Outdoor Lighting Tips

How to Apply Concert Lighting to Outdoor Area

May 9th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

If you’ve ever been to a concert then you have probably been wowed by the amazing display of lighting. The techniques used in musical concert are only used to enhance the mood of the music being played. Whether it’s indoor or outdoor these lighting techniques uses subtleties in order to highlight the band playing without being to overwhelming.

Are you looking for something new for you landscaping? Concert lighting outdoors could be the special addition you need. Here are some tips to help you with your concert outdoor lighting.

Rule #1 - Light from the Back

While lighting in traditional theater usually comes from the front, with big floodlights and spotlights providing illumination to see the action, your outdoor concert lighting should come more from behind what you’re trying to illuminate. Concert lighting is more to establish mood and identity than eliminate, and by putting your lighting in the rear and illuminating from behind, you will create more interesting plays of light and shadow.

Rule #2 - Decide Who Your Star Is

Just as most bands have a leader in their group; your outdoor concert lighting ensemble should have someone who takes center stage, so to speak. Decide what that centerpiece is going to be, whether it’s a decorative fountain, your prize rosebush, or a clump of well-tended flowers. Among all the parts of the landscape you’re trying to illuminate, this centerpiece alone should be the only one to have any lighting come from the front, your one exception to the rule of lighting from the back.

Rule #4 - Use Color

If you think about businesses and gardens with stunning landscaping or outdoor lighting, you’ll realize that the sort of display made was probably not just of light, but of color as well. Your outdoor lighting, like in concert lighting, should involve a little color. This is a lot easier to accomplish these days since outdoor lighting is available with LED displays, which can easily and cheaply provide color to what you’re trying to illuminate.

Rule #5 - Use Variety and Simplicity

To create an amazing display of light you will need to use different and complementary colors for your back lights. The same goes for what you will use to illuminate your centerpiece. The goal here is to set the mood without illuminating too much, this is very important. Don’t fall in the trap of illuminating too much, this will create glare and your concert outdoor lighting setup will be too bright to look at in the dark. As I said, use color as your backlights to set a relaxing mood.

Make sure you follow These 5 basics rules, doing this will make sure you have an amazing outdoor concert lighting display.