Lighting 101: Wash Lights
Worcester | 2022
No, wash lights do not refer to the cleaning of light fixtures! But imagine wash lights like this… If you think of the venue stage as a painting canvas and you were to apply a watercolor ‘wash’ to that canvas, it would apply color over a large area to help create backgrounds and a base for which to build up other layers of color. That’s exactly what wash lighting is – it’s a base of color light spread over a wide area from which to build up other layers of dimension. These luminaries are the starting points. The beams have soft edges so they light up an area evenly. They are not meant to highlight specific areas of the stage, such as a spotlight would be. Typically a wash light has a path of 130 degrees, much larger than a spot. Although the cover of light from a wash is much larger, it uses the same amount of lumens and wattage as a spot.
Some wash light fixtures have a zoomable beam angle. That means that the lens moves in and out, enabling an operator to adjust the area that the fixture is lighting up with ease using a lighting console. These fixtures usually have a range that their beam angle can zoom in and out of. The other thing that most LED wash light fixtures have is the ability to change color simply by using color-mixing technology. For instance, washes may have 19 RGBW (Red, Green, Blue & White) bulbs which means they have a total of 19 X 4 (76) different LEDS that can adjust their brightness levels to get the exact color needed. Each LED can adjust between 0% & 100% enabling millions of possible color tones and ensuring the exact color for the desired palette: whether that’s a particular shade of warm white or a certain degree of saturation for a color.
The term ‘wash light’ can be ‘focused’ into more specific sub-categories…
Par Can
Conventional pars, have either an interchangeable bulb, called a lamp, or it has a lens that makes the beam spread varying degrees, including very narrow, narrow, medium flood, or wide flood. The common abbreviations are VNSP, NSP, MFL and WFL. The beam of the par is oblong, not circular, and able to rotate by spinning the lamp or the lens.
LED pars typically have a beam spread expressed in degrees, and typically have a circle beam, which is not rotatable.
Fresnel
The Fresnel (pronounced fren-el) produces a soft, diffused, round wash light. It can be focused to produce a narrower beam (spot) or a wide beam (flood). The size of the spot or flood is determined by the throw distance and width of the fresnel lens. The spread of the beam is usually altered with a knob or crank. Many of the TV performances that you see televised are lit with fresnels, because their soft, even light looks great on camera! The distinctive lens has a ‘stepped’ appearance instead of the ‘full’ or ‘smooth’ appearance of other lenses. This allows the lens to have a much greater curvature than would otherwise be practical. The lens focuses the light by tilting each ring of glass slightly more toward the center as the distance is increased from the center of the lens. If the glass were completely flat, this would cause a corresponding pattern of circles of light, so Fresnel lenses are usually stippled on the flat side. This pattern of small bumps helps to break up the light passing through the lens and gives Fresnels their characteristic soft beam.
Cyc Light
A cyc light (pronounced to rhyme with ‘Mike’) is a specialized light that is designed to evenly wash a large curtain, or cyclorama. (A cyclorama is a curved curtain or wall used as a background of a stage set to suggest unlimited space, often encircling the viewer.) The cyc light features a lamp or LED cluster distributed by an aluminum reflector widely and evenly. Cyc lights are designed to be set up in rows, evenly washing large items. Conventional cyc lights can be gelled, or colored in different colors so that you can mix colors on your backdrop. LED cyc lights have that functionality built in!
Strip Light
Strip lights are the cousin of the cyc light – perfect for washing smaller curtains, scenery or for effects lighting, and can fit into small spaces. The strip light is made up of a strip of lamps or LED’s, colored differently so that you can mix colors. Strip lights are not as good at washing large items, as they do not throw even light as far, but they are a budget alternative to cyc lights and great for many uses. Many churches use LED strip lights to wash backdrops, scenery or even for the front light of bands. Strip lights can also be set up behind a band for cool visual effects and vertical symmetry.
Scoop Light
A scoop light is simply a lamp inside of a large rounded scoop that throws wide even light everywhere. In stage lighting, an ellipsoidal reflector floodlight (sometimes known by the acronym ERF), or scoop, is a simple lighting fixture with a dome-like reflector, large high-wattage lamp and no lens. The scoop is not the brightest light out there, so it is best used for light colored washes or house lighting in theatre-style venues. Some scoops have a regular medium base flood lamp, while others have a tungsten-halogen lamp. The only adjustments that scoops have is to point them, and some may have a lamp adjustment that can make it more spotted or flooded.
LED Moving Wash Lights
LED moving lights also work a lot like par cans. However, many LED moving lights also give you the ability to zoom the beam, which can be hugely beneficial when lighting a set design, or just to give you more variety in looks to create! Moving lights are special because they give you the ability to move the beam around for different positions as well as to create physical movement. Other than that, they work just like any other wash light – putting out a smooth, even beam of light to wash objects and people with!
There you have it – the bare bones of wash lights! Understanding and choosing types of fixtures is the starting point; then, you’ll have to take it a step further and compare the specifics of various models to settle on the best one for your needs. Deciding on which brand can be especially daunting. An AV Integrator, such as Revelation, excels in these details and will be able to guide you through the purchasing process so that your dollars spent are aimed exactly at satisfying your goals.
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