gobo

Create the Dance Floor with Texture Lighting

January 11, 2017 By Brian King Leave a Comment

dance floor texture lighting wedding — No dance floor? No problem! Define the dance floor with dynamic texture lighting. Two texture projectors on either side of the dance floor create the space for guests to dance.

Not every venue has a defined dance floor area. Instead of bringing in a dance floor, create one using texture lighting for a fraction of the cost. Texture lighting is an effective way to create a dynamic dance floor experience.

Create the Dancefloor, Texture Lighting

One of our favorite ways of personalizing the dance floor is by using a design the couple is featuring in other aspects of their decor and creating texture lighting. In this case it was a design from the wedding couples invitations.

We helped shape the vine design into a form that would define their dance floor on a large open space they wanted to use for dancing. It not only looks good for photos but also adds some additional lighting that helps your photos turn out better.

Types of Lighting Used

This wedding also features wireless uplighting around the walls of the room in amber with pops of purple. Using pops of color at the entryway, around the stage area, and other focal areas in the space help define areas in the room and pull together linens and other elements of the wedding decor together.

White christmas string lighting around each of the archways that was already in the venue. The venue also has chandeliers on dimmers higher up in the ceiling that provide some ambient light in the room.

white wedding cake with cake spotlight — Cake spotlights illuminate the wedding cake so it can be enjoyed by all of your guests.

Pin-spot lighting highlights the taller centerpieces on each of the tables. Without pin-spot lighting centerpieces can appear dark, dull and drab when incorporating other lighting into your wedding.

Lighting on the cake in the form of a cake spotlight helps make the cake pop so that you can feature a beautiful design element that’s often forgotten.

Incorporating multiple lighting elements into an event creates a complete look that helps create the perfect place to have a celebration.

Venue: St. Francis Hall – Washington, DC
Catering: Main Event Caterers – Arlington, VA

St. Patrick’s Day Gobos – Shamrocks, Leprechauns, Gold & Rainbows

February 20, 2014 By Brian King Leave a Comment

st. patricks day gobos stock templates — St. Patricks day gobos that can be used as texture lighting to add Irish flair to your event.

St. Patrick’s Day is an international holiday celebrated by Irish and Irish-for-a-day around the world. Whether your party is in a bar, pub, hotel, conference center, house, or outside, using gobo lighting can be an easy and really cost-effective way to decorate.

Our collection of St. Patrick’s Day gobos are perfect for getting the feel of the Emerald Isle at your event. These are great to use with any of our texture lighting rentals. We can also create them for use in any LED projector that will take a transparency gobo.

Add a little luck of the Irish to your party with our St. Patrick’s Day gobos!

How to Choose a Gobo Size

February 10, 2014 By Brian King Leave a Comment

side by side comparison of different gobo sizes — Side by side differences in gobo sizes.

The gobo size that you need is based on the light fixture that will project that gobo. Many traditional theater style lights like a Source 4 ellipsoidal light or LEKO light will use a size B gobo (about the diameter of a coke can). Cheap DJ effect lights like the Chauvet Zoom or American DJ LED gobo projector use a custom gobo size that is about the size of a dime.

Why different gobo sizes?

It’s based on the the power of the light source.

More powerful light sources use bigger gobo sizes because there is more light to shoot through a larger template and the template needs more surface area to dissipate heat. Stronger light sources result in a brighter, bigger image but often comes at the expense of a larger sized light fixture.

Small cheap effect lights like the Chauvet Zoom, American DJ Gobo Projector LED are not recommended. These lights use teeny-tiny gobo templates to project with limiting detail and brightness. These lights may look good in a small dark bedroom or living room but don’t hold up to real life events of more than 30 people.

monogram wedding reception lighting mount ida farm — Example of a D-sized transparency gobo used at an event results in an extremely clear image.

Smaller gobo sizes mean there is less physical space to print detailed images. Smaller gobos are better suited for blockier, less detailed designs like the cross shape used in the smallest gobo in our example photo. More detailed designs like those used for weddings are better suited to larger gobo sizes (E-size or bigger).

When considering a gobo light this is what we recommend:

E-Size or bigger gobo
A light fixture that supports multiple lenses
At least a 30w (LED) light source

Common gobo sizes

Here is a table of some popular standardized gobo sizes and common light fixtures that use those gobo sizes:

Letter Size	O.D. (mm)	I.A. (mm)	Notes
A Size	100	75
B Size	86	64.5	Standard Size for Ellipsoidal lights (Source 4, Source 4 Zoom)
M Size	66	48	Source 4 Jr.
G Size	65.5	48	For Clay Paky Goldenscans
D Size	53.3	38	Martin PR-1, LEDSpot 40
E Size	37.5	28	LEDSpot 25, LEDSpot 30
O.D = Outside Diameter; I.A. = Image Area

The OD (Outer Diameter) number is the diameter of the actual template itself. The IA (Image Area) number is the useable are that can be used to print the image used for the gobo. It’s important to know these numbers when ordering a gobo, especially the IA. The IA can change from light fixture to light fixture even for commonly used gobo sizes. Make sure you know the OD and the IA of the gobo size for your particular lighting fixture you’ll be using for your event. Also know what types of gobos your light supports.

chauvet zoom gobo 2.0 vs LED 40 — Gobo sizes compared showing a Chauvet Gobo Zoom 2.0 vs. the LED 40 lights Superlative Events uses.

Bottom Line

When ordering a gobo know the OD and the IA of the light fixture you’re using. Realize that larger gobo sizes can support higher levels of detail in the resulting image. Most corporate gobos are B-size.

Questions, corrections, comments? Let us know in the comments below.

Baby Announcement Design with Gobo Light

February 4, 2014 By Brian King Leave a Comment

two color pink and blue gobo template — Two color gobo template with circles that inspired the design.

We are expecting our first child and there is a lot of pressure that comes with that! The most pressure (so far) came from announcing our child to the world…

People expect designers to be creative, they expect us to do things that other people wouldn’t spend 5 seconds on, and they expect it to be amazing. In other words, pressure.

Any designer can tell you, it’s easy being creative for other people but being creative for yourself and for your future progeny is a whole different ball game.

The Concept

My wife Kari is the real designer in the family. She was on Etsy and was inspired by a great example of our last name “King” with a crown in the design on the front of a onesie. Going with the regal theme and the play on our last name she wanted it to say “Heir Apparent” somewhere and the expected date of our progeny.

It made it easier to think of Kari as the client and then coming up with ideas around her vision.

Making It

I knew that the design would require taking over our living room. We ordered the onesie and on the day it arrived Kari had to go to a work function and I thought it would be the perfect time to create the announcement and take over the house. I knew that I wanted a soft pink and blue in the background and I wanted to the shirt to really pop out of the background. I made the pink and blue gobo design so I could get the pink and blue aspect of the design to pop out of the background when projected with a gobo light.

I knew that the white onesie would have to be in focus while the background would need to be blurred. I used some twine and two lighting stands to hang the shirt from so I could get enough distance between the shirt and the background to get the blur effect right. I also knew I needed a ton of light specifically on the shirt so I could get a really high contrast look so I ended up using three of our cake spotlight rental lights.

I needed a wall to project on and a flat boring wall wasn’t interesting enough. I ended up using the curtains for our windows on the front of our house to project onto. The light did a really great job covering up the gray and white scroll pattern on the window treatment while adding some texture and interest in behind the colored circles of light.

I used a prime 50mm lens shot at f/1.8 so I could get a blurred background while keeping the shirt in focus.

king birth announcement crown onesie — The final birth announcement that we created.

The Final Result

As with most creative endeavors the devil’s in the details. I added some detail to the clothes pins holding the onesie to make them blue and pink, added a crown to the label on the shirt, enhanced the contrast and some colors as well as adding the text.

It helps having an entire inventory of lighting at my disposal, but thinking creatively with light can enable a number of design ideas and projects that would be otherwise impossible to do. Texture lighting like the gobo lights are infinitely versatile and we can help you come up with a way to use lighting creatively for your projects.

I think it came out pretty well and most importantly checked off the hardest part of having a child (so far). What do you think? Ideas, thoughts, comment below.

Will a Gobo Projection Show Up on Black Pipe & Drape?

January 30, 2014 By Brian King Leave a Comment

gobo projection on black pipe and drape — Gobo projection on black pipe and drape from 8ft away.

Many of our clients want to project their logos on to black or white pipe and drape and wonder if it will look good. Yes! The results can look great!

The gobo projector is bright, crisp, and clear enabling it to look great on any surface. Corporate clients like our gobo lights because they are easy to transport and come with accessories offering a simple flexible setup for any space. You typically don’t see your booth space until you get to the tradeshow and the last thing you need to worry about is if your logo will show up correctly.

In this example we wanted to show the gobo light setup projecting in a real world situation. We used one of our client’s logos for the projection right before the light shipped out to their event.

Notice the terrible overhead fluorescent lighting, cramped space and thin black tradeshow banjo fabric. We projected from a distance of around 8ft away from the fabric (what you might typically have in a small booth space) using a narrow 15 degree lens. The resulting image was about 2.5ft across and looked really bright on the black fabric. You can control the size of the image using the included lenses in the light kit so if you need a bigger or smaller image you can change it quickly and easily.

In small tradeshow booths you can also project on the ceiling or the floor in front of your booth space to increase the size and visibility of your booth. Each light features a slow rotation option if you wanted to add a dynamic moving component to your logo.

Whether your fabric or surface you are projecting on is black, white, red, blue, green, yellow, magenta or plaid, your image will look bright, crisp and clear.