Designing With Light: An Introduction to Stage Lighting

by J. Michael Gillette

An updated edition of Gillette's introduction to the practical and aesthetic aspects of designing stage lighting. Four new chapters have been added to broaden the technical and design concepts and additional material has been placed in boxes outside the mainstream text. A wider range of technical and design examples strengthen the book. For example, the chapter on electrical theory and practice has been greatly expanded to provide designers and technicians with the thorough understanding of electricity now imperative because of the extensive use of electronics in almost every aspect of theatrical production. And because lighting designers frequently find employment in musical theatre and dance, examples of each have been added to the chapter on design examples. A new eight-page colour section provides a discussion of the practical applications of colour theory as well as an analysis of the colour choices for the lighting design of an actual production.

Genres: Theatre, Textbooks, Reference, Design

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Jeff Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent textbook for first years in a stage production / film course. An interesting second perspective on graphics processing, and painting/art classes. This is a book on light, and how it illuminates(or doesn't) a scene, and how it does(or doesn't) impact the viewer's perceptions of that scene. Especially for situations where you can control the lighting (ie by lights). It's of obvious relevance to artists, as it tries to get you to see how you can construct a visual scene. It's kind of backwards way of thinking compared to art (where you train yourself to see, and reproduce what is or could be), by thinking about the light itself. Obviously it's an incomplete art (as of 1998 or whenever my edition was published), but still - worth your time, if you're an art student, to at least have exposure to this kind of thinking about what you see and why, at the introductory level.

Similarly for graphics processing - there are no doubt going to be implications for graphics processing algorithms here, and it is imho worth thinking about them if you're a 4th year CS student taking a graphics processing course and want to take another step in that direction.

There was no calculus at all in this book. The next step would obviously to apply calculus and see what falls out here.

There's little bits of historical interest that were fascinating (water buckets with salt water in them!), and tons of useful technical terms and tidbits that would be useful in conversing with someone in the field. I learned a fair bit from this little book. But there's a lot in it that a CS/EE/physics etc student would be able to likely skim(see: general problem solving), and a little that was ...I'm pretty sure down right incorrect(the particle theory of the atom is...not exactly correct and part of their explanation of how electricity works at the most basic level depends on some of the incorrect parts...why did they even describe it if it doesn't even matter if they got it correct or not?). But generally this was an enlightening book. This one is staying on my bookshelf for keeps.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It covers the material in a very accessible way for students.

[Annelise Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so informational I loved it.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for beginners and a great reference to keep around.