Page 44 - Southern Oregon Magazine Spring 2020
P. 44
neck of the woods | art
ROLL CAMERAS...
ACTION!
Still Photographer
Dale Robinette
by lynn leissler
by dale robinette
Photo by Fiona & Mary Ellen Robinette
hen you see a photograph on a movie
Wposter, a billboard, or a film review, you
probably don’t consider how the photo came to
be. But if you do, you might conclude you’re see-
ing a printed frame of a studio photo session or
a photo taken during the actual movie making.
Dale Robinette, a still photographer, explains
how the process really works.
The shutter speed of a movie camera is 1/50th of
a second (film or digital), which can create a blur
if anything is moving quickly within the frame—a
pitcher’s fastball, a boxer’s punch, a racehorse’s
galloping hooves. When working on a movie set,
Robinette adjusts his shutter speed to 1/250th of
a second or more to assure nothing is blurred.
The studio uses his photographs, called publicity
or production stills, to advertise and promote its
films. In bygone days, publicity stills were often
used by actors and actresses to autograph for
adoring fans.
42 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | spring 2020
