Exposure tip........ just in case.

[Noel Evans]

I was thinking about the A1 and shooting in general and I see this topic a bit and reference made to the zebras. Zebras are a good guide to ensure your not getting hot spots but they shouldnt be used to judge your overall exposure.

For example you may have a scene with talent and you expose their face perfectly - thats what you want - but you are overexposed in other areas of the frame. OK so here is what I am actually doing - this really relates to run and gun not studio or where light set ups are practical. Shooting imgagery around town, gathering stock footage etc.

A frame with a person or object:

I zoom in on the object or person and check the exposure meter. I then stop it a fracton higher on the meter. You want the object or person to have the correct exposure.

I zoom out. At this point I may have zebras in other parts of the frame. At this point you have some options and ill assume you cant get anymore light to key your object or person any more than they already are.

First, can you move the person or object? Yes, then do it. No, see second.

Second, drop your exposure by one stop. You will still retain detail on your object or person and increase the detail back to the overexposed area.

Three, live with it. If the overexposed area is small in the frame then its rarely a sightable issue. An Example below.

Shot explanation. Shot in 1/3rd shutter speed at 24f. Shot was designed to speed up to 5000% in post, thus the large amount of motion blur on anything moving. In this shot I wanted good exposure in the crowd as they cross the road and the building fronts with the screens.... no its not soft focus, motion blur. As you can see to do this I am overexposed in other areas. Cant move things or cam position. The reality is however this shot is totally acceptable. I might run a broadcast safe on this small shot to ensure im good, or manully adjust with scopes. I prefer to use the scopes. NO CC. In the actual shot with such movement in the crowd and screens its much less noticable. will pop up a QT in a sec to show what I mean, in the QT I will add a fraction contrast - only in the blacks i think. OK done heres clip very compressed but you can see what I am talking about... check image below first.

http://www.scarlet-films.com/A1/exposure.mov

 

[Jay Rodriguez]

nice post, looking forward to seeing the QT file.....

To add to what you've posted I have found myself in situations where the talent was lit perfectly but the sky was blown out. What I did was throw on a polarized filter, used a bounce card to reflect some of that beautiful natural light on the talent and BOOYAH! Perfect exposure all around with nice colors from the filter.

 

[redfuse]

Nice post, only i dont agree with you completely with the acceptability of blownouts, problem for me is that the eye always drawn to dissonants in a picture (contrasting with the rest of the image). It also depends where the blowout occurs, if it is right next to your actors face, it is much more annoying than in a far corner of your screen. Furthermore, blowouts on actual object are also more apparent than sky-blowout, since our eyes will never blowout objects, but we are quite used to a white sky (at least where I live
So on your picture I would say I think the sky-blowout is acceptable, but I wouldn't like the whites on that middle-left building.
Also what coffee said, in this case a bounce card or light wouldn't do much help, but a polarizer filter would help a lot in this case...
But thanks for all the images you have shared with us from this cam!

Cheers Steven

 

[Jay Rodriguez]

I don't think there's a bounce card made that's big enough to bounce light onto that building, lol, (clears throat) or maybe there is. I was speaking in regards to "talent" as in an actor/actress, not an actual building.

 

[Noel Evans]

It also depends where the blowout occurs, if it is right next to your actors face, it is much more annoying than in a far corner of your screen.
Cheers Steven

this really relates to run and gun not studio or where light set ups are practical. Shooting imgagery around town, gathering stock footage etc.

First, can you move the person or object? Yes, then do it. No, see second.

Moving the camera is another option, but I am assuming here you want everything in the frame.

Sorry did you overlook these two points in my post? The one thing I did miss was the to mention was I am also assuming inability to use a large reflective bounce card or reflector, due to local permits and laws. Such as is the case in this particular area of Shibuya.

Want to point out a few other small details: I did use a polariser. The shutter speed was 1/3rd.

Another simple way to remove the blow out would be to reframe. But it also depends what you want to include.

 

[Noel Evans]

I have wanted to follow this up for some time but just too busy. In the meantime I have been watching movies as usual and have seen the same thing often in large productions. The point is to ensure correct exposure on the subject, much the same as you would use focus.

Heres a shot example taken from Babel

 

[philnerd]

I have wanted to follow this up for some time but just too busy. In the meantime I have been watching movies as usual and have seen the same thing often in large productions. The point is to ensure correct exposure on the subject, much the same as you would use focus. <snip>

Yes, there are definitely some serious blow outs in the occasional big budget film. Anyone that doesn't believe that need only watch the 'True Lies' DVD. I think near the end where they're running around on the crane (or something, been a while) there are some distractingly blown out skies.

 

[Jay Rodriguez]

I was thinking about this exact subject last night as I watched "Domino". I really enjoyed the film and editing of the film as well as the overall look. I noticed that in many of the shots there were blown out spots and/or back grounds but the subjects were perfectly exposed.

 

[Amr Toukhy]

Comment, what will happen to the "will exposed subject" when the sun comes to the traffic light block !!! i think everything will be blown out !!! any ideas for work arounds !!!

Amr

 

[icicle22]

Comment, what will happen to the "will exposed subject" when the sun comes to the traffic light block !!! i think everything will be blown out !!! any ideas for work arounds !!!

Amr

Perhaps the sun is going down and the scen is getting darker? Or if the ltraffic area because bathed with sunlight then the entire scene will be more evenly lit.....isn't that a good thing? Or are you referring to the need to stop down the exposure over time as the timelapse scene moves on? That is an issue to deal with for sure as the traffic light area will be blown out if the exposure is not compensated for.

I'm sure NCJE has thought of these issues.....NCJE?

 

[Norbert]

In the example image from Babel, don't you think the sky is supposed to look like that? I mean, it's even a little blueish gray, not completely white. Looks like a foggy/hazy sky to me.

The thing with overexposure on film though is that the rolloff (is that the right term?) from white looks much better than on video so maybe that's why they get away with it on film.