JAY HOLBEN

A few months ago, Shots magazine did a special issue on the technical trades behind-the-scenes in the industry and they chose me to represent expertise in the world of lighting.

During the holiday season you may find me scouring the aisles at my local hardware, home improvement and home superstores—not for holiday gifts, but for holiday lights!

In a recent lecture on lighting, I had a student ask me about mireds and I saw the blank and quizzical faces of his fellow students at the mere mention of the word.

Recently I was asked to lecture at a college for a course in advanced cinematography.

I received an email question the other day about lighting a green screen and thought it might be of use for me to share my response and thoughts here.

Last month I tried to answer a young cinematographer’s question about how cinematographers improvise lighting.

It is the first time in history a photograph has been taken of light simultaneously behaving as a wave and as a particle.

Last month I discussed the aesthetic side of how cinematographers and lighting directors go about choosing specific fixtures for the job.

Recently on Instagram I posed a question to my followers: What would you like to learn?

The lumen is a consistent form of intensity measurement, regardless of the source or power consumption.

I wanted to share a technique I developed over the years utilizing a reflected light meter to maintain a consistency of fog or atmosphere in a location over time.

The world of lighting hardware can be confusing waters to navigate.

This month, let’s take a deeper look at one of the most ubiquitous forms of illumination in our world: tungsten or incandescent bulbs.

I was recently invited to give a guest lecture on narrative lighting for the Bay Area Professional Videographer’s Association in San Jose, Calif.

The next in line on our examination of lighting fixtures is the PAR, which is an acronym for Parabolic Aluminum Reflector.

We all know inverse square law as the rule of physics regarding point sources where the intensity of the source will diminish by the square of the distance traveled.

Rarely, if ever used as a single fixture, a Space Light is designed to be used in concert with multiple other Space Lights to provide an ambient soft source from above.

I was asked to give a short talk at this year’s NAB Show on new technology for studio lighting.

It used to irritate the hell out of me that Chris would always start lighting from the smallest detail in the room.