event planning
Introduction: Coloring your walls, floor, tables, ceiling, etc. with light is a way to decorate the room(s) where your ...
Introduction: Coloring your walls, floor, tables, ceiling, etc. with light is a way to decorate the room(s) where your event occurs. To be clear, we are not talking about pure white (like sunlight) or yellowish-white (like indoors lamps). We are talking about colors of light such as red, blue, orange, magenta, and other colors that are not normally used to light a room. These special lights used to decorate walls, floors, tables, ceilings, etc. with colors are usually “LED wash lights” (also called “RGB LED lights”). “Uplighting” refers to LED wash lights that are aimed upward at a wall (or another object).
This is how to prevent tripping hazards. Wireless lights do NOT automatically prevent tripping hazards just because they are wireless: Wireless LED wash lights do not have cords to trip over, but that does not mean they avoid all tripping hazards. In theory, it seems reasonable that not having any cords eliminates the risk of tripping. However, your event guests can trip over the actual lights (not just cords). I tripped over a wireless LED wash light at a gala and it made a scene. The night I performed a show at the ballroom of Bay Pony Inn in Lederach, PA, one of the event planners told me a DJ set up wireless lights and she was injured after tripping over a wireless light. The truth is that tripping hazards occur when people can’t see an object on the floor. People (including event guests) do not stare all the way down at their feet while they walk and therefore do not see everything very low down on the floor. The tried and true method to safely prevent tripping hazards is to not place any cords or lights near the ground. Wash lights can be placed on top of chairs, tables, or other objects that are in someone's line of vision. This approach can be achieved with wired wash lights or wireless wash lights. (Permanent wash lights can be mounted to walls, ceilings, etc. but this article is referring to portable wash lights.)
The Brightest Wash Lights are Wired: The best unit of measurement to judge the total amount of light a wash light outputs is called a lumen. The higher the number of lumens a light outputs, the more total light it outputs. However, the amount of light given off is not always the same thing as brightness. It can be confusing to think about. For example, some wash lights output light at a narrower angle (think of a laser beam when you think of a narrow small angle) while other wash lights have a wider angle (that widely spread light out). Two wash lights can have the same number of lumens, but if one wash light has a narrower angle than the other, it will concentrate more light in a small area and brighten up a spot on a wall more. If you want to measure the actual brightness of the area that a wash light is aimed at, then we look at a different unit of measurement called “lux.”
Either way, whether you look at the “lumens” or “lux” of wash lights, the trend is clear. The wash lights with the highest number of lumens and lux are wired. If you want the most color light to decorate your event, wireless lights can not supply enough energy to output nearly as much light as high-power wired lights. The brightness of a color light matters. Wash lights are not just used to color the walls and ceilings they are aimed at. Color light (from wash lights) reflects off of the walls and spreads to the floor, more areas on the ceiling, tables, and just about everything else in a room. Brighter light bounces further sideways on the walls to create more of a subtle (color) glow throughout the walls.
Beware of Flicker: Many low-price LED wash lights output the same brightness as high-price LED wash lights. It is natural to wonder why. One of the reasons for the low price tag is because the low-price LED lights flicker in camera footage and photographs. This can show up in videos and photos as undesirable horizontal bands. It can ruin the footage of videographers who record your event. (The durability and controls can also be very bad on low-price LED lights, but that’s another topic.)
White Walls and Curtains: The color light from LED wash lights shows up brightest when aimed at white walls, curtains, etc. If you're not sure what venues have ballrooms with white walls, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau offers a free search tool here.
Turn Off Normal Room Lights: There magic of uplighting with LED wash lights is easily ruined by having normal (white or yellowish-white) room lights on. This is usually the main difference between uplighting which gives event guests a “Wow!” feeling and uplighting that doesn’t. It’s ok to have a little bit of subtle, dim light from normal (white or yellowish-white) room lights. However, the most common mistake is to ruin the color uplighting by not dimming the normal (white or yellowish-white) room lights nearly enough.
Set-up Time and Pack-up Time: Generally, the set-up time and pack-up time are longer for wired wash lights than wireless wash lights.
Number of Lights (Diminishing Marginal Benefit): How big of a difference does it make to add one additional wash light to an existing uplighting set-up? That depends on the number of lights you already have. If you only have 1 wash light and you add 1 identical wash light, you will increase your total wash light output by 100%. That’s a huge difference! If you have 10 wash lights and add 1 identical wash light, you will increase your total wash light output by 10%. The more wash lights you already have, the smaller the difference it will make by adding an additional wash light.
Choosing Colors: Sometimes, you may already know you want specific colors to match the occasion. For example, if you have a Christmas event, you may want red and green colors. If you have a company milestone event (company anniversary), you may want light colors that match the company logo. You can choose colors based on the mood you want to set. However, if you’re not sure what colors to use and just want your colors to pop, here is a shortcut. A quick way to get started is to just choose two colors that are opposite on the color wheel. Colors opposite on the color wheel are called “complementary colors.” Orange and blue are complementary colors. Red and green are complementary colors. Yellow and purple are complementary colors. Simply set your wash lights to alternate between two complementary colors and the colors will pop. For more ideas and inspiration, you may find the free Abobe Color tool helpful.
Credit for part of this article goes to David Henry, Lighting Design, Lighting Technician, and Founder of Above AVL. I did a consultation with him and he taught me the concept in the "Number of Lights" section.