Cinematographic photography

[Brian C. Miller]

Gregory Crewdson isn't the only photographer who does photography as a cinematic still.

What really bugs me about the lot of them is their use of light. Look at Crewdson's photographs. Is anybody's home or apartment actually lit like that?

I was viewing someone else's cinematic photograph of people at a park. Here it was, outdoors, and the light was completely wrong, and the shadows seemed to have about five suns in the sky. Earth to photographer, earth to photographer, our solar system has only one sun!

There was another one showing someone at work in a shack. Doors wide open, and at least 1500W of light spilling out. Does anybody hang a work light in a shack like that?

Is there a guide book on lighting like Thomas Kincaid paints?

[Jay DeFehr]

Maybe these photographers are not interested in accurately reproducing actual lighting?

[David R Munson]

I'm very interested in the sort of work you describe, and honestly part of what I like about it is that it takes a departure from reality. No, things don't look like that in real life, but if you're already creating a fiction, how much does that really matter? To me, doesn't matter much at all if it's done well enough. It doesn't always work, though, and I'm definitely with you on the conflicting shadows. I do enjoy the enriched version of reality some photographers are able to create, however.

With work of this type, am I correct in assuming that you would prefer a more strict realism in lighting? That is, would you prefer a fictional scenario in a photograph to appear more or less just as it would if it were actually real? If you had the ability to "fix" a Crewdson shot, for example, would you primarily be toning down the lighting?

Out of curiosity, can I ask your preference in literature? Realism vs. fantasy, particular authors, styles, etc. I'd like to better understand your position on this sort of photography, and taste in literature seems like it could be a good point of reference if it is at all similar to your taste in photography.

[vinny]

I've worked for a lot of cinematographers who don't have a clue either. To me, crewdson's work looks like cinematography 101 level lighting. I was introduce to his work by a gaffer who is very talented and whose work I admire. He and I talk photography quite a bit as he shoots large format as well. I took one look at crewdson's work and was like WTF?, really?

[Ben Syverson]

Crewdson is not trying to achieve a contemporary look. He's referencing early Spielberg, specifically Close Encounters. And he's succeeding.

[Brian C. Miller]

With work of this type, am I correct in assuming that you would prefer a more strict realism in lighting? That is, would you prefer a fictional scenario in a photograph to appear more or less just as it would if it were actually real? If you had the ability to "fix" a Crewdson shot, for example, would you primarily be toning down the lighting?

Not so much as "tone down," but "touch up." A fictional setup is fine by me, but it should be done such that it would give the perfect illusion of just that snapshot. The room light should look as though it is coming from actual fixtures, or through windows. For instance, Adams said that he never had a strict interpretation of his negatives, that he always dramaticised the scenes. There's a South American photographer, in Brazil or Argentina, who made a lot of great photographs of street scenes, etc. But just about all of them were staged in some way. I loved all of them, and I thought what he did was fine. But it wasn't OK by the critics when they found out.

What I would change are things like one under-wattage table lamp evenly lighting an entire room, things like that.

Out of curiosity, can I ask your preference in literature? Realism vs. fantasy, particular authors, styles, etc. I'd like to better understand your position on this sort of photography, and taste in literature seems like it could be a good point of reference if it is at all similar to your taste in photography.

Stanislaw Lem (especially, "His Master's Voice"), Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files," true crime, eh, well, the list goes on and on because I'm ecclectic. It's easier to say that I don't bother with schlock romance or mysteries. Reading a lot comes from having a father who was a head librarian.

[ic-racer]

I interpret the lighting as intentionally cliche.

[Darin Boville]

I find that most movies don't demand all of my attention. Sometimes I play "where's the light." Sometimes there are lights that don't match up to anything in the scene. Sometimes lights move in mysterious ways. Sometimes people's faces are lighted exactly the same, even when the are facing each other. As they talk the lights must be bouncing from left to right in a maddening way.

You might say all this is intentional but then that simply suggests merely a limited ambition.

--Darin

[Leszek Vogt]

Vilmos Zsigmond was right...there is no room for two suns.

[johnmsanderson]

As elaborate as Crewdson's setups are, a guy named O Winston Link was shooting things on a similar scale with flashbulbs and only one assistant, in the late 1950s.