This is an essential practical guide to how colour works in light. Written from the perspective of a theatrical lighting designer, it discusses how to see colour, how to construct effective lighting palettes, and how to make use of both colour filters and colour-mixing LED fixtures to create compositions that work well with scenery and costumes to tell compelling stories. We are presently at the leading edge of a revolution in theatrical lighting, redefining how it can be used to create and communicate. Todays LED-based additive colour-mixing fixtures require new methodologies and new ways of thinking, and the book directly addresses this technologys potentials and challenges. But underpinning lightings many recent technological changes is the fundamental language of colour that artists have worked with since the birth of humanitys artistic urges. More saturated vs. less, warmer vs. cooler, more green vs. more magenta, recessive vs. dominant -- the bedrock language of colour manipulation endures, whether you are putting paintbrush to canvas or calling up colour attributes on a high-tech lighting console. Balancing the basics and the latest innovations, this is a book for everyone involved artistically with light and colour. It will enhance your understanding of how a lighting setup works from a colour perspective, while equipping you with the language to communicate about colour with your collaborators.
Clifton Taylor has created designs for theater, dance, and opera companies on Broadway, regionally across the United States, and in 17 countries around the world. He is a sought-after teacher and lecturer on theatrical lighting, especially in the areas of color and light, regularly speaking at NYU and at LDI (Live Design International). He presented lectures on color at New Yorks Broadway Lighting Master Class for 17 years and is a former member of the Juilliard Schools dance faculty. (For more information about Clifton Taylor, please visit www.designcurve.com.)
In this extraordinary book Clifton Taylor offers a clear, concise explanation of COLOR, its manifestation in nature, the old and new technologies, and, most essentially, how to think about and select color for the stage. No one can now run a credible lighting design course without this book.Beverly Emmons, Tony Award and Drama Desk Awardnominated lighting designer
For anyone who has to choose color in light, this book is invaluable. It offers a contemporary understanding of the effects of colored light in the theater and of where the new lighting technology shall lead us.Jules Fisher, nine-time Tony Awardwinning lighting designer
Color & Light is a wonderful resource for lighting designers, photographers, and visual artists. It is well laid out and easy to navigate. Clifton touches on necessary components like storytelling, communicating style, service to performers, scenery and costumes, and rendering space. This is a great educational tool for both beginning and seasoned artists and will be an asset to any designers library. Bravo!Howell Binkley, two-time Tony Awardwinning lighting designer
Color and Light is an important and astonishingly timely contribution to the literature of stage lighting. . . . Color in nature is constantly shifting all around us; its ability to affect our deepest emotions is a powerful weapon in the designers toolkit. The advent of multicolored LED sources vastly increasesand massively complicatesour ability to handle color on the stage. This book brilliantly introduces us to this new and wondrous complexity, explains the science behind human color perception (metamers and so on), and explores how this totally new ability to paint with light of infinitely subtle color can enrich our storytelling on the stages of tomorrow.Richard Pilbrow, lighting designer, theater design consultant, and author of Stage Lighting and Stage Lighting Design: The Art, the Craft, the Life
Finding just the right color, so often the most personal part of lighting design, can be an almost scary task, solved by trial and error. But Clifton Taylor breaks down the mystery of color into language readily understood and immediately useful. His clarity and expertise make finding the right color much less daunting.Ken Billington, Tony Award and Drama Desk Awardwinning lighting designer
