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B&H glossary for Professional Video,
   

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Glossary for Lighting Terms
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H

Hair Light
Light source aimed at the subject’s hair to create separation from the background and add sparkle and highlights.

Halation
The distortion that appears around the edge of a sharply focused beam pattern. This effect can be reduced with the aid of a donut.

Half Scrim
A metal scrim whose screen occupies one half of its frame such that the straight edge of the screen is located at the diameter of the frame.

Halogen
The name for a family of gases used in lamps to maintain proper color temperature and to keep the inside wall of the envelope clean.

Hard Edge
A beam pattern edge that is very clear and distinguishable, i.e. one without a fuzzy or blurry perimeter.

Hard Light

  1. Illumination that has a hard edge and produces sharply defined shadows. Often this light is very intense. The quality is more dramatic and controllable, but generally less flattering than Soft Light; often improved with Diffusion.
  2. A luminaire that provides such illumination.

Head

  1. A general term for a fresnel spotlight.
  2. The part of a follow spot that contains the light source, i.e. not the stand, ballast or interconnect cable.
  3. The part of a metal halide luminaire that contains the lamp, i.e. not the ballast or interconnect cable.
  4. The part of an ellipsoidal spotlight that contains the reflector, i.e. not the lens barrel or the cap.
  5. An abridged version of Grip Head or Ball Head.

Hertz
A unit of measurement for the Frequency of alternating current, i.e. one cycle per second.

Highboy (Hiboy)
A heavy-duty stand designed to hold luminaires or heavy grip equipment. The stand is equipped with wheels and tall risers, and usually a 1 1/8" receiver and a grip head.

High Key
A lighting style in which the majority of the scene is highly illuminated, usually enhanced by bright costumes and sets. A low ratio of key plus fill light to fill light lowers the contrast, helping to obtain this effect.

Hollywood Box
A piece of power distribution equipment used in the film and video industries, comprising a metal housing, a means for connecting an electrical supply, and female flush mount connectors and/or bus bars that can be electrically connected to with bus bar lugs, for the purpose of supplying electricity to luminaires. Some are also provided with overcurrent protection.

Hot Lights
Common term for continuous light sources.

Hot Restrike
A term applied to an ignitor that will hot start an arc lamp.

Hot Spot
The spot of light with the highest intensity, ideally located at or near the center of a beam that has been focused for a peak field.

Hot Start
A term used to describe the ignition of a heated arc lamp, i.e. a lamp that has just been electrified.

HMI
Abbreviation for Hydrargyrum (Greek for Mercury) Medium-Arc Lodides. This is a commonly used type of metal halide lamp manufactured by Osram-Sylvania Corp. The term Osram HMI is trademarked.

HZ
Abbreviation for Hertz.

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