tools

free tools for production people.

These tools are not actively supported, please email bugs to bugs@nickcooklighting.com

light lab screenprep ltc generator beam calc photometrics exposure donate

the interactive stage — grab a light, drag its focus, set trim, light a model, and try three-point portrait lighting.

prep photos for led walls — place the screen in the raster, batch-process, download as a zip. everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

ltc timecode generator →

generate SMPTE/EBU timecode as WAV files — one named file per song, for playback out of ableton into grandMA3 and propresenter. all in-browser.

beam calc

quick presets

beam angle (°)

field angle (°)

throw distance

units

candela (cd, optional)

beam diameter—

field diameter—

D = 2d·tan(θ/2) · E = cd/d² — the math every throw distance argument ends with.

photometrics calculator

units — applies to every panel below

throw geometry

trim height above target (ft)

horizontal distance (ft)

throw distance—

tilt from horizontal—

illuminance at throw

candela (cd)

throw distance (ft)

angled throw use geometry above

direct · footcandles—

direct · lux—

solve for candela

target footcandles

distance (ft)

candela required—

inverse square

illuminance at d1 (fc)

distance 1 (ft)

distance 2 (ft)

illuminance at d2—

lumens ↔ candela

beam angle (°)

lumens (lm)

candela (cd)

candela—

assumes all lumens inside the beam angle — real fixtures spill; treat as an estimate.

fixture stack

illuminance per fixture (fc)

fixtures overlapping

total—

additive only where beams fully overlap.

inverse square law runs everything: E = cd/d². everything else is geometry.

camera exposure calc

iso

shutter (1/x s)

f-stop

required illuminance—

in footcandles—

C=250 incident calibration — a starting point for broadcast lighting levels, not a meter.

support the tools

these tools are free. if one helped your show, you can buy me a coffee —

donate