Current Issue

March 2010

Print Article     Email Article

Achieving Increased Definition

Lighting and production know-how for High Definition

by Michael S. Eddy

With all of the talk about high definition (HD) television and wanting to keep your worship facility on the cutting edge, you might be considering switching the broadcasts of your services to high definition. The switch to HD can be fairly expensive, and while you will need to really look long and hard at cameras, lenses, and recording equipment for HD production, you will be relieved to know that you will not have to go and buy all new lights to enter the HD world. It isn’t going to be a cake walk, but with practice and some refining of your lighting techniques you will be on the path to good looking HD images.

I spoke with some of today’s top television lighting designers for advice on lighting for HD productions and what the differences were from standard definition (SD) lighting. There have been a lot of rumors and myths going around such as not needing so much light for HD cameras, or having to invest in new lighting fixtures. I hope, by sharing their advice, to dispel the myths and clear up some of the rumors.

I spoke with two-time Emmy Award-winning lighting director, Jim Sippel, content development operations director and director of photography at the South Barrington, Illinois, Willow Creek Community Church. I also talked with William (Bill) Klages, president of Santa Monica, California-based New Klages Inc., also a multiple Emmy winner with 18 nominations and six wins. He has designed the lighting for a wide variety of projects and recently designed the lighting systems for two large worship facilities—Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, and the Mormon Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah. John Gates, president and senior lighting consultant with Gates Service Group Inc. in Natick, Massachusetts, has more than 20 years of experience in lighting television; in fact, he has lit every U.S. President since Nixon and has two regional Emmys among his many awards.

Professional Consensus
One thing that all three lighting designers agree strongly on is that lighting is lighting; no matter if it is for SD or HD. “There are a few things that are true in life,” states Gates. “One is that good lighting—design and practice—is good lighting regardless of whether it is for SD or HD. If you are truly doing good lighting for SD, the same approach will work for HD. If your SD lighting was not so good, the HD camera will certainly not improve it any by showing the bad lighting in greater detail. With apologies to Gertrude Stein: Good Lighting Is Good Lighting is Good Lighting, Klages agrees, “If your lighting techniques are well developed and proven, you should welcome high-definition because it will show all the nuances of your lighting.”

There are some considerations that you should take into account when lighting for high definition productions. “Lighting for HD production allows you more range in how you can light,” says Sippel. “HD cameras see color better and give you more details in the highlights and shadows. This also means you need to pay more attention to those details. You now have a greater ability to create beautiful images with lighting. To create those images you need to invest the time and discipline to light well.”

Sippel digresses a moment to point out that it’s not only the lighting between SD and HD production that you will want to take into account, but also areas such as scenic elements, make-up, and wardrobe. “HD sees things much better than SD, so it’s less forgiving, and all the little cheats do not work so well any more.” When it comes to scenic issues, Sippel feels that “you really need to pay attention to what you are lighting in the background so that it does not distract from your subject. If you are working on location, try to pick backgrounds that are not busy looking or cluttered. Use your background light—if needed—for the purpose of providing separation for your subject and not to highlight her bowling trophies. That bookshelf may seem like a good idea for a background until you see people trying to read the titles. If you are shooting your service, watch for over-lighting some areas that compete with your speaker or under-lighting so they look like they are in limbo.”

Make-up is another important area that sometimes gets overlooked and should be taken into account. “Pay attention to how a person’s make-up looks,” states Sippel. “Lighting can’t fix poorly applied make-up and HD will accentuate it more. Consider a make-up artist whenever possible to help with this and have a HD monitor on set to check it.” This also applies to wardrobe, “In HD, you need to pay attention to more of the details of how their clothes look on camera,” says Sippel. “Dandruff, loose threads, and errant hair will be seen to a greater degree in HD.” It’s all about the details, folks.

The Camera Quotient
There are some substantial differences between SD and HD but these really have to do with the camera. You really need to be conversant with the camera that you will be using for your productions. You have to think more like a director of photography for film and know just as much about your camera and recording techniques as you do about lighting.

There are differences in cameras and you should conduct tests with the camera that you will be working with for your productions. “All HD cameras do not ‘act’ the same, any more than all SD cameras do,” says Gates. “Different HD cameras have different exposure latitudes and color rendering. Some cameras might have more detail in underexposure than another camera or more detail in overexposure. Some cameras render certain colors more accurately than other cameras. Any good lighting designer or director of photography [will] always design their lighting for a specific project taking the camera’s specific performance characteristics into account and [then] design lighting that maximizes the best aspects of the camera. For example, some cameras might require more fill light to ensure that the underexposed areas stay within that cameras exposure latitude.”

And Gates adds, “Various HD cameras have different equivalent ASA ratings, so that some cameras may require more light and some may require less light for the same f/stop. Lens choice also is a factor in light level requirements. The same performance situation is true for SD cameras. It is truly amazing just how accurate the newest HD cameras of the last few years have gotten: The discernable detail/resolution throughout the extended exposure range and the increasingly accurate color rendition is truly amazing.”

“I think focus is one of the challenges with HD due to its ability to be so sharp and crisp,” comments Sippel. “In SD, when you light to a lower f/stop, say f/2.8, you could still hold focus within the scene as long as movement was not extreme relative to the distance between your subject and the lens. If you knew your talent would be moving a lot, walking back and forth, up and down the stage, you would light to a higher stop so you would help increase the depth of field, which then helps the camera operator stay in focus. In HD, like film, you need to really stay on top of focus, even at higher f/stops. This is due to the increased sharpness and the more noticeable details that can be seen in HD with HD lenses. HD is less forgiving in keeping things in focus.”

Klages agrees that camera knowledge is an important part of creating images. “There is one important asset that has more to do with camera signal handling rather than the fact that the camera makes a HD picture,” says Klages. “Most high-end HD cameras have much more sophisticated signal processing than before, and the user has a greater choice of transfer characteristics. For example, shadow areas have always been a problem in TV, necessitating, in typical cases, too high a value of fill light. This happens, in particular, during multi-camera production, and difficulty in physically locating the ambient illumination to appear to come from the center of the taking lens. Now black stretch may be set and maintained more accurately. In the white end, a much longer scale—greater dynamic range—is possible to be set as well. These settings and their very accurate repeatability can become a great ‘lighting’ tool.”

There are some people who say you don’t need lights to shoot in HD. That is not really accurate. Again, it goes back to the relationship of your camera and how it deals with light. “HD cameras have good exposure range, so you can light fairly low and still have beautiful images,” says Sippel. “However, you need to know the limits of your camera [the] same as you would if you are shooting in SD. Poor lighting or no lighting will [be enhanced] in HD. Don’t believe any lingering hype out there that leads you to believe you don’t need lights to shoot. If lighting will help the scene, then light it and light it well.”

Fixture Factors
What type of fixtures work best for HD lighting? Fluorescent, Quartz, HMI, etc. Really, the same fixtures that you use for SD shooting will work just fine for HD production. The type of fixture depends on what you are shooting. “It is a fallacy to suggest that there is a specific type of lighting for SD that is different from HD lighting,” says Gates. “Lighting for episodic drama is different than lighting for a newscast and is different from lighting for a concert, but those are just lighting styles. On any project, I choose specific light types that are appropriate to the project I am lighting.” Sippel adds, “Don’t buy lights that say HD on them—unless they cost less than the ones that say SD on them,” he laughs.

“I had a photography teacher in high school challenge the class to use our nice 35mm film SLR cameras for an assignment and he would shoot the same thing on a Kodak 126mm Instamatic camera,” remembers Sippel. “The pictures he took on that cheap little camera helped us understand that it is more important to know how to use the tools you have. Fixtures are tools in the toolbox and are very format-friendly. The environment you are shooting in should lead you to what type of light is best for shooting in HD. If you do not own or have the budget to rent the lights you need, then I would try to work with the available lighting in the space by controlling it. Supplement with the light sources you do have and color correct them when necessary. This is accomplished by using color correcting filters. Color Correction Orange (CTO) will shift cool temperature light sources like arc sources (most intelligent lights or HMIs) or the sun (by applying CTO gel across windows) toward the warm side of the scale depending on how much correction you use. Color Temperature Blue (CTB) will shift warm temperature sources like most incandescent light kits, household lamps, and studio lights toward the cool side like when you want to be closer to the color of the sun. You can find color correction scales through your lighting supplier or online to show you guidelines on how much correction to use.” HD reproduces color much more accurately than SD, so it is important that you learn about color temperature and how your camera sees color. Remember the principles are the same as in SD.

Sippel continues by pointing out, “You need to be diligent before your shoot to do a black balance—if your camera has that feature—and then a white balance under your actual lighting conditions so the camera has a reference point. You have to tell your camera what black is and what white is. Using the preset white will work okay if you are not matching to another camera. If you are shooting in conditions of mixed color temperatures like a room with table lamps and there is an outside window in the scene, you will have a mixed source of color temperature, i.e., the table lamp will appear to be yellow and the window blue.”

Just like in the SD world, the choice of a soft-edged light like a Fresnel or softlight vs. a hard-edged light like an ellipsoidal is still based on your desired outcome. “Both qualities of light look great in HD,” says Sippel. “The look you are going for will determine what will work best. If you are lighting for a field shoot you have more options than if you are shooting for your service which you will most likely be lighting with a hard source light due to the distance you have to light from your service. The challenge is usually trying to keep the lighting even across the stage. The cameras will ‘see’ where you are uneven in your stage lighting before your eye will.”

Bottom line, lighting methods in HD are much the same as in SD. You want to light each area with a key, a fill, and a backlight. Again, it is important to experiment and to refine your lighting practices. One of Sippel’s rules is this: “Good lighting creates good images. Knowing where to place your key light and the quality of that light is the same in both formats. Knowing how much fill to add, if any, is the same. Separating your subject from the background generally makes for a more pleasing image. You are lighting to create a 3D world in a 2D space. Three-point lighting is the foundation of good lighting practices. That has not changed. Try not to get stuck doing formula lighting by always doing it the same way; lighting is a practice, so I would encourage you to try different looks to see what you like. Watch TV or videos with the sound off and see how others lit the scene. Try to figure out where the lights are coming from.”

In the end, lighting is not an obstacle in making the switch to HD. Keep working to refine your lighting practices and learn as much as you can about how the new cameras deal with light. “In my opinion, rather than creating problems, I see that HD will bring with it enhancements that will make the lighting job easier, not more complicated,” concludes Klages. “There will be less mystery and greater ease of use because of inherent predictability. Good lighting will be displayed accurately, bad lighting ... well….”

Michael S. Eddy writes about design and technology. He can be reached at mseddy2900@hotmail.com.   Email Michael S.