Fresnel/Par lights?

enes

Member
Hello,
Can someone tel me the difference between a fresnel and par light? I am looking to rent some HMI's to blast through a window to look like sun coming in. Is one tungsten and the other daylight?

Thanks!
E
 
No, its not that simple--you can find both fresnel or par in either tungsten or hmi. All stage/studio lighting instruments generally fall into one of two categories: flood or spotlight.

Par is short for Parabolic Aluminized Reflector. It's in spotlight class. They basically just have a bulb peaking through the middle of a parabolic reflector horizontally and the bulb is positioned in the sweet spot of the parabola to get the brightest and most efficient output. A par can have an ellipsoidal reflector too but it doesn't matter. Sometimes there can be a focusing mechanism to bring the bulb in and out of the mirror a bit for more optimum placement. You can find pars with tungsten bulbs (cheap par cans or Source 4's) and pars with HMI bulbs and interchangeable sets of lenses for different effects.

A fresnel is also in the spotlight class and always has a focusing mechanism. You have a bulb vertically on the focusing sled with a mirror behind it. This whole sled moves back and forth away from and toward the lens which is a fresnel type lens with concentric circles inside it. Move toward the lens and you get a wide spot of light, away and you get a narrow. The lens is fixed and there's no changing it easily. You can find fresnels most commonly with tungsten bulbs in them but of course also with an HMI bulb and ballast to drive it as well.

Two different instruments with two different effects and uses but both produce a very hard light which can be diffused if you like. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Richard! That was very helpful. So would you say either could then be used for placing outside windows for shafts of light coming indoors? Or is one usually used more than the other for some reason?
 
Yes either could.

One thing I forgot to mention is that for two given instruments of same wattage--fresnel and par, the par will generally put out more light thanks to its mirror/bulb configuration which is just more efficient. A parabola will always yield better light output from a reflector. Ellipsoidal reflectors the same effect. While both fresnels and pars are in the "spotlight" class, the beam from a par will be more concentrated and bright and perhaps help in more creating the shaft of light effect. Of course, one thing that people usually do to enhance this shaft effect is to smoke up the room a bit with smoke in a can or a fogger. Not too much, just enough to help make the shaft stand out.
 
Hello,
Can someone tel me the difference between a fresnel and par light? I am looking to rent some HMI's to blast through a window to look like sun coming in. Is one tungsten and the other daylight?

Thanks!
E
Tungsten and Daylight are associated with the color temperature of a light. Tungsten gives out a warm orangy color of about 3200 degrees Kalvin on the color scale. Daylight lights mimmic the color range of actual daylight of about 5600 degrees Kalvin. So you'll see HMIs used on outside shoots or to pop through windows. Tungstens can be used if that's your only light source but you should use a color correction gel known at a CTB (Color Correction Blue) in front on the light to convert it to a daylight.

Fresnels and Pars are two types of lenses on a given lamp.
 
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