Natural light bouncing off shed not so good

[Jon O'Brien]

I recently filmed two instrumentalists playing in a house, with a largish window directly behind the camera, with reflected light from a somewhat overcast sky bouncing off an outside shed, close to the window, coming straight in the window and providing the entire light for the scene. I had to shoot with this arrangement due to the position of a large, unmoveable piano. I didn't like the look I got at all for that footage. It looked muddy, un-sharp if I can call it that, soupy, and lacking in detail. What is the likely technical reason for the soupy, unsharp look that this light gave my footage? Why is this reflected light not so good? What should you do in such conditions where the quality of the natural light outside isn't good -- close the curtains and set up lights? Thank you for any advice you can give.

[Steven West]

It’s difficult to say by description only, but it sounds a little bit like you are describing haze.

Could it be there was some dust particles in the air that were backlit by the light coming in and lowering the overall contrast of the scene?

Some old houses and places with deep pile carpets can hold a lot of dust and moving around inside kicks that up and it can take quite a while for it to settle again.

[Albion Hockney]

Soft light is by nature lower contrast and gives less perceived sharpness. It sounds like the scene was light with a huge frontal soft light, which would give a flat appearance.

Do you have a still from the footage to share?

[Jon O'Brien]

Hi, I can't share a still or clip as I don't have permission from the owner of the video. I had another look at it and now think I was too hard on myself. In other words it does look quite okay and I guess a lot of people would be happy with it. I've realised though that I prefer a harder light for a lot of situations giving higher contrast and more perceived sharpness. Yes, basically the lighting had the effect of an enormous frontal soft light. Plus the colour of the metal shed roof was a cream/light tan colour which gave a vaguely 'yuck' look to the light that made it more of a challenge to grade it. But if you start with something not so great in camera I've found it's difficult to turn it into something really great in the grade (well at least so far in terms of my current colour grading skills but I'm getting better at it the more I do it). It wasnt' dust from an old house rug or carpet but that's interesting you say that as that was indeed my first impression of the general look: like a hazy look. I then upped the contrast in Davinci Resolve and a few other little tricks here and there. Thanks for the advice guys.

Edited January 28 by Jon O'Brien