why does jewelry not sparkle dramatically on TV today, like it does in black-and-white shows from the ’50s?

Question

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: 7

Answer 1

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.