Outdoor shooting amateur!

N

n0signal

Active member
Hey guys.

I've not got insurance for my DVX yet, so I've been paranoid and kept it in the house (only had it a week). Thus far, all the shooting I've done with it has been indoors with controlled lighting. Good results.

Today it was a bright sunny day, so I took it for a test spin in my garden. EEK! I've been having a nightmare because my garden is very sheltered rom the sun. So when I'm fiddling with the iris controls I either get the sky looking decent but my garden totally under-exposed or I can expose the garden properly but the sky is bright white and blown-out. Also, when the sky is overexposed and blowing-out I get horrid jaggies on diagonal objects! Which I'm assuming is caused by interlacing?

Can anyone gimme tips and tricks? Obviously these are sh**ty shooting conditions, which I won't be in very often, but I'd just like to be able to sort these problems out. Just in case I have to at some point.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

Video has very limited latitude, and you're running smack into the limitations.  You have really three choices: add light to the shady area, subtract light from the bright area, or frame your shot differently so you eliminate the trouble area.

Adding light outside is typically accomplished by using white bounce cards or silver reflectors.  Catch the sun's rays on the card and bounce the light onto your subject.  That'll make you have to stop down more, bringing the sky back to more proper exposure.

Subtracting light from the sky is trickier.  If you have a matte box with an ND Grad filter you can try to position it such that the sky is filtered by the ND portion while the garden is shooting through the clear portion.  Or you could try stringing up a black net but it'd have to be far away to be somewhat out of focus, and very large.

Reframing the shot is often the trick to reach for first -- if you can't get both elements in the shot, cut one out, reframe the shot, and get proper exposure on the one element.

Finally, there's the old fix-it-in-post scenario.  If it's a lock-down shot, you could shoot the scene twice: once properly exposed for the garden, the second time properly exposed for the sky, and then merge the two shots in post to get one complete shot.

(reframing is the first thing to try, followed by the bounce card/reflector. Once you have a budget, the third option is to rent some HMI lights and blast those at the garden to bring the light level up).
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Barry! :) Yeah, if I was actually out on a shoot I think my first reaction would be to avoid that type of shot completely. But your suggestion of using a reflector has intrigued me, and I know where to get a large one quite cheap, so I'll do some tests.

I'm guessing the jaggies on the horizon are unavoidable if the sky is blowing out then? I never have problems with jaggies usually, even on diagonals when they're in motion.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

Wouldn't just using a neutral density filter be the simplest and cheapest solution for this problem?
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

No, because the problem isn't too much overall brightness, it's too great a difference in brightness between the garden and the sky.

If you just put on the regular ND filter, it'd probably make the sky look okay but it'd make the garden way too dark. That's why I suggested one way to handle it may be to use a graduated ND filter, which is dark on only part of its surface -- use the dark part against the sky and the clear part against the garden to balance the light out.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

[quote author=TC5 link=board=news;num=1082398701;start=0#3 date=04/19/04 at 17:20:24]Wouldn't just using a neutral density filter be the simplest and cheapest solution for this problem?[/quote]

No, there's too much of a difference between the light levels in the frame. It's not a questions of limiting light from the sky, that'll just result in an even darker image overall. You're kinda right tho, I could do what Barry suggested and buy an ND grad filter, but I don't have a Mattebox to put it in!! :(

I think I'll try using a reflector like Barry said. It'll work out at about £20 for a massive Portaflash 5-in-One reflector because I can get it cheap through where I work. Or I'll just avoid that type of shot.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

A Grad ND would surely work perfect as Barry stated. I have one and have been using it for EXT shots and the difference is Light and Day (kind of a Pun?) over the Internal ND.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

also if you throw a polarizer on there, pending your angle to the sun, you can dial down the sky some, and bring it more into the exposure range.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

you could also tear down the house. rebuild it in a studio with a new sky, painted by a good setdesigner and light it as you want/need. ;D

seriously: even the best cams and filmstocks have troubles with these problems. only ways around are mentioned above. also a different time of day could help.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

My house is actually built on a massive Lazy Susan and it's name is Black Maria.  It works pretty good but my wife gets pissd off everytime I swing the back patio east.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

bwahahahaa.... I was thinking in my head that would have been so much easier than using a grad nd filter.... Now if only I shout of installing that lazy susan before the concrete was poured.
 
Re: Outdoor shooting amateur!

So you want to shoot outside...

1) wait 'till contrast is lower (dusk or dawn)
2) reflectors (from hardware store)
3) LoCon filter in your matte box.
4) 12x12' silk over the whole area
5) see first Idea.

We do it all the time, nothing like sweet-light. Everything else looks fake, even with the DVX.

Steve
 
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