Colorado Gaffer

Colorado Gaffer Tyler Kaschke is a gaffer working in Denver, Colorado

06/26/2026

How I light athletes (without making everyone look sweaty for no reason)

When I’m lighting talent for a fitness commercial, I usually begin with a unit at a steep angle. I tend to prefer an overhead source although sometimes it looks good coming from the side, too. The the more dramatic downward direction of the shadows naturally emphasize muscle definition, helping them look more lean and sculpted. (Keep that in mind next time you’re checking out a fitness influencer’s abs.) It’s also incredibly flattering on apparel, so everybody wins.

Once the ambient level is dialed in, the key light creates shape and sets the mood. I love the Chimera Lighting 6’ Octa for this because it can sit about 45° above the subject, giving beautiful modeling on the jawline and cheekbones. A wag flag topper or bottomer is usually all the grip support needed to keep a source this large under control.

Finally, a hard backlight creates separation from the background and adds texture with shadows. There’s something about a crisp edge light that just feels athletic. Maybe because it reminds me of stadium lighting. 🤔

For a bonus vibe shot, we put a large box fan on a 1K dimmer and ran it as slowly as possible, then pushed a light through the back side for some fun shadow play. Add plenty of haze to lift the shadows and reveal the beams. Viola, cinematic gritty fitness spot!

That was the formula for nearly every setup in this spot: overhead. key. hard edge.
Three lights. That’s it.

• LiteGear LiteMat Spectrum 8 with DoPchoice Snapgrid overhead
• Aputure 1200X + Chimera Lighting OctaPlus 6 key
• Aputure 1000C + CF12 fresnel edge light

Director + Photographer Kody Kohlman
EP Lilah Ann Kohlman
Producer Aly Carlisle
DP Joey Schusler
AC Kasen Schamaun
Key G Theodore Goble
Swing Brandon Smith
Digi T Garrett Milanovich
DIT Cam Parsons
Wardrobe Kyle Kivijärvi 🌎
HMUA 𝔹𝕖𝕥𝕙 𝕎𝕒𝕝𝕜𝕖𝕣
Talent Kenan Saldivar
Talent Jordyn Albritton
Talent Zach
Talent Haley Bowden

06/15/2026

When it comes to output and long throw, HMIs are still the gold standard. But LEDs are closing the gap.

When you need maximum punch, long throw, and crisp shadows, an HMI is usually the first choice. There’s a reason ARRI M-Series fixtures are still on so many professional sets. The quality of the light is exceptional, and when you need to push daylight through a window from half a block away, nothing quite does it the same.

That said, LEDs have come a long way.

Modern LED fixtures are brighter, more efficient, and more color accurate than ever. While they may not completely match an HMI’s throw or shadow quality, the gap is getting smaller every year. And in the category of units below 4000W, LED has completely taken over.

One of the biggest advantages of COB LEDs is versatility. Need a hard source? Add a reflector or fresnel. Need a soft source? Throw on a softbox. Need a lantern, projection attachment, or beauty dish? There are countless modifier options available. (Not to mention the flexibility of full color, wireless control, and IP ratings.)

But here’s something I think gets overlooked: even without a modifier, a point source LED can be incredibly useful.

Many modern fixtures have native beam angles between 60° and 70°, creating a broad, even wash of light that works beautifully for lighting backgrounds, filling large spaces, bouncing, or simply adding ambience to a scene. Sometimes the best modifier is no modifier at all.

Different tools. Different strengths

It’s not about whether HMIs or LEDs are “better.” It’s understanding what each one does well and choosing the right tool for the job.

This setup needed an even wash of color on the c*c, so I utilized two Profoto L600Cs (with no modifiers!) to achieve it. Just a couple of 4x solid floppies to keep light from spilling on the talent and that was it. ✨

Director: Jason Siegel
DP: Jack FitzWilliam
KG: Jean-Paul Montoulieu
Art: Jessie Capstick
HMU: Katie Ashcraft | CelebrityMUA
Dancer: Aaron “Hoshi”
PA: Nik Katz

06/09/2026

The most underrated skill an electric can develop isn’t lighting. It’s cable management.

Success in this industry is about more than technical knowledge. It’s reliability, efficiency, attitude, and professionalism. All of those things contribute to your reputation. And your reputation is what gets you referred to the next job.

One of the simplest ways to stand out is better cable management.

I often ask myself: “If someone took a BTS photo right now, would this look professional?”

A few habits that help:

• Coil stingers over-over, clockwise, every time. Consistency matters. The conductors inside the cable are twisted in the same direction, and wrapping them inconsistently can create unwanted twists and premature wear.

• Run cable from the power source to the fixture, not the other way around. Leave excess cable neatly coiled at the stand so the light can be repositioned without rerunning the line.

• Cross walkways at 90° angles and follow walls, curbs, and the perimeter of the set whenever possible.

• Keep connections off wet ground using cribbing, pancakes, etc.

• Want your stingers to lay flat? Unroll them like they’re coming off a spool. It takes a little longer, but prevents twists and keeps runs clean.

• Remember: pin to power. Save yourself time and frustration by connecting head cables correctly the first time.

• And my personal favorite, start using The Sashmo™️. It’s nothing more than a loop of cotton sash tied with a square knot, but it’s one of the simplest ways to keep head cables organized and off the floor.

Clean cable management isn’t glamorous, but it makes your department safer, faster, and more professional.

This shot was lit with a AM1600R overhead, skirted to create a controlled pool of light. An M1000R with a 36° spotlight illuminated the coroplast set piece from behind, while a LiteMat Spectrum 8 with SnapGrid provided soft wrap on the talent.

Director:
DP:
KG:
Art:
HMU:
Dancer:
PA: .nik

06/02/2026

Hot take: Your key-to-ambience ratio is probably more important than your key-to-fill ratio.

Too much ambience and the frame loses shape. Too little and your lights start to feel sourcey and unnatural. The goal is finding that sweet spot where the room feels lifted without flattening the image.

There are some common starting points to measure the relationship between key and ambient levels,but I think of them more as “suggestions” because I am usually just lighting with “vibes” unless there is a specific technical reason to measure everything.

Here’s a useful way to think about it:
- Commercial / corporate / beauty: ambient level often sits 0–1 stop under the key
- Naturalistic interior daytime: ambient level 1–2 stops under the key
- Moody drama: ambient level 2–4 stops under the key
Night exteriors: ambient level can be 3–5+ stops under the key depending on how isolated you want subjects to feel

A practical approach I use is:
Set the ambience first until the room/location feels believable.

Add the key and bring it up until the subject separates.
Ask: “Do I notice the lighting or the person?” If I notice the lighting, the ratio may be too extreme for the story.

For interviews specifically, I often end up with:
- Key side: 0 EV (exposure value) reference
- Fill side: 1.5–3 stops under key
- Background ambience: 1–2.5 stops under key

That tends to create shape without looking artificially lit

For this shot we started with the AM1600R as our overhead ambient source. Bright enough to bring up the value of the space, but not enough to cast shadows under the eyes. Keyed with a P600R panel through 6x6 magic cloth with 50º LCD, and wrapped with the F400R for more eyelight and fill. Finally, an M1000R with BPK 36º spotlight played for some separation on the ¾ back fill side.

What ratios do you typically gravitate toward? Do you meter or trust your instincts?

Production
Director
Producer
DP
Key G
Swing
Art
Art Assist .jackman
Sound
PA

“How do I create moonlight?” is probably one of the most common questions I get from people starting out.And the short a...
05/28/2026

“How do I create moonlight?” is probably one of the most common questions I get from people starting out.

And the short answer is: it depends.

We often see moonlight portrayed as pale blue in movies. Not because the moon is actually blue, but because of something called the Purkinje Effect. In low light, our cone cells become less active and our rod cells take over. Rods are more sensitive to blue-green wavelengths, so cooler tones appear brighter to our eyes.

So how do we recreate that feeling on set?

One of my favorite approaches is a more “neutral silver” moonlight:

Camera at 5600K, lights around 8000K, plus a touch of green. This keeps the light cool without feeling overly theatrical, and the green adds a subtle complexity that I really like.

From there, it all comes down to story, taste, and experimentation. Shift the camera to 4300K and the world gets dramatically cooler. Night scenes can usually handle a bit of stylization, so don’t be afraid to lean into the mood.

And of course, a tungsten practical is a nice touch for tonal contrast. Warmth against cool moonlight always helps the frame come alive.

For this shot we used an .lighting XT52 into a CRLS-100 Diff 2 with a 12x Ultra behind it. Like a giant Snapbridge 😎 It gave us soft ambience with directional quality. Because moonlight still casts hard shadows after all.

Camera: 5600K
Lights: 10,000K +85 green
We fully embraced the drama on this one.

PS: Don’t forget heat shield gel when running big COBs outside on summer nights :)

Production
Director .sean
Producer
DP
AC .mov
2AC
Key G
Best G
PA

Most office lighting kills shape. Here’s how we fix it without rebuilding the whole room.Sure, the ideal approach is shu...
05/25/2026

Most office lighting kills shape. Here’s how we fix it without rebuilding the whole room.

Sure, the ideal approach is shutting off every overhead and recreating the space from scratch. But on most jobs, time and labor are limited. So the goal becomes controlling what we can and supplementing where needed.

Here’s my general approach:

First, I’ll take a reading with the Sekonic C-800 and set camera white balance to match the ambient overheads. From there, we dial in any tint shift so the practical lighting feels neutral on camera.

Next, we match our fixtures to the room. Once everything is sitting in the same world, we can push units warmer or cooler for creative contrast.

Then comes the important part: subtraction.
I’ll work with the grip team to selectively black out overhead fixtures that flatten the image or kill shape. Sometimes a lightswitch handles it. Usually it doesn’t. In this case we also gelled the overheads with ½ CTB so they were closer in color to the windows.

Once the ceiling is under control, we can start adding direction and depth. Sometimes I like to keep the key source at a steeper angle so it still feels motivated by the overhead environment without becoming top light. The last step is balancing everything back into the ambience of the room and false color is incredibly helpful here.

For this setup:
• LiteMat Spectrum 8 key
• LiteMat 2L edge
• 5000B through the window for sunlight
• Two .lighting 1200X units through 250 for background talent
• Titan Tubes in the ceiling for fill 🏄‍♂️

Production Hall Pass
Director
EP Rob Murphy
LP Alivia Olson
Coordinator
DP
Operator
AC .mandrew
2AC
Cam PA Tommy Kubena
KG
BBG
Grip
BBE
SLT .aesthetic
Art Dir
Art
Audio
Wardrobe
HMU
Locations
PA
PA

03/10/2026

Harness the power of by getting comfortable with the effects tab. 💥

I’ll be honest, this part intimidated me at first.

If you come from apps like Astera or Sidus Link, a lot of effects are already built for you (which is awesome.) You just tweak the parameters and go. Blackout is different. You build from the ground up.

That learning curve can feel steeper, but the payoff is way more flexibility and creative control. Once you understand the basics, it starts to click.

It helps to think of effects like building blocks. Parameters changing over time, following a pattern, spread across multiple fixtures.

For this moody pulsing nightclub look, we:
- selected the fixtures,
- built a dark base look with saturated color,
- used intensity as the effect parameter to make the lights breathe,
- set a slow-to-medium speed for a rhythmic pulse,
and spread the phase so the fixtures weren’t moving in perfect unison. That phase offset is what gives it life.

The most important part is refining by eye. Work with your DP and adjust until it feels rich and moody, not chaotic or distracting. Unless chaotic is the goal. 🤪
Then save it so you can bring it back instantly on cue.

For a deeper dive, check out the Blackout YouTube channel. Lots of great info there!

This setup used a handful of .lighting Infinibar PB12s in the ceiling for pulsing color washes, a LiteMat Spectrum 4 through 6x 1/2 grid as the key to keep skin tones looking good, and two .global Forza 60Cs with lekos. One for the disco ball, the other handheld for lens flares and wipes across talent. Add a few small party lights in the background. and, of course, plenty of haze. 💨

Production
Director .sean
Producer
DP
AC .mov
2AC
Key G
Best G
Best E
PA
Sound

03/03/2026

Lighting cues are expected knowledge now. Sometimes simple, sometimes layered.

If you’re gaffing without a programmer, you need to know how to build them quickly and repeatedly. With , added complexity doesn’t mean added difficulty.

This shot called for a mid-take transition from cool/low to warm/bright. The trick is separating the looks first. I saved the cool and warm setups as independent “looks” in Blackout, then assigned a timed fade between them. That keeps the move consistent and makes resets between takes instant.

Using 16-bit profiles is important. Smoother dimming, cleaner color travel, no stepping during the fade.

While it is possible to do this stuff on the fly, everyone will be a lot less stressed if given prior notice :) Thankfully that was the case this time. No surprises! 🙏

20x12x8’ tent over the windows (thank you grip department). An .lighting XT52 and 1200x into CRLS-100 diff 2 and 3 for light through the windows. We used LiteMat Spectrum 4 and 8 with Snapgrids inside to wrap the key and fill some shadows.

It probably sounds harder than it is. If I can do it, so can you 🤠

Production
Director .sean
Producer
DP
AC .mov
2AC
Key G
Best G
Best E
Swing
PA
Sound

How do you know where you should place the fill light? What if I told you it doesn’t have to be on the opposite side of ...
02/26/2026

How do you know where you should place the fill light?

What if I told you it doesn’t have to be on the opposite side of the key?

My favorite thing lately has been putting the fill above or behind the camera. This accomplishes a couple things that really make an image sing.

✅ It maintains the shape on the subject’s face with the ability to dial in the contrast ratio by increasing or decreasing intensity. This is especially helpful when two people are being interviewed at the same time.

✅ It creates big beautiful catch lights in the subject’s eyes. I often find I’m dancing between wanting shape on the face and wanting more eye light. If you walk the key further up stage, you get more shape, but lose the eye light. When you wrap it around, you get eye light but lose the shape. Having a big fill behind the camera solves this problem.

For this setup we pushed an .lighting 1200x through a frame of 250 and 8x8 magic cloth with a 50º control grid. 8’ wag flag bottomer to slow the light on the couch, and a single net to balance exposure on the subject closer to the light. Vortex 8 into ultrabounce behind the camera for fill. We utilized the existing moving wash lights in the ceiling for edge and accents in the background. Somehow managed to set off a smoke detector as well! 👍(’s signature move)

Production
Director
EP
Associate Producer .syler
DP
AC .mandrew
KG
Sound

01/09/2026

Three-point lighting never goes out of style.

Key. Fill. Edge. 🤌

It’s Lighting 101. So foundational you stop thinking about it. Every setup, big or small, is built on this triangle:

• Key = shape
• Fill = contrast
• Edge = separation + depth

The concept is simple. The craft is in the balance so it feels natural and scaling it to the space. That just takes practice.

Our lighting plan changed day-of thanks to 58mph gusts 🌬️ (no exterior diffusion).

216 on the windows, .lighting XT52 BajaBlastin™️ for key with a 2x3 soft sider to diffuse the door, 400X into an ultrabounce for fill, and a LiteMat Spectrum 2L + Snapgrid for edge.

Great space, great texture, easy to make it sing.

Production
Producer
Producer
Director
Director DP
AC
Stills
KG @/jpmontoulieu
Art
Picture Car
PA
PA
Talent

bazile

Address

Denver, CO

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Colorado Gaffer posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category