Iris exposure issue

[Guest]

Hello,

I will preface this by telling you I am a novice in the lighting and shooting arenas!

I have a chromakey makeshift studio setup in my garage, and I have set up a bluescreen with a tota light hitting it from either side which results in a nice bright even illumination.

Then about 12 feet in front I have my subject on a chair with a single 3ft square softbox lighting the subject with an additional light directly behind the subject to catch some highlights, then my camera is about 8 feet behind the subject, so 20 ft from bluescreen.

To my eye the whole setup looks very nice and well lit, however, in my DVX100, I have to crank down my iris to the point where it almost goes completely black in the viewfinder, I am working off what the zebra are telling me - just a few dancing across the subjects face. I kick up the iris setting a notch above the point where it goes black and if I go any higher, the zebras go wild and overexposure happens.

I have my camera on the F5 scene setting.

Any expert advice is much appreciated!

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Re: Iris exposure issue

You can try a couple things here:

Use the INTERNAL ND at 1/8th and see how far open you can go...

or the talent might be too HOT and you need to stop the light down with a scrim or other diffusion.  Perhaps try "Bouncing" the light instead.

 

[Guest]

Re: Iris exposure issue

The internal ND - how do I acess that?

Your not talking about the 3 position switch on the front left of the camera are you, coz I have played with that

cheers

 

[scharky]

Re: Iris exposure issue

Yes, the switch on the left side of the camera, right next to the flip out lcd, it actually says ND filter on it.  You might try switching it to 1/8 or 1/64.  you can also change your master ped, your gamma settings as well as your color matrix settings until you get the perfect match.  You should not be going from overexposed to pure black.  IF shooting inside with the lights you are using, on 1/8 ND you shouldn't be more than an F4.8 or 5.6.

 

[dpryke]

Re: Iris exposure issue

What are your lights lamped at? Try using lower wattage bulbs or use tough spun on the lights to knock them down. I use a 600 watt Omni with a Chimera for key, a white flexfill bounce for fill, and a Arri 150 for a backlight.