Gobo Projector Rental, Gobo Design, Rent DIY Lighting

Damask lighting on the wall with blue uplighting and pin-spots on the centerpieces.

Damask texture lighting on the walls help give a large space a touch of elegance for a wedding. It also helps cover up two large ugly cork boards that are located at the end of the room. Texture lighting helps cover up unsightly room features easily.

Blue wireless uplighting around the room helps give color and pull the decor items of the wedding together.

Pin-spots on the tables are the finishing touch making each of the centerpieces pop and bringing light to each of the guests tables. Using pin-spots with uplights is a great combination and brightens the center of the room for photos where the guests are.

Venue: Masonic Temple – Alexandria, VA

White uplighting enhances the beauty of a wedding at Hotel Monaco in Alexandria, VA.

White uplighting is an elegant way to transform a hotel ballroom for a wedding. Wireless uplighting elegantly enhances the elegant ballroom at Hotel Monaco in Old Town Alexandria, VA.

Pin-spot lighting on the centerpieces makes the clean and elegant white flowers pop.

A cake spotlight makes the cake shine and shimmer and looks amazing in the white color scheme used for the wedding. This lighting works really well with the monogram lighting that is projected behind the cake for a beautiful way to personalize the space.

Texture lighting of a vine at the far wall of the ballroom adds a touch of elegance to the stale hotel ballroom walls.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

Mount Ida Farm in Charlottesville, VA is a beautiful wedding venue and it was the perfect fit for a wedding for Ben Erwin and Sara Gwinn.

Sara is a very talented print and graphic designer so it was great working with her and getting a beautiful design to showcase at her wedding. The monogram was completely her design and captured the feeling of their personality and the personality of the venue and the urban barn feel that they created.

We used uplighting that started off amber earlier in the wedding reception and changed over to purple later in the evening. Texture lighting was used on either side of a massive 20ft barn window door that was flanked on either side by white drape. We designed the texture lighting to incorporate design elements that Sara had used in her monogram to plant her design element into the space re-iterating the beautiful farm vibe that was also present.

Lighting, Entertainment & Photobooth: Superlative Events – Arlington, VA
Venue: Mount Ida Farm – Charlottesville, VA

This is a great example of wedding rental lights that we offer working together for a wedding. In working with wedding lighting it’s best to work in combinations of three lighting elements. This example features a focal point (monogram), highlights (cake), and color (uplighting). This creates a complete lighting design and our rental lighting makes it easy. This wedding lighting was setup at Sequoia Restaurant in Georgetown (Washington, DC).

In this lighting example it shows the rental monogram light projecting their logo on a stone wall above the cake. The cake features our rental cake spotlighting that really helps the cake pop and shine in a dark space. Throughout the room shows when you rent battery powered LED uplighting. Fuchsia is a great color for these lights and it did a great job pulling together the colors of the flowers and the accent vases, candle holders, and the napkins.

Venue: Sequoia Georgetown – Washington, DC
Lighting Design: Superlative Events

This is a great example of our wedding monogram rental light combined with our battery powered uplighting rental. This photo was taken in the afternoon before it was dark outside opposite to a bank of windows on the other side of the room. The light and the battery powered amber uplighting held up well to the sunlight coming in from the windows on the other side of the room.

Venue: Lansdowne Resort Clubhouse – Lansdowne, VA
Entertainment: Superlative Events