The lighting plan
A floor plan a gaffer can pre-rig from: where each lamp stands, what it is, how high, how wide it opens and what it is rigged with. Here is what belongs on one, and a hundred real fixtures to draw with.
Eleven things, and two of them are invisible
A lighting diagram is drawn from above, which makes it very good at answering where things are and physically incapable of answering how high they are. The two facts it cannot draw are the two most often left off it.
- A lighting plan is a floor plan. It shows where things stand in relation to each other, which is the question a gaffer is answering when they walk in with a stand in each hand. A picture of the lit result is a reference, not a plan.
- Not a triangle from a symbol library. A 24mm on a full frame sees 74 degrees and an 85mm sees 24, and the difference decides whether the stand at the edge of the drawing is in the shot. If the plan draws the same wedge for every lens it is lying about the only thing it is for. The whole table, for every lens on every format, is on the field of view page.
- The one fact a drawing seen from above physically cannot show, which is exactly why it has to be written down. A key at 1.6m and a key at 3.2m are different lighting states with identical plans, and height is the difference between a soft top light and a lamp in somebody's eyeline.
- How wide the light opens. It decides whether one source covers two people, and it is the number most often left off a plan because most people do not know it off the top of their head. Worth stating even approximately.
- In kelvin, per fixture, because the plan is also the argument about whether the practicals get gelled. 3200K beside 5600K in the same frame is a decision, and it should be visible in prep rather than discovered on the monitor.
- As a percentage or as a stop, not as an adjective. "Bring it down a bit" is a conversation. "40%" is a plan.
- Silk, diffusion, a book, a flag, a bounce. They belong on the plan because they change the light and they belong on the packing list because they are physical objects: three sources through diffusion need three frames of diffusion, and that is the sentence a plan should be able to produce on its own.
- A dot marked ANNA rather than a dot marked "subject". A plan that names the people in it can be read against the scene, and the same name on scene 4 and scene 9 is the same person rather than two identical dots.
- Its size in metres, the walls, the doors and the windows. Where the walls are decides where the stands cannot go and where the light stops, and a window with a colour temperature written on it is a source, not a hole. A plan floating in a void is a diagram; a plan in a room is a plot.
- A backdrop has a width and a face and no beam, which is why it is not a fixture with the light switched off. A flag is drawn because it blocks light, and a plan that draws it without blocking anything is decoration.
- Where the actors stand and where the camera lands. Half the value of a plan is that the marks were agreed before the day rather than negotiated during it.
Four ways a plan stops being useful
- A plan is for one gaffer, on one morning, often on a phone. If it needs a legend it has failed. Name the lamp.
- It depends on the reflector, the lens and the spot-flood position. Every published figure, including the ones on this page, is a sensible opening value rather than a fact about the product. State it, then change it when the lamp is in the room.
- The plan says three heads through silk. Somebody still has to know that means three frames and three stands. If the two documents are made separately, one of them will be wrong on the morning, and it will be the packing list.
- A scene with a reverse is two lighting states, and pretending otherwise is how a unit loses forty minutes turning around.
118 fixtures, by what it costs to get hold of
Grouped by how you get one rather than by who makes it, because that is the axis people actually shop on. Somebody with three budget heads and somebody speccing an 18K are both planning a film, and a list organised by manufacturer answers neither of them.
Wattage and colour temperature are properties of the lamp and are stated as facts. Beam angle is deliberately not listed here , because it depends on the reflector fitted and the spot-flood position, and a table that printed one number per lamp would be stating a decision as a specification. Frameboard fills in a sensible opening angle when you place one, and expects you to change it.
Owned, budget · 41
- Godox SL60W
- Godox SL150 II
- Godox SL200 II
- Godox VL150
- Godox VL300
- Godox ML60
- Godox LiteMons LA200D
- Neewer 660 LED panel
- Neewer CB200B
- Amaran 100d
- Amaran 100x
- Amaran 200d
- Amaran 200x
- Amaran 300c
- Amaran 60x
- Amaran P60c
- Amaran F21c
- Aputure MC
- Aputure MT Pro
- Nanlite PavoTube II 6C
- Nanlite Forza 60B
- Nanlite Forza 150
- Nanlite Forza 300B
- Zhiyun Molus X100
- SmallRig RC120D
- Redhead 800W
- China ball
- Practical bulb in shot
- LED tape run
- Candle
- Sodium street lamp
- 4x8 polyboard
- 4x4 polyboard
- 4x4 floppy
- 24x36 flag
- 18x24 flag
- 4x4 frame, 216
- Godox AD200Pro
- Godox AD400Pro
- Godox AD600Pro
- Westcott FJ400
Owned, working kit · 50
- Aputure 120d II
- Aputure LS 300d II
- Aputure LS 300x
- Aputure LS 600d Pro
- Aputure LS 600x Pro
- Aputure LS 600c Pro
- Aputure LS 1200d Pro
- Aputure Nova P300c
- Aputure Nova P600c
- Aputure Electro Storm CS15
- Nanlux Evoke 900C
- Nanlux Evoke 1200
- Nanlux Dyno 650C
- Litepanels Gemini 1x1
- Litepanels Gemini 2x1
- Kino Flo Diva-Lite 401
- Kino Flo Celeb 450 DMX
- Astera Titan Tube
- Astera Helios Tube
- Astera NYX Bulb
- Quasar Science Rainbow 2, 4ft
- Quasar Science Rainbow 2, 2ft
- Creamsource Vortex8
- Creamsource Vortex4
- Dedolight DLED4
- ARRI 300 Plus Fresnel
- ARRI 650 Plus Fresnel
- ARRI 1000 Plus Fresnel
- Arrilite 750 open face
- Blonde 2000W
- Dedolight DLH4 150W
- K5600 Joker 400
- K5600 Joker 800
- 6x6 Ultrabounce
- Mirror board
- Shiny board
- 4x4 cutter
- 6x6 frame, silk
- 4x4 neg
- Book light rig
- Profoto A10
- Profoto B10X
- Profoto B10X Plus
- Profoto B1X
- Profoto D2 1000
- Broncolor Siros 800 L
- Elinchrom ELB 500 TTL
- Elinchrom FIVE
- Beauty dish (22in)
- 5ft octabox
Hired for the day · 27
- ARRI SkyPanel S30-C
- ARRI SkyPanel S60-C
- ARRI SkyPanel S120-C
- ARRI SkyPanel S360-C
- ARRI Orbiter
- ARRI L5-C LED Fresnel
- ARRI L7-C LED Fresnel
- ARRI L10-C LED Fresnel
- LiteGear LiteMat Spectrum 2L
- LiteGear LiteMat Spectrum 4
- ARRI 2000 Plus Fresnel, Junior
- Mole-Richardson 1K Baby
- Mole-Richardson 2K Junior
- Mole-Richardson 5K Senior
- Arrilite 2000 open face
- K5600 Joker 1600
- ARRI M8 HMI
- ARRI M18 HMI
- ARRI M40 HMI
- ARRI M90 HMI
- ARRI 1200 HMI Fresnel
- ARRI 2500 HMI Fresnel
- ARRI 4000 HMI Fresnel
- 12x12 frame, silk
- 8x8 solid
- Profoto Pro-11 pack
- Broncolor Scoro 3200 S pack
The plan is drawn, the light is modelled, the van is packed
- ANNA4.0 m × 3.0 m
- A cam· 50mm4.0 m × 4.3 m
- Key40°5600K· 1.2k HMI1.7 m × 3.0 m
- Fill100°3200K30%6.4 m × 4.0 m
Lit preview
ANNAA preview, not a render: direction, height, colour and softness come from the plan. It does not predict exposure.
A 1.2k through a softbox, camera left at eye level. The face is lit from the side; the shadow falls away from camera.
Every scheduling tool has a box marked “lighting”. Frameboard draws the plan: a room in metres with its walls, doors and windows, real fixtures from the catalogue at a stated height, and light that behaves like light. Beams fall off with distance, add where they cross so a warm key over a cool fill stays warm and cool, and stop at walls, flags and backdrops. A window with a colour temperature spills daylight into the room through the actual hole in the actual wall.
Beside the plan, a preview of the subject lit by that rig, recomputed as you move a lamp: direction from where it stands, elevation from its height, colour from its kelvin, hard or soft from what is on it. It is a preview, not a render, and it does not predict exposure. What it does is show you the shadow before the day.
Drawing the plan is the same act as speccing the kit. Place an Aputure 600d at 3.2 metres with diffusion on it, and the plan reads “3.2 m · Diff” while the packing list grows a row under Lighting and a row under Grip. Nobody edits the packing list. Plans export as a PDF with the rig list under the diagram, or as a PNG for the group chat, on every plan including the free one.
- Size in metres, shapeable outer wall, interior walls, doors, windows that can be a source
- Kind, height, beam, colour, intensity, modifiers, from a catalogue of a hundred real lamps
- Inverse-square falloff, additive where beams cross, penumbra per instrument, shadows from walls, flags and backdrops
- The subject shaded by the rig, updated as you drag; labelled a preview, never a render
- The packing list, grouped into lighting and grip, and the call sheet's gear line
- PDF with the rig list, PNG, and the share link
What is a lighting plan?
A floor plan of a set showing where each light stands, what it is, how high it is, how wide it opens and what it is rigged with, along with the camera, the subject and the walls. It is what a gaffer pre-rigs from.
Who draws the lighting diagram?
The DP or the gaffer, usually together, in prep. On a small unit it is whoever is holding the camera, which is exactly why it needs to be quick to draw.
What software do you use for lighting diagrams?
Most DPs use whatever is nearest: a whiteboard photo, Illustrator, a blocking app with lighting symbols, or a photographer's 3D simulator. Each does one part. Frameboard draws the plan in the room, models the light so beams add and walls block, previews the subject under the rig, and turns the fixtures into rows on the packing list without anybody retyping them, inside the same production as the shot list and the call sheet.
Does the beam angle on a lighting plan have to be exact?
No, and it cannot be. Beam depends on the reflector fitted and the spot-flood position. An approximate figure that everybody can see beats an exact one nobody wrote down.
Why does height matter on a lighting plan?
Because a plan is drawn from above, so height is the one thing the drawing cannot show. A key at 1.6m and a key at 3.2m produce completely different images from identical diagrams.
How many lighting plans does a production need?
One per lighting state, not one per scene. A scene shot from two directions is usually two states, and the turnaround is where the time goes.
Draw the plan where the shots already are
Lighting plans are on every plan, exports included. So is the gear list they write.
Related: what belongs on a call sheet, shot sizes and what each is for, and everything else Frameboard does.