The biggest problem when you are trying to build light layers is that you can end up with mud. That’s when you have too many light beams of different colors converging on a stage at once, creating a white-pinkish mush. It’s crap, and I see it all the time with young designers. To stop this is really simple. Look at your stage and start turning lights off one group at a time. The more you turn off, the sexier the scene looks. There is no rule that says all lights must be on all the time. But it works for some designers.
-From Nook Schoenfeld's January LD At Large column