Hit the lights

There are a number of differences between lighting a band for a multi-camera television production and lighting a band for purely an audience. In each case it’s worth noting the role of lighting in creating mood:

Many musicians don't realize that they are doing theater. If the lighting doesn't match, or stuff is just thrown up on stage, it's not going to work.

The value of a good lightshow isn’t normally what sells tickets but it can be the difference between bitching about the performer to your mate and being totally transfixed throughout the show. Consider the role of lighting at raves for example, watching a bloke play records from a distance isn’t very special but putting amazing lights above him can make it so.

You can massively improve the "wow" factor of your shows by thinking about the lighting

Or, to quote from someone selling their lighting services:

Dance-floor lighting at your event makes a huge difference! With the proper dance-floor lighting, attendees are more likely to get up and dance, and enjoy themselves.

Having looked at a few websites I’m struggling with the variety of lights, the roles they serve and how to combine them. It’s a bit more than discussing the effect different colours can produce so I’m going to skip straight to the role of colours:

Red: angry, dramatic
Blue: cold, night time
Pale purple: neutral
Orange/yellow: warm

I'd debate whether pale purple is neutral. Isn't it supposed to make people look unblemished, healthy and a bit sexy?

I haven’t had much luck finding websites discussing how to light bands for television so I’ll reiterate what was taught in class: include some white lights amongst the coloured ones, especially spotlights. These help the camera to focus, provide contrast and, most importantly, allow viewers to see better given the camera is a poor substitute for the human eye when dealing with varying or low light levels.

I can see the value in using white light sparingly. I’ve been fortunate to photograph a bunch of concerts and learned to check the lights before loading a roll of film into the camera. For bands using low level lights like Tool this allowed me to get useable images by using black and white. These days I’d expect it’s easier with a digital camera as you can adjust the film rating on the go. The one concern I’d have about using white light is how much. My experience of using a flash was that it ruined more pictures of bands performing than it helped as it can wash out any sense of atmosphere. This is more of a reflection based on my own experience though since a comparison between flash and white light is a bit stretched. Controlling the lights offers a lot more influence on the final appearance of the event than taking snapshots.