MORE GOOD IDEASS FOR EXPOSURE CONTROOL

[Greg Crawford]

Everybody seems to love Kodachrome, the color, the tight grain but not the contrast.

In the studio or on overcast days you can shoot to a 3/1 lighting ratio of key to fill illumination. This will look good. But in bright daylight, trying to get good highlight detail and see into the shadows ...well you have to choose what is important in the scene to see.

Try using a off camera light meter and start filling in shadow detail with reflectors. If you can get in close to your subject you will not have a problem.

On long shots, even in Hollywood films, you sometimes see a higher contrast version of the scene. Because it would be impractical at times to bump the fill light level up.Try to avoid shooting in bright sunlight with people, unless you can shoot them with the sun to there back.

I know that's not what you find in the beginner photography books, but it's what's done on TV and features all the time.

The only differences is they can light with HMI, and sometimes still with reflectors. Try to have the face in shadow go no darker than one stop under the indicated exposure.

This in reality would be two stop's underexposed, based on the zone system. Because...Caucasian skin is usually placed on ZONE VI. Witch is one stop brighter than mid gray, that your reflective meter reads in. If you are using a incident meter shield it from the sun and make sure this reading is only one stop under what you are exposing the film at.

If you do not have a meter...do you know the F-16 rule? Your exposure is F-16 at 1 / over the film speed. naturally you will have to convert the shutter speed to what you are shooting at. ASA 100 film F-16 at 1/100 of a second. If your shutter speed is 45th of a second you would need to shoot at F-22 at 1/45 or 1/50.

Try using ND filters would also be a good idea show you could shoot at a wider aperture, giving you better sharpness and less depth of field.

One of the things that screams film look over video, is shallow depth of field. TV is recognized by the wide angel everything in focus look, as much as it short contrast range.

Try this with your meter....measure the lighting falling in sunlight then take another reading under a tree or in the shade of a building. Usually it's about 3-1/2 stops darker. It can very depending on other factors like dark surroundings, snow on the ground, or overcast sky conditions, flattening out the contrast. Knowing this can help you if your pressed for time and you want to make an educated guess as to how the detail will look in the shadows.

[Alex]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="verdana, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="verdana, sans-serif">Originally posted by bossjock-dp:
Everybody seems to love Kodachrome, the color, the tight grain but not the contrast.
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I love the contrast. Why should us kodachrome lovers apologize for inferior video standards?

Kodachrome is a reminder that video has come a long way, but it still has a long way to travel.