Let There Be Lighting: Andy Ciddor

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.

The Fabulous and Often Misunderstood Fill Light

by Andy Ciddor, 7.09.2008

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 picture by the way it modifies the depth and richness of those shadows. more

Banning the Lightbulb: A Reality Check

by Andy Ciddor, 5.14.2008

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, 1.09.2008

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, 9.05.2007

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, 6.13.2007

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, 4.11.2007

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 politicians are starting to acknowledge that climate change may, more or less, given the balance of probabilities, perhaps, actually be happening. more

Just How Long Is a Foot-candle?

by Andy Ciddor, 1.10.2007

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, specify and describe it. 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

Once Upon a Time,There Were Keylights

by Andy Ciddor, 8.09.2006

It seems that the world is conspiring against the traditional keylight. more

Getting Help: When 'RTFM' is Not Enough

by Andy Ciddor, 5.10.2006

One of the great joys of working with complex equipment is the total unpredictability of the ways that it may choose not to work as expected. more

Knowing When How Much is Enough

by Andy Ciddor, 3.08.2006

I suppose that it's just another example of market forces at work, but still I'm troubled by the constant escalation of what are usually referred to as "production values" in the shows that we make. more

Creating Misty Effects

by Andy Ciddor, 1.11.2006

Atmospheric effects are often bundled together under the terms "fog" and "smoke," although they fall into four basic categories--smoke, haze, fog and heavy fog, each with different applications and peculiarities. more

Creating the Picture, One Pixel at a Time

by Andy Ciddor, 11.09.2005

After a year as a lowly studio lighting technician, when I was finally admitted upstairs into the inner sanctum of the control room, I was impressed by all of the consoles, monitor bays and oscilloscopes that belonged to the video engineers. more

Divide and Conquer Your DMX Problems

by Andy Ciddor, 10.05.2005

In a lifetime engaged in the study of the multitudinous technical manifestations of the One True Universal Law (Murphy's, of course), I have managed to extract a single powerful theorem for use in fault finding: It is folly to believe that similar symptoms are produced by similar faults. more

Finding Fault with DMX

by Andy Ciddor, 9.07.2005

Despite having been a part of the lighting scene for almost 20 years, the DMX512 control protocol still seems to be shrouded in mystery for far too many of its users. more

Oh, Please Give Me a Sine

by Andy Ciddor, 8.03.2005

Dimming is a dirty business. Ever since we gave up using resistance dimmers because they were big, heavy, expensive, inefficient, hot and very difficult to remotely control (and in the case of the saltwater variety, also smelly and toxic), we have been playing merry hell with our utility supply. more

Taming the Harsh Elements of Softlight

by Andy Ciddor, 7.06.2005

I finally found the light source I was looking for when I stumbled across heavily diffused nine-light minibrutes (molefays) used in TV commercials. more

Specious Specifications: Works of Fiction

by Andy Ciddor, 5.04.2005

Model numbers are just numbers and spec sheets have tended to become works of speculative fiction. more