My main point of reference here is *What’s My Line*, which was a live studio show. It seems like it should work the same, unless there’s something peculiar about the camera that causes that effect? Or do they tell people on TV now not to wear jewelry like that?
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>why does jewelry not sparkle dramatically on TV today, like it does in black-and-white shows from the ’50s? My main point of reference here is What’s My Line, which was a live studio show. It seems like it should work the same, unless there’s something peculiar about the camera that causes that effect? Or do they tell people on TV now not to wear jewelry like that?
In part it is that people choose not to (and sometimes are not permitted to) wear jewellery like they did back in the day, and in part it is something peculiar with the cameras. Back in the day, cameras were a lot less sensitive, so in order to film a TV show the studios had to be brilliantly lit. All those studio lights reflected off of the jewellery, producing the flashing you see on those old shows. It also took longer for the phosphors on those older cameras to “reset”, so a flash would temporarily blind the camera, making the flash more noticeable.
Today’s cameras are more sensitive, so less light is needed to film the subjects. Some cameras may even have anti-glare circuitry to deal with the odd jewel flare. Lighting techniques are different as well, with more indirect flood lighting rather than spotlights.
A lot of the costume jewelry that was popular at the time featured larger imitation gems or cheap crystals (real jewelry also tended to feature larger gems at the time as well). Most of today’s jewelry (costume or real) features smaller gems or imitation gems. In the old costume jewelry, it also wasn’t uncommon for the flat backside of a false gem to be silvered (like a mirror). I expect the type of set lighting used back then may also be a factor. Costume jewelry of the era also often featured gilt paint over a cheap metal or composite material and silver gilt is shiny AF.
Source: inherited a large collection of 40s-50s costume jewelry and quite a few real pieces from that era as well.
The cameras don’t suck any more.
With the old Vidicon tubes, the studio lights had to be a lot brighter, meaning everything reflected more light. Problem is that the old tubes also had terrible dynamic range, so anything that reflected those super bright lights would create a bunch of bloom in the image that made the reflections very noticeable.
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