I had the good fortune to visit a live taping of "Austin City Limits" the other night, courtesy of Lowell Fowler and High End Systems.
I've been to a few tapings before and I knew what to expect. I ran into Walter Olden of Olden Lighting, who has been the LD on ACL since Jesus was a child. Tinez was operating the automated lighting and it looked great. But what really stuck me was the lighting levels. Right in the middle of the show it occured to me that they had no more than about 65 footcandles on the stage. Lowell introduced me to the director and I had the opportunity to ask him about it. He said that they indeed have lowered the illuminance on the stage from about 175 footcandles to about 65 footcandles. They now use hi-def cameras and they are much more sensitive and require less light. Still, there's a trade off between the light level and the graininess of the video as well as the depth of field. A lower light level means the iris is open wider, creating a shorter depth of field. When the background is slightly out of focus it does create a beautiful picture.
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