Focusing Lights

As the gaffer one of your main jobs is to ensure that the lights are focused properly on the subjects or the objects you are lighting. There is a very standardized way to do this. It can be very helpful if you have something like a gaffers glass to be able to look directly into bright lights, but it is not always necessary.

To begin you should have someone standing by at the light and ideally they should have a ladder if the light cannot be reached from the ground. It is standard for the light to begin fully flooded.

Directions

All directions will be given from the technicans point of view. Here's an overview of the directions you might give them.

• Walk the light in on axis

Move the lamp towards where it is pointing, th e axis is where it is pointing.

• Walk the light back on axis

Move the lamp away from where it is pointing.

• Walk the light lamp right

Move the Lamp right as if you were looking at the back of the light.

• Walk the light lamp left

Move the Lamp left as if you were looking at the back of the light.

• Pan Lamp Right
• Pan Lamp Left

• Tilt Up

Tilt the light up. This does not mean to stem down the stand so you can reach it and tilt the light up and then stem it back up. You need to get a ladder to tilt it without adjusting any other aspect. If you do not have a ladder the technician should request permission. It may make sense to stem it up and down, but in some situations it might be better to just spend the time to get a ladder.

• Tilt Down

Tilt the light down

• Stem Up or Stick Up

Raise the stand up

• Stem Down

Lower the stand

Focusing the Light

You do need to recognize that you are not there with the light, so they may be fighting obstacles, if they are not responding quickly to your requests its reasonable to ask them if there are obstructions out there. Knowing their limitations could help you to direct them how they can work around them.

Make sure there is no diffusion frame in front of the light before you start focusing it. This can make it very difficult otherwise.

By sharing a little bit of information with your lighting technicians you can make focusing a light far easier. Letting them know what a light is doing can allow them to get 90% there in terms of focusing. An example of this is saying I want the light through the front window hitting someone sitting in the chair.

The technicians should seek permission to turn on a light once it is set.

• Stand where the subject is and put your face directly where you would like the light to hit and if you can't see it direct them to move it to hit the light

If they are sitting this might mean kneeling behind the chair and putting your head where there head would be.

• If you can't see the light, give directions to the technician to move the light to get it roughed in.

• Once the light is in the correct spot, give them pan and tilt directions.

• When the light is set, let them know they're good and they can walk away.

If for some reason it may change, let them know they should standby at that light.