Exposing for highlights?

[Stab]

In the end you need lights, with any camera but particularly with a DSLR, to prevent blown out highlights and maintain shadow detail.
Sometimes 1 of the 2 will have to be sacrificed. In my case, I always try to expose first for the highlights, as I hate the 'DSLR look' with a blown out white background. Also, there is more detail maintained in the shadows than in the highlights, so it gives you a bit more room to fix in post.

 

[XSVpro]

Bare in mind i am talking purely for an exterior shooting scenario, as others have mentioned, lighting can be controlled inside, even with a window in shot but If you are exposing for highlights outside with the aim of raising the shadows and mids in post to try and balance out the exposure i would always go for a +2 possibly +3 on the pedestal and work my scene file to reduce noise just enough so that there is a little more wiggle room in post and then use Neat Denoise to see if i can grab just a little more. When you expose for the highlights the contrast is naturally going to increase (your shadows are going to be very dark) so id like to see what i can get in camera first. Dropping the Pedestal and then exposing for the Highlights would end up pretty contrasty and i doubt you would have much room to lift the shadows in post and would have a near silhouette shot, this is one of the only times i would say trying to obtain a flat noise free shot is the aim with the AF100. Generally you are trying to get as much in camera as you can with 8 Bit compressed footage and its the same here, the difference is that you are trying to get the shot in camera that will work well in post, could even try DRS on level 1 but do test it out and see how it looks to you.

I would recommend external recorders here as you are trying to get the best noise pattern to work with in post.

 

[XSVpro]

I am really reluctant to get into any discussion with you because I know I am going to be attacked for my style of advice and your mis interpretation of it.




The thing that I have the advantage of a professional set up and resource does not change the fact that the advice given is photographic fact for us all including the "run and gun" or "point and shooters"


However:





My Rule of thumb: No over or under exposure anywhere at all.

Over and Under exposure means a "screw up" or something I have to manage with lighting. I never use the terms in the context of how to expose. Properly exposed is what every part of the image should be. IT all has a place .

The terms do mean something to me when relative to something else. eg the green screen is 2 stops under the exposure of the subject (and even that is relative to knowing how that is measured.)

BTW - I do not know the Dynamic Range of the AF102 or any camera that I use ( Alexa, Red, Phantom..). Not a clue because the WFM is everything I need to know in combination with the monitor and my "eye".

A simple fill bounce board or reflector or anti fill or a scrim (in the absence of a lighting truck) does wonders.

I dont fix shots as regards exposure in post. I shoot everything with headroom/ foot room so it can be graded and cc'd in post. ( a degree of felxibilty but most of my shot is "burned in when I shoot it)

No worries Shooter, thanks anyway.

 

[Sttratos]

Bare in mind i am talking purely for an exterior shooting scenario, as others have mentioned, lighting can be controlled inside, even with a window in shot but If you are exposing for highlights outside with the aim of raising the shadows and mids in post to try and balance out the exposure i would always go for a +2 possibly +3 on the pedestal and work my scene file to reduce noise just enough so that there is a little more wiggle room in post and then use Neat Denoise to see if i can grab just a little more. When you expose for the highlights the contrast is naturally going to increase (your shadows are going to be very dark) so id like to see what i can get in camera first. Dropping the Pedestal and then exposing for the Highlights would end up pretty contrasty and i doubt you would have much room to lift the shadows in post and would have a near silhouette shot, this is one of the only times i would say trying to obtain a flat noise free shot is the aim with the AF100. Generally you are trying to get as much in camera as you can with 8 Bit compressed footage and its the same here, the difference is that you are trying to get the shot in camera that will work well in post, could even try DRS on level 1 but do test it out and see how it looks to you.

I would recommend external recorders here as you are trying to get the best noise pattern to work with in post.

I get the idea for very low pedestal for more dynamic range from this post:

If you lift the dark end of the camera's exposure range to capture more shadow detail, you'll have less headroom for highlights. The resulting image will have its dynamic range biased to favor shadow detail at the expense of the highlights. That's fine in studio situations where you can control the illumination, but for sunlit shots it will likely blow the highlights, unless you underexpose enough to turn the shadows black anyway.

If you raise the AF100's Pedestal control to lift the blacks, it'll clip the highlights even worse than before.

I search the forums a lot lately to try to find tips to expose outside in sun and found many different opinions.

 

[XSVpro]

I get the idea for very low pedestal for more dynamic range from this post:





I search the forums a lot lately to try to find tips to expose outside in sun and found many different opinions.

Interesting, ill give this a try myself. My approach is for a typical outdoor scene of say a building that is now in slight shadow from a bright sky. I always try to burn in a little shadow detail over contrast with the pedestal function but hadn't tested its affect on the highlights. Ill do some testing on the next free weekend with both compressed and external recording.

 

[Zephyrnoid]

Tsk Tsk Tsk. Seems I'm constantly reteaching sensitometry 101.
1- Fact. every camera sensor has a fixed MAXIMUM dynamic range. In an ideal scenario, your significant highlights and significant shadows ( Zones X - I in Zone system parlance) are matched by the sensor's DR. 10 stops in this case) expose your brightest significant highlight say light shooting through a lampshade or though a veiled window, to land on Zone X and unless your sensor has a DR less than 10 stop, your significant shadows will automatically fall within range.
2- The reason we expose for that brightest significant highlight is that it's impossible to recover it in post ( no matter what anyone tells you) once it has crossed the threshold and been blown out into zone XI (spectral highlights such as the brightest part of a light source)
What else do you need to learn? Nothing.

 

[TimurCivan]

I can say this: I've already done all of the testing for the af100 when I shot "Verse before Dying".

I lifted the pedestal a bit, shot with 400ISO, (despite the loss of highlight ) and controlled my shadows with fill, and kept the highlights just below clipping.

In the grade we did contrast expansion in the shadows and pulled the highlights a bit down. This is where 400iso helps because the clean shadows makes extending the bottom easier.

 

[XSVpro]

Hey Strat, not sure if you have your answer yet. I just watched Jans old AF100 presentation on vimeo http://vimeo.com/23000576 she mentioned when using Cine like D gamma, get your exposure right then "underexpose" by half a stop and bring up the mids and shadows by half a stop in post as Cine-Like D(ynamic) maximises the Dynamic Range but will cut off your highlights if you don't watch your highlights.

So from Jan, under exposing your image is a normal thing to do and not a fix or screw up. In other gammas that may be a different thing but for what you are intending to do I think you have the right idea. As its has been said, testing is key and certainly moving the dynamic range (pedestal) around is a good place to experiment but I would be wary of lowering it too much in outdoor landscape building settings, the internal but lit from outside scene featured earlier looks fantastic and is a great example of how to manage the highlights but its not the same kind of challenge as shooting outiside with a high contrast scene.

 

[Shooter]

Sorry Strattos...you went full circle on this one.. got some good advice ...and ended up here ...again!

As its has been said, testing is key

Come back to us and tell us/ show us what you do in the end.

:thumbsup: