Let There Be Lighting
Andy Ciddor has been involved in lighting for more than three decades as a practitioner, teacher and writer. You can reach him via e-mail c/o
TV Technology.
To Light the Ear… or Not
by Bill Klages, 01.05.2009
The face-to-face interview is one of the most fundamental setups in television broadcasting. More...
LED by the Nose
by Andy Ciddor, 12.08.2008
Even though lighting for television is an insignificant portion of one of the more minor uses of energy, we have an unfortunately high public profile. More...
Introducing the RCS LightLock
by Andy Ciddor, 10.29.2008
The RSC LightLock is a stabilizing device, which allows moving luminaires to be rigged on very lightweight hanging or flown structures such as those we use in many TV studios. More...
Arriving at the Right Balance
by Andy Ciddor, 09.03.2008
The process of balancing a picture is neither straightforward nor intuitive. More...
The Fabulous and Often Misunderstood Fill Light
by Andy Ciddor, 07.09.2008
While a keylight is vitally important in every lighting setup because it defines the angle and character of the highlights and shadows in a picture, it is the fill light that ultimately defines the tone and atmosphere of the More...
Banning the Lightbulb: A Reality Check
by Andy Ciddor, 05.14.2008
About 18 months ago the world’s media was buzzing with reports of politicians announcing proposals to “Ban the Lightbulb.” More...
A New Year's Resolution
by Andy Ciddor, 01.09.2008
My New Year's resolution is to stand up to the bullies who insist that television is just a cheap inferior-quality way of making film. More...
1 + 1 + 1 Doesn’t Always Equal Zero
by Andy Ciddor, 11.07.2007
After struggling with the more complex mathematical aspects of the topic, I finally came to appreciate the beauty and simplicity of three phase wye-connected power distribution. More...
Breaking the Sound Barrier
by Andy Ciddor, 09.05.2007
The television business is honeycombed with small clans of specialists who neither understand, nor particularly care about, what’s going on in the neighboring clan’s patch. More...
Peeling an Orange With a Hairbrush
by Andy Ciddor, 06.13.2007
Lighting has come by accident to include responsibility for most of the visual material that now adorns production sets. More...
The Incandescent Light At the End of the Tunnel
by Andy Ciddor, 04.11.2007
If you're brave enough to pay attention to the brouhaha pouring from the world's media right now (including the output of the news studio down the corridor from where you may be reading this), you probably have noticed that our More...
Just How Long Is a Foot-candle?
by Andy Ciddor, 01.10.2007
Let me begin by stating the blindingly obvious fact that light is our stock-in-trade; something we manipulate every working day as we craft our pictures. Yet despite this, many of us don't know all that much about how to measure, More...
Passions Aside, It's About the Lighting
by Andy Ciddor, 12.06.2006
My proclivity for hanging about on Internet lighting discussion forums is not something that I'm ashamed of. More...
When Wires Aren't the Worst Way to Go
by Andy Ciddor, 10.04.2006
By all accounts in the technical literature and sales propaganda that crosses my desk, the 21st century is set to be the Wireless Age. More...