Shooting during an overexposed day

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David Evans

Well-known member
Hi,

I'll begin production of a new feature this summer and most shooting will be outdoors, so that means a lot of overexposed sunny days. I would love to shoot everything at magic hour, but it would take forever to shoot this. I'm using a Canon XH A1, wich I'm planning to use with my SgBlade for most outdoor shots. A big problem I usually have with overexposed days is the haze because of the lighting. Everything just gets hazed. Any ideas if a special kind of filter (other than ND) would help?

Thanks
 
Have you thought about budgeting for outdoor grip including overheads silks and such?

Have you scouted your locations yet to work out shooting details?

Have you thought about adding a smart phone app like Sun Seeker or LightTrac which will show the suns location for any given time of day so you can plan out your shoot times in advance?

With a little pre-Production work like this things will go a little smoother.

Good Luck!

Dave
 
David W. Jones said:
Have you thought about budgeting for outdoor grip including overheads silks and such?

Have you scouted your locations yet to work out shooting details?

Have you thought about adding a smart phone app like Sun Seeker or LightTrac which will show the suns location for any given time of day so you can plan out your shoot times in advance?

With a little pre-Production work like this things will go a little smoother.

Good Luck!

Dave
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+1
 
David Evans said:
A big problem I usually have with overexposed days is the haze because of the lighting. Everything just gets hazed. Any ideas if a special kind of filter (other than ND) would help?
Click to expand...

Do you have a lens shade? It sounds like you are experiencing a loss of contrast due to lens flaring/veiling glare.

There is no such thing as an "overexposed day" - exposure is always adjustable.
 
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Yep... if you experience over exposure, your camera settings are just plain wrong, or you are missing your ND filter. Consider getting a variable one. The Heliopan is still great, but I think there was talk of a new player from some other brand which actually had a nicer look to it than the Heliopan.
 
Thanks guys. What I meant for overexposed was exactly what "nothing" mentioned about the loss of contrast. If I'm shooting during an overcast day, everything looks nice because the light is uniform. During a sunny day, there are too many shadows and highlights and the picture looks a bit hazed and without contrast at times.
 
You can try a low contrast filter, it will even out the exposure accross the entire image, So with the xha1, you can a built in ND filter, with a low contrast filter, and this should take care of the issues.

And to reiterate on what David suggested, overheads are a gift from god on certain lighting conditions. You can make a cheap overhead with galvanized metal electric conduit, get the 1/2" pipe, cut it down to 4' sections to make a 4x4 square, you will need the 90degree connectors to put it all together, then get a piece of white muslin, or silk to use as your difusion, you two grip heads to connect it to light stands. should only cost about 40-50 dollars and ten minutes to build.
 
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Bruce Watson said:
What the heck is this? Days aren't overexposed. Overexposure is either a mistake, or a choice. It's not a natural phenomenon.
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My reason for starting read this thread. To see if there was a logical explanation for the title. Nope. =)

0. First off, everything everyone else said.

1. If you are in direct harsh sunlight, chances are the ground is bouncing back a lot of fill. If you are on sand, you are in luck. - You will not get a soft wrap look, but you can expose for it, without overly harsh shadows. Just get the right position.

2. If you are in a city, the suburbs, or the forrest, then you can work in the shade.

3. you can work with back light, and hope you don't have to do any reverses.


The only logical way to explain an overexposed day, is if you are using these cameras that have native iso800, and you don't have ND's. But even then you regain exposure with some "stylized" footage (frame rate turbo).
 
David Evans said:
Thanks guys. What I meant for overexposed was exactly what "nothing" mentioned about the loss of contrast. If I'm shooting during an overcast day, everything looks nice because the light is uniform. During a sunny day, there are too many shadows and highlights and the picture looks a bit hazed and without contrast at times.
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Uh???

What are the distances involved in this 'too many shadows and highlights"?

If you are referring to 'scenics' then the 'haze' that you are seeing probably comes from 'aerial haze', and you would require some sort of 'uv' filter at the very least, and some sort of 'light yellow' to cut the blue scatter of 'haze', but not too much yellow, since you most likely shooting with 'color' in mind... for B&W a heavier yellow or even a Wratten No. 25 'red' may be useful to cut such haze.

If you are talking about closer subjects, especially ones with metallic or highly reflective surfaces, then you may use a polarizing filter to try to minimize at least some set of reflections. This holds for 'scenics' as well.

If the lens you are using is 'old' there may be an issue with the lack of coatings to minimize 'flare' in for 'very' bright objects that are in view of the lens.

A lens hood should be used to eliminate as much light from 'outside the frame' of the shot as possible. A bright specular reflection that is not visible in the frame, but the light strikes part of the lens will result in 'flare', or a 'hazy' shot, unless the lense hood shadows the lens.

This is why one sees 'big' lens hoods on movie film cameras in most situations where most 35mm DSLR users have little or no lens hooding at all. (the 'supplied' lens hoods are not enough in many lighting conditions....).

Any stray light will reduce the contrast of the image if the lens picks it up and distributes it around the insides of the camera...
 
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