HDTV Studio UPDATE- Lighting

I asked my friend and colleague, Dan McKenrick, Lighting Designer extraordinare of TVLD (www.tvld.com), for his comments on what you need to know about studio lighting in HD. Dan's comments appear below:

"

With High Def the viewer see more detail (duhhh)

What could have been left only half lit because it fell

off into the darker areas now can be seen.

Excellent lighting works in both sd and hd.

Often in SD lights are put up in a general fashion with

no effort made for each specific location that the talent

will occupy. (General Lighting)

Depending on the lighting method the generalist approach

can look too soft because there is light everywhere and the

contrast between the face and foreground background in

not appropriate.

Or

there is not enough light in the various visual foreground

and background elements.

In HD it is critical to have proper balance in the lighting ratios

Key, Back foreground and background.

The transition to HD has exposed many lighting plots that worked "OK" in SD.
In the HD enviorn these basic general lighting schemes just do not
meet the more demanding needs of HD production.

But, take a well crafted lighting design for SD and it will easily

translate into an excellent HD design with just a few modifications.

So in HD . . .

Proper fixture selection and placement

Correct balance of lighting ratios.

Correct balance of light source color temperatures

Attention to shadows and highlight.

Those are the key elements

Hope that is of some help"

Dan McKenrick

TVLD, Inc.

877-222-8853

Thanks Dan - A great distallation .