American Cinematographer - December 1960 - 29

and camera angles to produce scenes which would
give approximately equal exposure indications on
the two types of meters. Those scenes which would
indicate too low an exposure on the reflected light
meter can be corrected by increasing illumination of
dark areas, or by moving brighter objects in the
scene closer to the camera, so as to fill more of the
frame area with light. Scenes which would indicate
too high an exposure on a reflected light meter can
be corected by framing to include less of the bright
areas in the picture, by obscuring part of a large
bright area with a tree branch or similar effect, or
by moving darker objects closer to the camera so
that the total highlight area of the scene will be
reduced.
D.C. Restorer Missing

The dismaying fact is that practically all blackand-white television receivers manufactured in the
U. S. since about 1950 do not have d.c. restorers.
Only color receivers and some of the custom-built
black-and-white receivers are so equipped. The cine¬
matographer who is photographing television films
must therefore take this fact into account, since some
otherwise effective scenes will not be properly repro¬
duced on the vast majority of home receivers. It
must be emphasized that this failure to reproduce a
correct gray scale on some scenes is not an inherent
property of television. Present day television equip¬
ment and standards are capable of reproducing a
remarkably good picture, and the film program sig¬
nal transmitted from most stations can be repro¬
duced as a high quality image, essentially correct
in its grey scale content regardless of the type of
scene. The poor quality many people have come to
expect from television is largely a product of typical
receiver design and haphazard viewer adjustments.
Effective television film photography, therefore, de¬
mands that the cinematographer understand not only
the fundamental limitations of television film repro¬
duction, but the typically poor conditions under
which the great majority of receivers are operated.
Cinematographers should be aware that all picture
monitors in television broadcasting studios are
equipped with d.c. restorers and therefore do not per¬
form like home receivers. However, some studio
monitors are provided with a switch which removes
the d.c. restorer, and if the cinematographer has oc¬
casion to review one of his films on "closed circuit"
he should ask to have the d.c. restorer removed from
one monitor so he may properly judge the effective¬
ness of the film as it would appear on a typical home
receiver.

WHENEVER POSSIBLE, a "white reference" and a "black reference"
should be included in each scene as a guide to the video operator in
establishing proper transmission levels. Here the white tablecloth and
girl's black hair would provide the required references.

NIGHT EFFECTS should be implied or suggested (lighted window, street
lamp, apparent single source of light, etc.) rather than by shooting
almost fully dark scenes or by printing down, as in "day-for-night"
effects.

Transmitting Characteristics

For many years the iconoscope was the camera
tube used in the television film camera chain through
which motion picture films are televised. The icono¬
scope suffered from spurious signals which were a
Continued on Page 753

DECEMBER

* 1960

TV FILM PHOTOGRAPHY should consist of closeup and medium shots
as much as possible. Long shots should be used only to establish
perspective or to cover wide range action. (All of the above photos
have been selected to illustrate the examples set forth, and are not
necessarily reproduced from television films.)

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American Cinematographer - December 1960

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