American director of photography (1931–2011) who shot most of the original series and created its distinctive look of strong coloured light and dramatic close-ups.
Gerald Perry Finnerman, usually credited as Jerry Finnerman, was an American cinematographer born in 1931. He had been a camera operator before Star Trek gave him his first job as director of photography.
He took over the camera with The Corbomite Maneuver, the first regular episode filmed in 1966, and photographed nearly all of the first two seasons and the early part of the third. Working on tight schedules and plain sets, he washed the walls with coloured gels, lit faces with hard, sculpting light and gave female guest stars a soft-focus glow, a style that became inseparable from the series.
After leaving Star Trek he continued in television and later earned Emmy nominations for his work on Moonlighting. He died in 2011.