Broadcast Touchups
In the world of studio lighting, I have done my fair share of touchups. As local station labor budgets dwindle, what was once a full-time dedicated in-house lighting person who would tailor and tweak the lighting as the broadcast evolved is now often reassigned to a person who has at least 5 other positions in the course of their day. The promise and popularity of fluorescent lighting being, even, easy to shoot, flattering, and thusly the panacea of all lighting problems has proven to be a falsehood.
A lot of the touchups I have done in the past has been reintroducing the balance lost in a fill/keyed lighting setup, or often times reintroducing the concept of key lighting that had been swept away in favor of Fill-only, Fluorescent lighting. In the case of WTIC in Hartford, however, (pictured below) the challenge was actually the opposite, Having largely a fresnel-based, bright and highly specific lighting scheme. This was made more challenging by the fact that the set was almost entirely backlit LED panels which is prone to getting washed out by the very frontlight necessary to light the talent standing on camera.
In this case, I was brought in to touchup the existing lighting setup while they were already on air. It was a hard and fast few days, over the course of a very short timeframe, we were able to add softlights, bring levels down, and soften the overall feel and intensity of the lighting, allowing the set to become more crisp, talent to pop off the screen, and creating a better storytelling experience for the anchors and viewing experience for the audience. Big thanks to Park Place (Scenic) and the wonderful people at WTIC for the amazing work done.
