Stage fixture accessories come in many flavors. There are barn doors, top hats, snoots, half hats, extenders, irises, scrollers, and frames to name a few. All are designed to get the most out of your lighting fixture. Let’s get started today by examining front-end accessories. Check back for more later.
Barn Doors:
Ta Da!
Barn doors, or a set of barn doors, is an attachment that can be fitted to the front of a Fresnel. These are four leaves, or doors. Two outer and two inner leaves, which open much like a set of real barn doors, hence the nickname. Barn doors on a Fresnel facilitate shaping of the light and prevent the distinctive scatter made by the Fresnel lens. This comes in handy when reducing light spill from highlighting parts of the stage that should remain dim. Barn doors are also useful in reducing glare from the Fresnel lens spilling into the audience’s eyes.
Top Hats & Half Hats:
NOT REALLY
REALLY
Top hats for stage lighting instruments are not formal wear for the grid. These are also known as a stove pipe or snoot and shaped like a top hat with a hole in the top, and the brim being able to be inserted into the gel frame holder of the fixture to secure the top hat in place. The cylinder allows light to pass through but takes away the glint of a lighting instrument facing the audience. Considering most lighting designers do not want to blind their audiences, it’s a very useful stage fixture accessory. Top hats also reduce glare created by the light, which is often useful when the unit is hung near the proscenium or other things that the designer does not want to highlight. There are also half-hats or "eyelashes", which function in a similar manner but have only half the cylinder, and short hats, which are shorter in length. Top hats are available in varying sizes for different lighting instruments.
Gel Extender
Gel extenders are similar to top hats in appearance, being a tube placed over the end of a lighting fixture. Unlike top hats, however, gel extenders have a color frame holder built into the end to allow color gel to be mounted. In addition to the advantages of a top hat, these also allow for color to be used. Extenders not only extend out from the lighting fixture, but they can also extend the life of your gel.
Next time we will take a look at accessories that can be placed in different parts of the fixture and allow you to do more than just direct the beam of light. Just as there are many different theatrical stage lights, there are a plethora of accessories to go with them. StageSpot has what you need, so let us know if you can’t find what you need.
