To UV Or Not To UV

As a advertising and editorial photographer that shoots both in the studio using strobes  and on location using the sun I am covered in UV.  What I mean is that both light sources emit large amounts of UV.  Since, I have been a professional photographer for over thirty years, I started my career shooting film.  It was popular and useful to use a UV filter when shooting film.  Film is sensitive to UV, digital sensors are not.  So the possible carry over of using a UV filter is needless in this age of digital photography. So the answer is Not To UV.

This hold true for shooting digital video as well as digital still photography.

Inexpensive Video Production and Halloween

What this Halloween taught me about storytelling and video production.  Horror movies are often said to be the cheapest movies to make.  If you look at the production values, just about any location will work, dialog can be simple (good screamers are a positive) and lighting should be kept to a minimum for what you don’t see is scarier than what you do.

All of this was reinforced for me this Halloween. My wife and I were very busy in the week leading up to Halloween this year, including the day itself.  We were late getting home and the kids were already circling the neighborhood as we arrived.  My wife, who loves Halloween to the point of giving out full size candy bars, ran inside to get in costume.  I was left to hurriedly put up a few decorations to attract the kids to our somewhat hidden front door, it requires you to go around a fence so it is not oblivious from the sidewalk.  After stringing a few lights and setting up a few noisy animated ghosts I realized there needed to be a more direct approach.

Having no time to dress in my usual “scary” costume, I simple put on a black hoodie and stood stooped over by the sidewalk.  I had my head down so you could not see my face and saying nothing, slowly, repeatedly pointed up the path to the front door.  I was astonished at the number of trick or treaters that were scared.  Not being able to see my face and the potential of some other action by me was enough to freeze many of them in place.  Even some of the teenagers were unwillingly to cross the 10 foot gap between me and the fence to get to the front door.  All of this showed me once again that the viewer’s mind is your best ally in storytelling.  Set the viewer up in the right way, let them fill in the gaps and you will have a much scarier movie with no need for expensive special effects.