Shooting in very high conrast situations

B

Basia

Member
It looks like I am taking the dvx (some may have seen my posts about trying to take an hvx or a hdv cam for this shoot, but it doesn't look like it's happening b/c of my budget) to India. I'll be shooting a lot in the bright sunlight and people's skin tones are dark. I've shot in Africa before and sometimes the blown out background is kind of cool but...If there is anything at all I can do to avoid the background blowing out I definitely want to know what it is...

Any filters? What scene settings should I play with? Would a Highlight diffuser make it better or worse? I put a highlight diffuser on some blown out stuff in post once and it looked very dreamy, but I don't know if I would want a whole film to look that way.

Thanks!
 
This will require a contrast correction in post but dial down the iris until you can see the background OK, then boost he master pedestal until you can see the faces of the subjects. This will look flat and washed out but easily fixed later with some simple CC.


ash =o)
 
Hi Basia,

You might want to set your DVX to use the maximum Neutral Density filter availible (1/64 if I remember correctly).

Certainly, as tigeba suggested, get a polarizer for your DVX. There're 2 types I'm aware of : circular & linear polirizers. If I remember reading a thread sometime ago, linear polarizers are cheaper than circular ones, but linear produce better results than circular. Not sure if anyone else can confirm this. But both types have to be rotated to get the desired results. Perhaps do a search on "polarizers" here on this forum & you might find something useful.

If you have extra cash to spare, get a decent mattebox that can mount to your DVX's lens. Matteboxes can cut away significant glare & unwanted stray light during outdoor shooting. Imagine you are in a desert with the sun shining strongly on your face. You have to squint because the glare is too strong. Now, hold both your hands just above both your eyes to shield your eyes from the direct sunlight. Now the glare is reduced slightly. That's what a mattebox does. You can have a look at my home-made mattebox, but a commercial one will allow you to slide a variety of 4X4" filters in front of the lens to reduce glare, etc.

http://www.photoworks.com/share/shar...4903C155&cb=PW

Remember the rule is that it's better to underexpose your footage a bit, than to overexpose it. Cause if you underexpose, you can still adjust the contrast/brightness to your heart's content during post using your NLE. Correcting overexposure is not so easy & can ruin an otherwise good composition shot.

Oh, turn on your camera's zebras to help with exposing correctly.

Hope this helps.
 
Try to compose your shots in such a way that you control the background; don't aim for a face shot with a bunch of sky behind the subject whenever possible, instead move so that you have a hut or trees or something like that behind your subject. If you can't control the brightness of the objects around you, you can at least try to control what gets into your frame.

Shoot with the sun at your back whenever possible too. That'll make your subjects brighter and the sky a richer deeper blue.
 
Shoot with the sun at your back whenever possible too
Click to expand...
This way you can also use cheap reflectors(even white cardboard) to fill your actors faces with soft light. 2-3 pa holding those would make a huge contribution...
 
Unfortunatly, I don't think the polorizer is the cure all that most people believe it to be. If you have really harsh contrast, a polorizer isn't going to turn a white over exposed sky to blue. Do what Barry and Volcano said, or shoot at a 90 degree angle to the sun, and use bounce cards to fill in the dark shadows. Avoid shooting at high noon. Shooting african skin tones in bright sunlight isn't going to give you acceptable results unless you bounce alot of light onto their faces.
 
Thanks for all the info. I will try a polarizer though I don't think it's going to be enough.

I am shooting 100% verite and the PAs...well, maybe I can find some in India, but I am not counting on it- it's a real run n gun production. The idea of exposing for background and raising the master ped is interesting- I am going to try that out.

How about something like a low contrast filter - would that give me any more latitude? I know I won't have perfect exposures all through the film, but I just want to do what I can.
 
Very nice... I am going to try to make one. BTW- why are matte boxes (the ones that filt the filters ) so expensive? And how do the cheap ones compare to the expensive ones??
 
Thanks Basia,

Generally, the more expensive mattes allows a slot to put in filters & they are made of more durable material, like aluminium, etc. Other than that, the cheaper versions may not have a filter holder. My reason for making my own matte was, why spend $1500 when I can make one, maybe not as sturdy or functional as a commercial one, but still serves the purpose of sheilding the lens from strong light.
 
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