The More You Know…About Lighting

I’ve often told other photographers that they can learn a lot about lighting from watching TV. Pay attention to the color of the light and lighting patterns used on actors. In news magazine shows (60 Minutes, Dateline) they might cut-away to a shot of the interviewer and the subject. In this shot you can usually see the lights, flags and modifiers being used to light the person and often, the background.

I saw a great example on TV last night in one of those “The More You Know” PSAs on NBC. It featured Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Community) talking about saving electricity.  When he turns off all the lights except for one light bulb he says you can look “dashing and mysterious”. This emphasizes the importance of shadows in portrait photography and how it can affect the mood of your image. I once heard a photographer ask, “when is it OK to have shadows in your pictures?”. The answer is: ALWAYS!

Another photography point emphasized by the PSA is what you can do with just one light…especially up close. A light bulb is a pretty harsh light source because it’s so small, but that can work for a male subject. When it’s up close, the rapid fall off creates dramatic shadows.

Click the image to see the video.

(Note: I had some trouble with the link sending me to the right video. If that happens, look under the video player for a list of videos in the “environment” category and navigate to the very last one.)

Canon DSLR Used to Shoot NBC Stop-Motion Episode of “Community”

You may have heard that FOX used the Canon 5D MKII to film an episode of “House”. Now NBC is using a 7D for an upcoming Christmas episode of “Community”.

If you’ve never seen Community, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s got great writing and an excellent ensemble of stars including Chevy Chase, Alison Brie (from Mad Men), comedian Donald Glover and Joe McHale (from The Soup on E!).

On Thursday, Dec. 9th, they’re going old school and doing a Rudolph-esq claymation episode. I don’t know why it never occured to me, but that kind of stop motion animation must use still cameras. Well, check out these two behind-the-scenes videos and you’ll see a Canon DSLR and lens being used.

They’re using a Canon 7D with an EF-S lens that kind of looks like my 17-55mm. My first clue was at the :46 mark where you can clearly see it’s a Canon lens. At 2:35 you can clearly see the 7D emblem. I thought it was interesting at 2:08 that the viewfinder is taped off; probably to block extraneous light from hitting the sensor.

Here’s another video shot by a couple of the cast members where you can get a better look at the camera and lens.

I think it’s interesting that HD video capabilities are making DSLRs more common place in Hollywood; but here it’s being used for still photography.

UPDATE: The YouTube videos are no longer available. But I did find this video on the NBC Community site.