Even with the recent influx of LED fixtures, we are still using lots of lighting fixtures in our productions that put out a ton of heat. While you may not notice the heat directly most of the time, the products you have around your lighting fixtures will. The product most affected by this heat is gel. In some cases, you can burn right through all of the color in one sheet in just a few shows. Below we will explore two options to help make that color last longer and help cool down anything directly in the path of your hot fixtures.
Rosco Super Heat Shield
Rosco's Super Heat Shield is an extremely heat stable polymer based gel coated with a resin. What does that mean? You can put this sheet of gel between your light source and your colored gel to reduce the amount of heat reaching the colored gel.
Where to place heat shield and how it works.
Heat shield should be placed at least 1 inch from the colored gel it is protecting. In most cases you will want to add a color extender to the front of your fixture to get the space needed for airflow. While adding a color extender will in and of itself help to prolong the life of the gel, adding the heat shield will give you even extra protection. The heat shield helps to absorb much of the heat before it is passed through to the colored gel while the extender just simply moves the gel further from the main heat source.
Thermashield
A second protective filter often used with intense heat is Thermashield. While Thermashield can be used to protect gels as well, its main purpose is to deflect heat away from the subjects you will be lighting.
Rosco's Thermashield is an optical grade polyester film, finished on one side with a proprietary vacuum-deposited multi-layer coating. This means some very smart people have developed a sheet of gel that will reflect back infra-red energy, effectively reducing the amount of heat that comes out the front of the fixture.
In most theater cases, the lighting fixtures are not hot enough nor are they close enough to the subject to create damaging heat. In TV, film, and commercial use however, the heat from the intense lighting can be damaging to people and product. The last thing you want to do while filming an ad is destroy the product by melting it with the lighting!
Without Thermashield, products can be damaged by the heat of the lights.
The use of Thermasheild will allow a user to implement gel into their looks where previously only glass colored filters could be used. It is important to note that Thermashield will reduce the transmission of light by approximately 20% as well as raise the color temperature of the light source by approximately 300 degrees. These changes should be considered if the user has very specific lighting requirements.
Now instead of constantly changing your color or sweating under the unbearably hot lights, you have options. Keep that heat at bay and protect your projects with Rosco's protective lighting filters. We here at StageSpot are always on standby to help you take the heat off the talent and put it into the show!
