How Photographers And Reality Shows Are Innovating During The COVID-19 Lockdowns

When COVID-19 started spreading, no one would have dreamed about the trail of economic destruction it would leave in its wake.  Governments across the world have declared emergencies and enforced strict curfews and lockdowns to ensure the general public stay at home.  There is no vaccine for COVID-19 in sight for the foreseeable future and lockdowns are the best chance we have right now to stop the spread of the virus.  Many industries lost entire revenues overnight and have not seen any business in the last sixty days.  Movie industry, events, hospitality, transportation, restaurants and hotels, photography are just some of the mainstream industries which are reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 virus.

However, these desperate times have called for desperate or rather innovative measures.  Photographers and reality show events are already employing creative and flexible ways to get through these times.  Apple is working with production houses to provide iPhone powered rigs to producers and hosts. The list includes a Parks and Recreation reunion, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon’s late night shows and the long running prime time talent contest, American Idol.   The reality singing show American Idol’s producers are sending home studio rigs to contestants and judges to shoot the final episodes of the current season which are remaining.  The rig is a three camera setup which includes three iPhone 11 Pros, a tripod and a ring light. The production team is helping out with camera setup and editing at a safe distance, from home.  

Traditional fashion and portrait photographers are employing facetime in order to ensure social distancing to create stunning and incredible images during the lockdown.  A photographer by the name of Tim Dunk created a project where he shoots photos on Facetime.  In order to set up your own photoshoot, Dunk suggests shooting from your MacBook.  Ideally, the subject will be using an iPhone although he says an iPad also works and the subject will need to be running iOS 11 or any later versions.  Tim Dunk then ensures the subject has toggled on Live Photos and sets their phone to upload their photos directly to iCloud.  To take a photo, the subject needs to press the on-screen button that takes a Live Photo, which provides Tim with three seconds of footage to dig through to find the perfect frame.

It is really heartwarming to see these stories which inspire other people to be creative.  Although we live in testing times, the show must go on and these stories prove that creativity inspires innovation.