Challenge

Eric Koretz likes switching it up. He first broke onto the scene with awards for his cinematography in the documentary Dragonslayer (2011), and most recently was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Ozark, a dark crime drama with an ominous look to match. He knew that his next job would require a very different look, but the scale of the balancing act was a surprise.

Ransom Canyon is Netflix’s contemporary Western romance, based on the book series by Jodi Thomas and adapted for Netflix by April Blair. When Koretz joined the production, he determined the series would need a look that blended the harsh sun and grit of the Texas Hill Country with a stylized warmth to reflect the romantic notes in the story.

“For this show in particular, I don’t want it to feel like normal life, I want it to feel like elevated normal life,” Koretz says.

The show’s epic scale meant filming in numerous practical locations across the American Southwest, and key sets would be built on soundstages. The job would be a balancing act at scale, breaking up artificiality on some days, adding warmth and tone on others.

Solution

On location, the production needed bright, punchy light to match sunlight. The Electro Storm XT26 was a key tool. “The XT26 I’d say was a replacement for a 4k [HMI],” Koretz says.

Light Storm 1200ds and the 600c Pro also played a role, as supporting sunlight through windows, and moonlight for exterior driving scenes.

To keep the heightened reality present in the visuals, light was almost always softened, bounced, or broken up. A key tool was the Lightbridge C100 bounce and the Lightbridge Snapbridge umbrella, which has an adjustable hard reflector at the center to blend and direct hard and soft light at the same time.

“XT26 into a Lightbridge is one of my favorite ways to light these days,” Koretz says.

Blending light types became a key tool not just for lighting talent but for adding texture and believability, especially on sets.

INFINIBARs were used for soft edge light or uplight on talent, and also with softboxes to extend the bottom or top of a bigger light shaft shining through a window. Added haze made the complex light visible and brought an intensely warm and nostalgic feeling to locations like Staten’s home and Quinn’s bar.

Another key element to creating imperfect light on sets came from the art department: Koretz says, “Outside windows, I made sure [the art department] put lots of plants everywhere. Anything to give the light an imperfect path to the talent.”

Results

The resulting complex, imperfect environment lighting gives a subconscious feeling of authenticity, making it difficult to tell what scene was shot on location or stage, and the beauty lighting on talent reinforces the drama and romance of the epic story.

Ransom Canyon was an instant hit on its debut in April 2025, placing in the top 10 across dozens of countries with 7.2 million views in its first week alone.

Koretz says, “I think it’s important to find something you love in the work you’re doing…and I think I bring that into my cinematography. I don’t want to just make a beautiful image, I want to evoke the ideas in the script, the emotion of the characters. Not just framing for a medium or a close up, have everything—lighting, design, the dividing of the frame—integrate into that and make that image.”

For more on Eric’s story and the look of Ransom Canyon, watch our interview video.

On Location

Romance in Lighting

The Imperfect Path