Fresnel

A Fresnel is named for its lens: a stepped, concentric lens with a stippled face that deliberately breaks the light up. The result is a soft-edged beam of even intensity that blends invisibly with the fixture next to it, which is exactly what is wanted for lighting a stage area rather than an object on it.

Spot and flood are achieved by moving the lamp and reflector together towards or away from the lens, so one fixture covers a range of beam widths. There is no second lens tube and no focus in the ellipsoidal sense.

What it cannot do is stop. A Fresnel has no framing shutters, so spill is controlled with barn doors bolted to the front — four hinged flaps that crudely block light at the edges. They will keep light off a screen approximately; they will not cut a clean line along a ceiling or a proscenium, and asking them to is how light ends up on a projection surface.

In event work the Fresnel’s territory is top light, back light and general stage coverage at medium throw, and in a studio or on-camera setting it remains the standard soft key. Where the beam has to be shaped precisely, the fixture changes rather than the accessory.

Event lighting — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Ellipsoidal (profile) The fixture that can be cut to a shape, hold a hard edge and project a pattern — optically a slide projector, and the only conventional fixture that can stop light exactly where you want it to.
• PAR fixture The simplest instrument in the rig — an oval pool of hard, bright light with its beam spread built into the lamp rather than adjusted at the fixture.
• Stage wash The even, flattering light a person stands in to be seen — the least glamorous part of a lighting plot and the first thing a camera exposes as missing.