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Eye to Eye: Lighting and lighting control

In 1985 I visited the Paris HQ of France Regions 3 with Arthur Garratt, a freelance science broadcaster who worked mainly for BBC World Service. FR3 was one of the first European television networks to make full use of high-efficiency ENG and EFP. We learnt a lot and were able to offer one recommendation in return. Watching a news presentation by t...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2009

LED lighting for image creators

Somehow I ended up on a growing number of LED Lighting equipment manufacturers e-mail mailing lists. Most of them were from China, some from the States and elsewhere. They must have thought that, as we supply broadcast, film and video lighting, that we would be interested in LED lighting. They were right. So I used to dutifully reply, asking them q...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2009

Lighting series

So far in this series, I have stressed some of my own preferences for good portrait lighting; using Fresnel lamps for key lights to enable accurate barn dooring, minimum spill light and an even ‘field’ of light. Open faced lamps, whilst cheaper, do not give the same control of light, they give rise to double shadows and are also prone to bubble fai...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

NAB 2009 report

By general consensus, this year's NAB Spring Convention, or 'NABshow' as it styles itself, was one of the best ever. Wider aisles and a respectable rather than manic level of attendance made the event, in the words of one exhibitor, 'Business Class'. NAB was always the prototype show where you could sense the directions in which manufacturers were...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

Lighting. Back or rim light part 4

In my last article, I discussed modelling of the ‘talent’ by choice of lamp, and careful choice of the horizontal and vertical angle of the ‘key’ light. Having made those choices my next priority would be to choose a ‘back’ light. It is also sometimes known as a ‘hair’ light which gives a pretty good clue as to its function. Just to say that we are...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

Eye to Eye Video acquisition and production

BVE2009 in London, February 17-19 offers UK-based programme-makers a useful opportunity to try out the latest video acquisition and production equipment ahead of NABshow2009 and its loud after-echo, IBC. The following outlines some of the new front-end kit likely to be on display at Earls Court. Cameras and camcordersARRI will be exhibiting its D-2...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 April 2009

HD Camera Measurements and getting the most out of your c...

IntroductionImage quality all starts with the correct alignment of the camera which is used to capture the scene either on location or in the studio. The conversion of light into electrical signals involves many processes which can affect the quality of the image. Understanding these various adjustments that are necessary, using a suitable camera c...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

Camera rigs and lighting

The biggest single story at IBC this year, apart from the usual company-eats-company rumours, was the continuing progress of stereoscopy or '3D' as it is currently undersold. A stereoscopic snapshot may well be 3D (displaying length, width and height) but a stereoscopic movie is in fact 4D as it includes a timeline. John Logie Baird set the stereos...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

How we lit Mick

Shine a lightLets start at the beginning with the most fundamental, basic of questions – what’s the point of lighting anything, let alone a living legend like Sir Mick Jagger? The answer is simple – because lighting is the most important part of the whole process. Not the filming. Not the fiddly edit. Not the chin-scratching pre-production. The lig...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

Lighting and Grip.

Lighting and Grip are often spoken as if they are one item, inseparable and complete. However the clue is in the phrase lighting AND grip. So let’s start by separating them. Lighting covers the instruments that provide the light. Grip covers the instruments we use to hold and control the light. LightingThere is a huge range of lights, luminaires, p...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

Is it cool to use cool lighting

Is it cool to use cool ?The term ‘cold lighting’ is used within the film & TV lighting industry as a generic term for energy efficient, Fluorescent, LED, and Plasma (panel) lighting sources which emit little or no radiant heat. HistoryThe technology is not so new; Evidence exists of neon lighting being used on a film set in Teddington Studios Engla...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2008

Chromakey questions

What does a specialist paint give me that a DIY superstore (matt blue or green emulsion) doesn’t?VFX Bluescreen Solutions paints are pigment based, as opposed to DIY chains ‘stain’ based. Pigment based paints ensure consistency and intensity of colour, against the stain based paints because they are ‘pure’, instead of being made up of various other...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 April 2008