What to wear on TV?

[YoungAmerican]

Aren't there rules for what you're supposed to wear and not wear on camera? Certain patterns and colors to avoid?

I'm doing some TV stuff and could use some advice on this.

 

[Singular]

Avoid POW checks...

/M

 

[stickonatree]

don't wear the really small patterns, like a PoW or a really small check/herringbone. they create distortion on cameras.

 

[Mr. Potato]

Don't wear bright green.

 

[mack11211]

Here is an Ask Andy article:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/W...Television.htm

 

[IUtoSLU]

I say stick to solids.

 

[IGORSEMONOV]

Do not wear a frequent thin strip, much better if the shirt will not absolutely white,
preferable light any shadow. Don't wear any bright-blue with red elements - it is the reason of tv-noice on border of colors.

 

[unpainted huffheinz]

What sort of 'TV stuff' are you doing? Public access or network broadcast? Current broadcast equipment has few problems with colors or patterns these days, most of the suggestions date from long ago. Compression artifacts from cramming HD into the stingy ATSC bandwidth allotments are going to mess with any color or pattern along edges.

The navy suit, white shirt and red tie suggestion comes from the fact that the colors are red, white and blue, and not due to any sort of technical merit. It should be noted that in the video color space (Rec 709) green has the heaviest weighting (71%) followed by blue (21%) and then red (8%). Red gives heavily subsampled and compressed footage (DV or HDV) the most problems especially if there is post-processing on display (deinterlacing, gamma correction, etc). White under hot studio lights could possibly exceed broadcast safe levels and the engineers will have to correct for that for legal broadcast which usually involves clamping values and losing detail.

 

[needshoehelp]

Dark suit.

 

[unpainted huffheinz]

Dark suit if it is black and white, but modern color broadcast would favor something like a mid gray flannel suit, blue shirt and fairly muted tie (not gold or bright red!). Avoid the shiny stuff Bush and Cheney like to wear - it looks like cheap polyester on TV. Also you don't want too little or too high a tonal contrast between your clothes and skin. The dark suit only worked well for Kennedy because he was really tan and not ghostly white like Nixon. Honestly, nothing would have made Tricky Dick look anywhere near as telegenic as JFK.

 

[acidboy]

Wait, are you performing?

 

[Stazy]

With the advent of HD, most of the "rules" regarding what to wear in front of the camera are obsolete.

 

[lasbar]

Wear dark conservative colours....The public tend to associate darker colour suits to the conservative values of exprience ,competence and sartorial exigence..

My mother used to tell me that if somebody took the time to present himself properly ,it is always the sign of respect for others...

I'm always shocked when i do see a senior reporter or politicians wearing cream ,beige or even light colours suits when not in the right environment...

Find a suit colour matching your skin complexion and hair and stay classic...

 

[YoungAmerican]

Originally Posted by acidicboy

Wait, are you performing?

Later today I am doing my first "talking head" gig on G4's Attack of the Show, and my radio show is being translated to TV for Current.

 

[nbutter]

blue blazer, open collar blue shirt. why screw around -- it's your first time on camera, and you don't want to be distracted or distracting.

small stripes are really bad, they make a "moire" effect. plain white shirts can be problematic (too "hot").

i'd keep it really simple and informal given that it is g4...