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Adventures in Lighting: Fixtures 101: Shape and Shadow: Meet the Ellipsoidal Reflector Spotlight (ERS) By: Jay Holben
ETC Source 4 |
ERS lights are more commonly called Lekos, or sometimes Klieg lights by the real old-timers. These nicknames are based on two manufacturers’ brand names: Century Lighting’s Joseph Levy and Edward Kook developed the Lekolite ERS fixture, while rival lighting business Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company Kliegl Bros. Props. developed the Klieg light. (The name Leko is now a trademark of Strand Lighting.)
Many film and video shooters today know the fixture by a new brand name, Source Four, an invention of ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls), which manufactures a high-quality, versatile version of the ERS.
An ellipsoidal reflector spotlight features a built-in reflector in the shape of half an ellipse. By positioning the source light within the ellipse, rays of light emanating from the source are bounced off the surface and reflected to a single point, called the conjugate focal point (CFP). The light rays converge at the CFP and then diverge from there. The fixture’s double lenses located just after the CFP refract and focus the light to create a very efficient spotlight that can project light over great distances.
ERS lights feature an aperture, called the gate, located just before the CFP that cuts off unfocused beams of light and forms the shape of the light to be projected through the fixture’s lenses. The gate has four adjustable shutters, solid metal blades that can be inserted into the gate to further shape the beam of light. This is like building four flags into the fixture that allow the user to cut light off of unwanted areas and shape the beam into almost any simple linear shape.
All ERS fixtures feature a series of lenses that focus and project the beam. These lenses, generally just a pair of plano-convex lenses, can be adjusted closer or further from the CFP to sharply focus or defocus the beam at different distances.
ERS fixtures come in various sizes, generally described by two numbers: the diameter of the lens (listed first) and the length of the barrel. The longer the barrel, the farther the lenses are from the CFP and the narrower the projected beam will be. The final number is the field of projection for the beam angle (center, hottest portion) of the light. The smaller that number, the more focused the beam is.
3 1/2” x 6” = 25°
3 1/2” x 8” = 18°
3 1/2” x 10” = 16°
4 1/2” x 6 1/2” = 33°
6” x 9” = 24°
6” x 12” = 16°
6” x 16” = 15°
6” x 22” = 8°
8” x 9” = 7°
10” x 12” = 7°
ERS fixtures are available from 250W to 1,000W, with the most common being the 750W ETC Source Four fixture.
Conjugate focal point |
I used this effect several times later in my career. The first time I pulled it out of my bag of tricks I was a cinematographer on a film called Mothman. I was in Point Pleasant, W.Va., and in a nearly identical situation—second floor and no access to lighting through the window—so we lit the window from the inside instead.
I have often used ERS fixtures to spotlight some object in the background, to shape light on the set or to introduce a pattern and breakup of light.
The ERS is a versatile fixture that works great for lighting specific portions of sets or locations with patterns or specific cuts of light. They’re very controllable and efficient lights.
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Blog Note: There are a lot of these fixtures that are now available with LED lamps making the lamp life longer and the energy use lower. While bright, as of right now, are not for very long throw applications, but newer, brighter technology seems to be coming to market monthly and it will not be long until there is an equal to the tungsten-halogen fixtures we've been using for years.