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Just wondering how I can get a better show on video using led fixtures, I am working with a outfit trying to keep live music alive and we professionally record the bands, I want to use my led pallets, led par cans led strips etc. facing toward the audiance, which sometimes the instruments can not be pulled down enough to aviod overwhelming the video camera and washing out or leaving that brite crowd pleaser look on film. I have found out that, if you can hang above the stage and aim straight down, they are intense in color and wash and easy on the camera lens. Any suggestion from others suffering this promblem. HELP!!! Thanks Gary
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If you're blasting backlighting at the audience, then of course you're going to have problems with the cameras. No offense, but I'm a sound engineer that focusses on live sound with a strong recording background(several dozen recorded albums, some by Grammy-winning artists, as well as many live albums).

You have multiple choices:

1: You nailed it. Bring those lights HIGHER up. You might want to invest in some medium duty crankable stands(like on the Global Truss web site) and some square or trangle trussing(again, on the Global Truss site). These stands will support the weight you want and no doubt give you the height you want to aim the lights down into the musicians and NOT THROUGH the musicians and blinding the audience with "shadow vision" and your cameras(which you could put a filter on, BTW....)

A related idea is that if you're shooting at the same places all the time, perhaps it's time for the club owners to invest in some capital upgrades, which may involve mounting some trussing for hanging lights and a good heavy duty ladder to go hang lights with. The reason I don't say lift is that venue owners tend to be cheap and refuse to invest in a very expensive machine such as this, especially when a ladder can do the job just as well for a microscopic fraction of the cost.

2: Maybe try front lighting the musicians? And then use your backlighting to light up the background? So, maybe ground-mount and point up for the backlighting? Maybe have a backdrop and aim at the backdrop? It's often easier to get stands and trussing up IN FRONT OF the stage, but each venue is different.

3: Raise the cameras up. Say, a 4-foot riser so you can aim down into the band? But if you're backlighting so heavily, you're gonna get lots of shadowy images so it won't look good anyways.

4: Even washes whenever possible. Haze looks nice, or rather doesn't look that much but certainly makes the lights pop a bit.

5: Ultimately, I would suggest a combination of both some film/video classes, coupled with lighting for theater. This should give you a stronger foundation for what you need to concentrate on as well as give you more lighting design ideas. You have the benefit of apparently lots of practical application.

You're going to find that your idea of having the lights aimed into the audience is already not the right way to do things. Wash the stage, not the crowd. That alone should resolve a fair amount of problems. If you're insisting on washing the audience, don't aim in a direction that is towards the cameras, so you'd have to point UP or sideways.

Think of it another way: If you shoot the sun with a camera, you're gonna get problems because it's too bright for DIRECT viewing. That's what you're doing right now with your lighting, you're pointing your camera right at it. However, unlike the sun, you can re-direct your lights to make things easier for what you want to aim at. With the sun, you have to adjust around the lighting conditions or just wait it out.

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