How To Light A Cyclorama Wall

A demonstration with altman lighting and loyola marymount university.

How to light a cyclorama wall.

We ll be detailing how to build a cyc wall for full body photography or video work with three foot curves a 12 foot high wall and 18 feet of bare floor. Cyc walls were first used in television and news and later emerged in photo and video studios. A white cyclorama wall or cyc wall or infinite wall is a construction with two planes smoothly merging horizontally and vertically. Eventually cycs were laid on the surface of the stage to form a curve and the lighting director with proper lighting could eliminate any shadows thus creating an infinity cyc the purpose of a cyc is to create a smooth transition from floor to wall to help eliminate hard shadows at the horizon and allow for an infinitely large set.

This structure helps creates an infinity effect of the same tone. A cyc cyclorama or an infinity wall all mean the same thing. How big you make the cove of the cyc will affect how evenly and smoothly the light will fall on it. Thus when the light hits the wall it does not reflect the depth of the background.

Since the cyclorama provides a very smooth. Youll see the talents en. No corners no depth. What the cyclorama wall is.

Essentially the bigger the curve the easier it is to light. A radius on a cyclorama then is of a circle to cover the horizontal distance from floor to wall or vertical distance from wall to wall in the corners. The concept is that the talent is performing yoga in the middle of a white sweep. Radius the goal is to hide the right angle intersections from wall to floor wall to wall and possibly wall to ceiling with a top radius.

It is a huge wall of one color that is built to have no defined corners. It was popularized in the german theater of the 19th century and continues in common usage today in theaters throughout the world. In theater and film a cyclorama abbreviated cyc in the united states is a large curtain or wall often concave positioned at the back of the apse it often encircles or partially encloses the stage to form a background.