Painting with light / John Alton ; new foreword by John Bailey ; introduction by Todd McCarthy.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Few cinematographers have had as decisive an impact on the cinematic medium as John Alton. Best known for his highly stylized film noir classics T-Men, He Walked by Night , and The Big Combo , Alton earned a reputation during the 1940s and 1950s as one of Hollywood's consummate craftsmen through his visual signature of crisp shadows and sculpted beams of light. No less renowned for his virtuoso color cinematography and deft appropriation of widescreen and Technicolor, he earned an Academy Award in 1951 for his work on the musical An American in Paris. First published in 1949, Painting With Light remains one of the few truly canonical statements on the art of motion picture photography, an unrivaled historical document on the workings of postwar American cinema. In simple, non-technical language, Alton explains the job of the cinematographer and explores how lighting, camera techniques, and choice of locations determine the visual mood of film. Todd McCarthy's introduction provides an overview of Alton's biography and career and explores the influence of his work on contemporary cinematography and the foreword, written expressly for this edition by award-winning cinematographer John Bailey, explores Alton's often contentious relationships with colleagues, the American Society of Cinematographers, and the movie industry itself.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword Film Noir's Sorcerer of Light: John Alton (p. ix)
• Preface (p. xvii)
• Through a Lens Darkly: The Life and Films of John Alton (p. xix)
• Filmography (p. xlv)
• 1 Hollywood Photography (p. 1)
• The City of Geniuses
• The Photographic Staff
• The Outstanding Stand-ins
• The Laboratory Contact Man
• Tools of Motion Picture Photography
• 2 Motion Picture Illumination (p. 18)
• The Set
• Props
• People
• Rigging for Illumination
• Lighting Equipment
• The Theory of Illumination
• 3 Mystery Lighting (p. 44)
• Fire
• Sets and Mystery
• Lighting for Lightning
• Lighting a Campfire Scene
• How to Illuminate a Fireplace Scene
• The Candle Flame
• Doubles and Their Illumination
• Criminal Lighting
• The Radio Dial as a Light Source
• The Power of Light
• 4 Special Illumination (p. 57)
• Lighting the Street
• Rain
• Summer Moonlight
• Autumn Fog
• Wintertime
• Dream Lighting
• Train Light Effects
• Interior of a Plane
• Steamship Interiors
• Tents
• Gags and Tricks
• Transparency or Process Photography
• 5 The Hollywood Close-Up (p. 80)
• Starlight
• The Close-up Is Born
• Rules for Close-up Illumination
• Tools Used for Making Close-ups
• The Clock System of Placing Reflectors
• Lighting Procedure
• 6 Outdoor Photography (p. 118)
• Films with Exteriors
• Mood in Exteriors
• Composition
• Painting with Sun Reflectors
• Booster Lights
• Painting with Filters
• Light Problems
• Westerns
• The New School of Exterior Photography
• 7 Symphony in Snow (p. 136)
• On Vacation
• On Location
• 8 Ocean Voyage (p. 146)
• Love, Live, Laugh, and Loaf
• Preparation
• At Sea
• Taking Pictures
• Arrival at a Foreign Port
• In Port
• Homeward Bound
• 9 Visual Music (p. 158)
• Visual Symphony
• 10 The Portrait Studio (p. 164)
• Improvements
• Make-up and Portrait
• 11 The Laboratory (p. 167)
• Screen Tests
• The Contact Man
• Negative Developing
• 12 Day and Night, Ladies, Watch Your Light (p. 171)
• Faces
• Interior Illumination of the Home
• Outdoor Lighting
• Lighting in Clubs, Bars, and Restaurants
• Architectural Lighting
• 13 Motion Picture Theatres (p. 185)
• The Headache
• The Modern Theatre
• 14 The World is a Huge Television Studio and we are All Photographers (p. 187)
• The Human Camera
• The Laboratory
• What Is Thinking?
• Television

Author notes provided by Syndetics