From: Posts on the b-roll.net FORUM

I’m still kind of new to the photojournalist world. Recently I’ve hit a great zone. Shooting good stuff, using my tripod (a lot) and making good use of my wireless mic. But I have had a few problems with interview lighting, the interviewees wearing glasses.

I get the light shining off the lens of their glasses. It is a distraction, I think. I use an umbrella and have tried moving the light around, real tough in a small room. If you have the trick, do tell, until then I’ll keep thinking. Lloyd

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I used to have the same problem until a production manager sat me down and solved the problem. The trick is to use as soft a light as possible and put it on the side of the interview subject. You want to have the light almost on a direct line with them and try to get it within 10 feet of them too. The setup is something like this

LIGHT INTERVIEW SUBJECT

REPORTER CAMERA

If you have a softbox, use that. If not, try a 250 with some scrim. It’s been my experience that smaller lights work better in these situations. Also, put your reporter on the side opposite the light so the subject is not looking into the light

Hope this helps. Kevin Cochran

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Kevin’s pretty close, but if there’s a reflection on the subject’s glasses, a softbox won’t help–it’ll just be a bigger white reflection. But the setup is good: looking from left to right or from right to left, place the camera, the reporter next to it, and the light on the outside…never camera, light, reporter or reporter, camera, light. (I wish I could draw here.)

Remember, angle of incidence=angle of reflection. In other words, change the height of the light to move the reflection relative to your lens or, if you have to, change the height of the lens. Moving left or right won’t help much and it will add a nasty “nose shadow” if you go too far. The size–wattage–of the light won’t matter here, because either you see the reflection or you don’t.

Finally, keep using your tripod. It makes much better pictures. Don’t feel like you’re relying on it too much; that’s impossible. Scott Orr

From: Ric Edwards, Classroom Technology Specialist

This is a tip that veteran shooters will have learned long ago, but I hope it will help the newer photogs. I taught video production for several years and was always amazed at how many of my aspiring news photographers would come back with interview footage that had all kinds of distracting elements in the background.

One of the worst examples I can remember was an interview shot in someone’s office. In the background they had an office window which looked out on a hallway. Every passer-by was a distraction, not to mention the occasional curious onlooker who would press their face up against the glass for a closer look at what was going on!

When setting up for an interview, make sure scan *all* the elements that will be visible in the background. Do this before you decide where to position the subject and then again — through your viewfinder — once you are set up. If you have the luxury of a monitor, that’s an even better way to check the shot. Make sure that there are no distracting elements in the frame that will detract from the information coming from the subject. Of course, many times you *do* want to highlight an object in the foreground or background, providing it has relevance to what the person is talking about (it’s okay to show an office painting depicting a fighter jet if the interview subject is talking about military budget cuts, for example).

Bottom line: The background can be just as important as the interview subject. A distracting background can keep your viewer from paying attention to what’s important in your story.

One more thing.(again, veterans will have learned this long ago): ask if you can unplug the telephone before you roll tape. And if you or your reporter have cell phones or radios with you, turn ‘em off. That phone always seems to ring in the middle of the exact response you needed for the sound bite!