet. It will come – but it is a problem.
Regarding scenery, I always endeavour to work from a limited palette of colours throughout a layout, mixing and grading them as required in varying shades to paint everything. Using a small range of colours throughout helps ‘bind’ everything together visually.
One thing I have learned from the scenic artists in theatre (most of my life I’ve been a Production Manager in theatre) is that to make a set look ‘aged’ or even just ‘not brand-new’, they go over the whole thing with a ‘wash’ – basically water with the smallest amount of black or brown paint in it – dirty water. They go over EVERYTHING. the result is a dulling down of surfaces, and a tying in of colours – so things that did stick out like a sore thumb instantly look as if they have been part of it for years. The effect can be very subtle indeed, but very effective for all that. I did that with this layout. Over grass, bridges, buildings, rocks, the lot (and of course the stock is weathered in much the same way). It works for me at any rate. (It needs a bit of courage to do it!). I once made a timber roof structure in the garden to cover the pond (in an effort to keep the herons away), and my wife observed it was a pity it looked so new, but never mind, give it a couple of years and eventually it would weather in. I made up a thin wash, brushed it all over, and problem solved instantly and subtly. In the same way, Builders sometimes have to give new buildings (in sensitive areas) a soot wash to tone them down a bit for exactly the same reason. It’s just speeding up nature.
