Kovacs is practically a cinematography legend just because his body of work is so immense. He had done almost every type of film imaginable up until this point, with a few exceptional pieces (Easy Rider, FIST) but I don’t think it was until Ghostbusters that he found a perfect visual tone for the film he was shooting.
It’s no secret that GB is my favorite film of all time, and Laszlo is a big reason for that. One thing you might not realize, mostly because the humorous content of the film, is that the entire piece is exceptionally dark and gritty. Laszlo makes New York feel dirty. Not that it’s much of a stretch in 1984, but even the indoor scenes have that “mechanic working under a car” feel. Typically DOPs utilize color schemes such as that with handheld, gritty camerawork with a heavy emphasis on wides and utilizing shadows, but Kovacs makes Ghostbusters a completely different beast.
With the exception of some of the static wides that were neccesary for effects work in post, the film is practically packed full of smooth, transparent motion. Tracking shots, long dollys, steep pans… they are all here. And the most important thing about it? It’s completely transparent. You really have to watch the film focused SOLELY on the the shot selection to understand it’s brilliance.
I think, just based off of my speculation, that they shot the entire film about a quarter of a stop under to give it that dark, grimy feel. Or possibly Kovacs worked with the gaffer to light everything as flat as possible and let the natural environmental contrast take over. Hell, for all I know the “look” might have just kind of happened because of the immense set up time for the movement on the shots. But what I do know is that it works… perfectly.