Photography Challenges in the days before Digital

Joe Polillio photographing Geraldo Rivera on CNBC TV set

​I was going through some old files recently and came across a photo shoot that I did of Geraldo Rivera back in the film days before digital photography. It reminded me of the serious challenges photographers faced shooting indoors with no strobes and on a live set.

1. Low Light. Studio Hot Lights on a TV set weren’t really bright, so we had to use high speed film which got grainy fast. Often times we had to push the film in processing which enhanced the graininess even more. I used to shoot with Fuji 400. Agfa 1000 was a gorgeous film, but I used Agfa more so when I wanted a dreamy grainy effect for beauty work.
2. Color Balance. Because hot lights were Tungsten balanced about 3200˚ K, you had either shoot with Tungsten film, which could sometimes have color balance issues on skin tones, or use Blue filters which lowered the exposure even more!
3. Shutter Speed. Another consequence to the low light was slow shutter speed. I thought I had it rough until I met a Sports Illustrated photographer who was covering a World Series. He said baseball championship games were a nightmare because they always struggled getting a high enough shutter speed to stop action.
4. Time Limits. Typically when you shoot with celebrities you never have enough time to do what you want, but when you’re asked to shoot in between segments during commercials, UGH! You have be ready! I would shoot some polaroids (remember those?) while the action was rolling to check my settings, then when it was my turn to shoot, I’d be ready with my exposure and filtration.
5. Noise. Sometimes we’re asked to shoot during the show, but professional cameras can be loud. So we use something called a Blimp. I haven’t used one in a long time, but the old ones were like a tank and very awkward to use. The newer blimps (I believe they call them sound muzzles now) look much better and easier to use. Especially since now you can shoot with fairly beefy SD cards and not have to constantly change film.
6. Post Production or lack thereof! We easily forget, that before photoshop, retouching was very expensive, so for most jobs, the shot had to be finished when you did the final processing of the film. I remember clients retouching images quite a bit, but nothing like the capabilities now.

As awkward and technically limiting those days were. I still miss them. Photography was difficult and required a real expertise that couldn’t be done by just anybody with a phone.
Technology moves forward and so must we. The way to survive as a pro is to use the advancements to push creativity in ways never before possible.