Dynamic Range?

A

Adam Beck

Active member
To those smarter than I or at least have more knowledges of this topic, can you please enlighten me?

I have a few questions about Dynamic Range. I think I have an understanding of it, but I'm not sure.

1) Is Dynamic Range the range in which you maintian detail in the image when shooting a dgitial or film format? MY understand that Film has the greatest latitude while digital has the smallest range dependent upon the digital format.

2) How do you monitor the dynamic range when shooting film or video, is it with the waveform monitor or a histogram?

3) If you plan on going through a DI you want to make sure you are within the Dynamic Range.

Thanks for your help.

Adam
 
Adam Beck said:
To those smarter than I or at least have more knowledges of this topic, can you please enlighten me?

I have a few questions about Dynamic Range. I think I have an understanding of it, but I'm not sure.

1) Is Dynamic Range the range in which you maintian detail in the image when shooting a dgitial or film format? MY understand that Film has the greatest latitude while digital has the smallest range dependent upon the digital format.

2) How do you monitor the dynamic range when shooting film or video, is it with the waveform monitor or a histogram?

3) If you plan on going through a DI you want to make sure you are within the Dynamic Range.

Thanks for your help.

Adam
Click to expand...

Hi Adam- I'm not an expert and I doubt I'm smarter than you. If I'm incorrect, the experts will correct me. But my understanding of dynamic range has more to do with contrast than detail. I believe DR refers to the camera's ability to handle the brightest and lowest exposure values in your picture. A camera with low dynamic range will not have much "room" between these values at a given accuracy/level of detail. A camera with good dynamic range can handle a considerable degree of contrast in the same shot.

As an example on a recent job I did, I had to set the DVX for maximum DR while filming a corporate training class. They ran a powerpoint during the presentation and I was using only existing light. The screen was bright, but the speakers faces were dark. Properly expsosing this kind of scene is a real challenge- how do you properly expose both "subjects"? You can't really, but for this scenario you can increase the DR enough to get a passable image. A lesser camera would either blow out the brights or leave the darks in the mud. But the DVX did well in this situation because it has pretty good DR.

I hope that makes sense and that it's correct! For what it's worth. J
 
If it were as easy and contrast every could boost contrast in post.

Dynamic range is measured by the number of useable stops between the darkest dark and the whitest white. I have heard it been said that film has a latitude of 11 stops where as most dv is only 5. Which means that you only have 5 stops of light to play with when shooting dv, which is why when shooting indoors windows almost always tend to blow out. One way around this is to boost the amount of light inside so it almost matches the light outside bring everything in the scene within that magic 5 stops of exposure.

I am sure I am missing some info, but that is my understanding of DR.
 
From what I gather;

1) You can use a waveform montior to monitor your DR, because it will monitors your whites and blacks? I know about clipping whites and crushing blacks when using a waveform monitor. I am assuming sence crushing blacks and clipping whites have no detail they are out of the DR of the cameras ability.
2) What I am really after is how to shoot a scene with a DV camera and have the ability to keep as much data(detail) in the image as possible. I know there are several levels of difficulty dependant on the scene. For an example, a head shot of the driver in a taxi cab coming from the passanger side of the car. I have noticed that often times I have seen the image of the sky is blown out when people are using DV cameras. If I wanted to keep the detail of the sky and the inside of the car with the driver, I would need to bump up the light on the driver so my sky and driver would both be within the DR of the camera's ability. I'm I right?
3) Is there anywhere I can learn this stuff in greater detail or tricks on how to do this with different scenes. I assume the tricks would more or less be about lighting different scenes and how to get the details in the darker or lighter areas of the shot.

Thank everyone for your help, I need it. Keep it coming!

Adam
 
Yes you are right. you would have to fill the car with enough light so that your darkest dark and whitest white are only 5 stops apart. If you post up under the cinematograpy section you will get a much better response. This isnt exactly the right spot for this question.
 
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