How a Lighting Plan Gets Built, Rigged and Balanced Before Doors Open

Before any lamp is chosen, we visit the space, whether that is our client's studio, a hall or a hotel ballroom. I go with Daniel Thorpe, our Director of Photography, and we spend the first hour mostly not talking about lights at all. We look at ceiling height, where the power comes from, how much daylight leaks in, what colour the walls are, and where the cameras will need to stand.

These details decide more than any equipment list. A low ceiling rules out a deep overhead grid. A pale wall will bounce light back onto a presenter's face whether we like it or not. A window on the north side will drift in colour across a long afternoon, and a window on the south side will drift in brightness as well.

We take photographs, pace out distances and note the position of every socket and rigging point we can find. That record becomes the first page of the lighting plan, and it saves a surprising number of phone calls later.

• Ceiling height and available rigging points
• Power supply and how many circuits are free
• Daylight sources and how they change during the day
• Wall, floor and set colours that will reflect light

Producers describe programmes in terms of format and mood: a calm interview, a lively panel, a studio quiz with a bright, busy set. We translate that into lighting questions. How many people are in shot at once? Do they stay seated or move about? Is the camera mostly on tight faces or on wide shots of the whole set?

A seated interview lets us build a careful key and fill around two fixed positions. A moving presenter needs wider, softer coverage so that the face stays readable across the whole floor. A panel of five needs enough separation that nobody sits in someone else's shadow.

We also ask what the pictures will be used for, because a programme made for broadcast, a recording for an organisation's own use and a live feed to a screen in the room each tolerate different amounts of contrast. Those answers shape the plan before a single fixture is picked.

The key light is the main source on a face, and nearly every other decision is made in relation to it. We choose its position and softness first, usually a larger soft source placed slightly to one side of the lens and a little above eye level. Too high and the eyes sink into shadow; too flat and the face loses all shape.

Fill light then lifts the shadow side without erasing it. The ratio between key and fill is where much of the look of a programme comes from. A news-style set is fairly even, while a drama-influenced interview can afford more contrast and more mood.

Backlight comes last. A gentle edge of light from behind separates a person from the set, which matters most when the set colours are close to skin tones. We build these three layers one at a time and look at each on a monitor, rather than switching everything on and judging the sum.

• Key: position, softness and height
• Fill: how much shadow to keep
• Backlight: separation from the set
• Set lights: depth and colour behind the speakers

Rigging day is the least photogenic part of the job and one of the most important. Lamps hang over people's heads, so every clamp, safety bond and cable run is checked by a second pair of eyes. Nothing is hung from a point we have not confirmed can carry the load, and anything uncertain is replaced with a different method rather than a hopeful one.

Power is planned the same way. We add up the load of the fixtures, divide it across circuits with a margin to spare, and label every cable at both ends. When a circuit trips during a live show, the person on the floor needs to know in seconds which lamp is on which line.

Our crews keep the floor clear and the cable runs tidy, partly for safety and partly because a calm, ordered set makes presenters and guests feel looked after before they say a word.

Once the lamps are up, colour becomes the main concern. Different fixtures leave their own tint, and mixed sources can make skin look green on one side of the face and orange on the other. We use fixtures with controllable colour temperature where we can, and we correct or gel the rest so that everything on the set sits together.

Cameras are then matched to the lighting, not the other way round. Daniel checks exposure and white balance on each camera against a reference card held in the presenter's position, and we look at the pictures side by side on the gallery monitors. Small differences between cameras are easy to fix at this stage and hard to fix after recording.

If daylight enters the room, we either control it with blackout or balance the lamps to it, and we write down which choice we made. That note matters when the shoot runs through lunch and the sun moves.

• Reference card held at the speaker's position
• Same white balance and exposure across all cameras
• Daylight blocked or balanced, and recorded in the plan

The last stage is a walk-through with real people in the real positions. Stand-ins are fine, but nothing beats the actual presenter, who may be taller, paler or more animated than anyone expected. We adjust heights, soften a shadow, flag off a lamp that catches a glasses frame, and then lock the settings.

During the programme, the lighting crew stays quiet and watches the monitors. Most of the work is already done by then. Changes happen only when something has changed in front of the camera, such as a guest swapping seats or a cloud shifting outside.

Afterwards we give the producer a short written record of the plan: fixture positions, levels and any notes for next time. If the client returns for another day in the same room, we begin from that page rather than from nothing.