Colors that work together
Good shows get by with few colors. Two main colors plus white as an accent cover most of a song. What matters is which two you pick and where they land.
Three color recipes
- One color: everything in a single hue. Often the strongest look, especially in calm parts.
- Neighbors: colors next to each other on the color wheel, such as red, orange and gold, or blue and teal. They keep the picture calm.
- Opposites: colors facing each other on the color wheel, such as orange and blue, or green and magenta. Also called complementary colors, they add tension and suit choruses and drops.
White works best in short doses, as an accent for the big moment.
Keep opposites on separate surfaces
Two opposite colors on the same wall mix toward white, and the color is gone. So separate them: one left and one right, or one on the uplights and the other on the tubes. For a drop, both sides can swap colors or merge into one.
On tubes and LED bars, one clear color against a contrasting background beats a rainbow. A gradient across two or three colors works too. Lots of random colors quickly look cheap.
Which colors suit the song?
The rule of thumb: fast, happy music can take bright, saturated, warm colors. Slow, sad music suits darker, softer, bluer tones. Saturated colors and red wake people up, blue and green calm them down.
Common choices by style, from experience rather than law:
- Ballad: warm white, amber, rosé, deep blue for sad songs.
- Disco and classics: warm and colorful, gold, pink.
- Sing-along party hits: yellow, orange, pink and plenty of brightness, so guests can see each other.
- Latin: red, orange, magenta, gold.
- Rock: red, amber, white, with cold blue in the calm parts.
- Trance: blue, cyan, violet, white.
- Techno: one color, usually cold white or red, and a lot of darkness.
Spreading colors across a song
A tried and tested layout: verses in one color, choruses in a second, the peak in a third. Give the next song a different base color.
Color belongs on walls and in the air. On faces, green, deep blue and magenta look unflattering. See Lighting the first dance.
Step by step
- Tap a palette under “Colors” in the Studio. “Orange ↔ Azure” and “Green ↔ Magenta” are built on opposite colors.
- For the couple's colors, tap the dots under “Your colors:” or use “From photo”, see Using colors from a photo. The moods use the first three colors the most.
- Too cold or too warm? Use “Warmer” or “Cooler” under “A bit more …”.
- For a new color from the chorus on, open Effect lanes, set the playhead and tap a palette on the “Master · whole show” card under “Color world from the playhead”, see Master lane and palette changes.
- To put opposite colors on one group, use “Complementary pair” or “Color split” in Effect lanes. For gradients, use “Gradient” or “Flowing gradient”, see Base effects.
Questions
Usually too many colors run at once or at random. Pick two main colors and change them at the next song part.
Heads with a color wheel only show the colors on that wheel. Change a color wheel while the head is dark.
More from “Lighting know-how”
- Why variety mattersA show works through contrast. If every light runs all the time, everything ends up looking the same and the big moment gets lost. Dark, calm stretches are what make a peak feel big.free to read
- Building a song show: from intro to dropA good song show retells the song: it starts small, opens up in the chorus, takes a breath in the middle and saves the brightest moment for the end. Droplit builds this arc by itself. Once you know how it works, you can fix things with more purpose.free to read
- Lead your moving heads, don't just wave themMoving heads get noticed right away. If they circle all the time, the show looks restless. Well-led heads often stand still, change position with purpose and move when the music calls for it.free to read
- Using gobos, rotation and prism wellA gobo is a small stencil inside a moving head that shapes the beam into a pattern. Add rotation and a prism and one head can give you many different pictures, as long as you use the three tools on purpose.free to read
- Uplights in the room: putting color on the wallsUplights stand on the floor and light the walls. They give the room its base color and often stay on when everything else goes dark. That makes them the foundation of every show.free to read