Guide to Uplighting Color Options

Level: Beginner
Written by Nate on December 3rd, 2016

Blue, Light Blue (Cyan), Red, Green

All of the uplight rentals have red, green, blue, and cyan (a nice light blue) as pre-sets.

If you want....
Cheapest: Slim Par 56
Wireless Battery Operated: EZ Par 56
Brightest: Par 64 RGBA
App-Controlled + Weather-Proof!: VividLite Shadowbox

Yellow, Ambers, Oranges

RGBA or RGBAW lighting fixtures are the best choice. Adding an Amber bulb will help create brighter and more accurate shades of ambers, oranges and yellow color choices.

If you want....
Cheapest and Brightest: Par 64 RGBA
Wireless Battery Operated: EZ Par 64

Pinks

Many people use the Magenta option on RGB lights as either Pink or Purple. If you just want something in that general shade, then you can pull it off with RGB lights. However, if you want a "more pinkish pink" or "more purple purple", then you can check out some RGBW options

I'm cool with magenta....
Cheapest: Slim Par 56
Wireless Battery Operated: EZ Par 56

I want better choices...
Hex 3
App-Controlled + Weather-Proof!: VividLite Shadowbox

Purple

See above, same answer as pink.

I'm cool with magenta....
Cheapest: Slim Par 56
Wireless Battery Operated: EZ Par 56
Brightest: Par 64 RGBA

I want better choices...
Hex 3
App-Controlled + Weather-Proof!: VividLite Shadowbox

Other Fancy Colors

If you want the most possible variety of color choices, then the Hex 3's have 63 to choose from. If you can't find the color you want there, then its not possible with LED lighting yet!

More Information about RGB, RGBA, RGBAW lighting

If you've been looking around for the best uplights to rent for your upcoming event, one major difference between options you'll come across is the colors each fixture can produce. This can be a really confusing topic if you are not familar with LED lighting. This article will attempt to help.

All of the uplights available for rent have several different little LED light bulbs inside them. To make a color, you are basically turning off and turning on different bulbs. The 3 basic bulb colors included in all of the fixtures for rent are Red, Green, and Blue. A fixture with only red, green and blue blubs is referred to as "RGB". If you want the lights to be blue, then when you select the pre-set option for blue, basically you are turning off all of the red and green bulbs and leaving on just the blue ones. To make other colors, you turn on some bulbs and turn off others "mixing" the colors together to get the color you want. Thankfully, there are pre-sets available so you don't have to figure out how to mix colors on your own.

As LED lighting technology advances, newer uplights come out that add different bulbs. We also offer RGBA (this adds an amber bulb) , RGBW (white bulb) , and even RGBAW-UV (amber, white and ultraviolet bulbs). Having the additional bulbs, makes getting the colors you want possible. For example, RGBW fixtures produce great Pink colors because to make pink, you just turn on more white bulbs to mix the red bulbs (red + white = pink).

This all gets a lot more confusing if you are looking at a list of the available pre-set colors for "RGB" lights. Like our most popular uplight, the Slim Par 56 includes the following 7 pre-sets:

Red, Green, Blue, Light Blue, Magenta, Yellow, and White

How is white an option if there is not a white bulb? Good question! The quick simple answer is its not really a "pure" white. Its tinted quite a bit green-ish/blue-ish. That's also the case with yellow, which in many rooms will look kind of green. There are other factors that effect how your lighting color comes out such as the ambient light in the actual room you are using them in. This explains how you'll see a picture online that looks like a nice warm yellow, but then when you set them up at your event, you get more of a green-ish yellow.

Some of our competitors will also advertise that you can get colors such as Ambers, Pinks and Purples out of standard RGB lights by using the custom color option. This is technically true. However, its really important to mention that you will lose a significant amount of brightness when doing this.

The bottom line is if you are just looking for the cheapest option to give you some cool event lighting and you are not super picky about color temperature, then just rent the Slim Par 56.

If you want to select the option that will deliver the best color for the color scheme you want, then refer back to the top of the page for a guide on selecting the best fixture.