Forrest Lighting

[MIR]

Hi,

 

I will be shooting on 16mm for the second time. The first time I shot on film, was 5 months ago from my balcony. I shot the sunset, every 6 seconds I opened the shutter and closed it to capture single frames, for 5 hours manually. Sounds crazy, but it was the only way. The sunset looks beautiful.

 

Now I'm moving onto a more challenging project. I will be shooting in one location "EXT. FOREST - DAY"

 

Depending on weather conditions. Snow or Rain.

 

I want to know some basic elements of apperture control.

 

I will only use the sun as a light.

 

If my light meter reads f11, the light around the surface. How will I set the apperture on the lens? If I'm shooting a Medium shot of Characters face?

 

If I set it to f11 - i will get the right exposure?

But what if I want to make the face of the actor look a stop less? would that underexpose.

 

 

2nd - what if the meter reads f11. But the backgrounf is filled with white snow, will the snow on the ground look very white if i set it to f11? What do i do with setting apperture.

 

3rd - if the meter reads f4 on the face of character abd read f11 in the background. Would you set the apperture at f4? or at f5.6?????????

 

As you can read, Im learning and experiementing. If you can provide any advice on lithing and setting appertures or filters.? it would help

[David Mullen ASC]

You have to decide what object in the frame you want correctly exposed, or you have to decide what your subject should look like exposure-wise.

 

If the person is facing the sun and the meter tells you f/11, you can shoot at f/11 (although it would probably be better to use an ND.6 and shoot at f/5.6) if you want the person to look normally exposed. But perhaps you want the sunlight to feel a little "hot" or perhaps it is so broken up by shadow patterns of leaves that you want to sunny bits to be hotter while still holding detail on the shadows. So you might not shoot at f/11.

 

If the person is backlit by the sun and the shadow side of the face is f/4, let's say, then you need to decide how the face should look. It many cases, it should be at least a stop underexposed in order to look like it's the shaded side of the face. But perhaps the background is really bright, like the glare off of the ocean, and you LIKE that background so maybe you'll underexpose enough to throw the person in silhouette, or maybe you'll let the background blow-out. Or maybe you'll make it easier on yourself and find a new background...

 

Besides ND filters, you should carry a Pola and some ND grads to help control glare and darken parts of the frame, etc.