He worked on more than 130 films during his 50-year career, collaborating multiple times with directors including Josef von Sternberg, John Brahm, Henry Hathaway, Budd Boetticher, Raoul Walsh, Sam Peckinpah and Tom Gries.

[3] Von Sternberg allowed him credit as a second cameraman on The Devil is a Woman (1935),[3] and the two shared a Venice Film Festival award for Best Cinematography in 1935.

Von Sternberg promoted him to director of photography on Crime and Punishment (1935) and The King Steps Out (1936),[3] based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, both at Columbia Pictures.

"[6] Director Von Sternberg left Columbia after only two pictures, but Lucien Ballard stayed with the company and became a valuable member of the staff.

After filming Dorothy Arzner's Craig's Wife he took assignments for the studio's "B" features such as The Devil's Playground (1937), Penitentiary (1938), and The Lone Wolf in Paris (1938).

[3] He also lent his professionalism to Columbia's Charles Starrett westerns and even its two-reel comedies, starring The Three Stooges, Charley Chase, Andy Clyde, and Harry Langdon.

In an interview with Leonard Maltin, he said he enjoyed working on the shorts because they gave him the freedom to experiment with different lenses and filters, which likely would not have been permitted on features.

They worked together on five films, including Diplomatic Courier (1952), Prince Valiant (1954), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Nevada Smith (1966), and True Grit (1969).

They worked together on The Westerner (1960 television series), Ride the High Country (1962), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), The Getaway (1972), and Junior Bonner (1972).

Finally, in 1949, he married Inez Pokorny, a world traveler and photographer who is sometimes credited as the first woman to explore the Amazon River from the Atlantic to the Pacific,[10] who was killed in an automobile accident in 1982.