Over Expose

[Miguel Bunster]

HI,

 

I want to over expose Kodak Vision 1 200t and 500t to pull down the grain and to blow up to 35mm later. Whats is a good overexposure? 1 point or more?

Thanks!

[David Mullen ASC]

No more than a stop -- otherwise, just use the next slower speed stock. I usually use 2/3 of a stop as the amount of overexposure.

 

Overexposing makes a stock LOOK less grainy because it fills in the gaps between the fast, big grains which get exposed first with smaller, slower grains. But the big grains are still there (that's what determines its speed: 500 ASA stock has bigger grains than 100 ASA stock.) If you don't want big grains, use a slower-speed stock.

 

In other words, you can rate a 500 ASA stock at 250 ASA if you want (I'd use 320 ASA) but once you go down to 200 ASA, you might as well use a 200 ASA stock.

[Miguel Bunster]

Thanks,

Right now for exteriors I am using 250T from Fuji, do I gain something from overexposing in daylight to bring down the grain? My contrast situacion is the following, shadows are f8.0 and the areas with sun are f32, a high contrast ratio where I think I better not over expose. Whats your opinion here?

What I prefer, is to drop tha shadows to black and get the lighter areas well exposed, thats the idea between the director and me. Get a good contrast in the image and not expose in between, I done that in other short films to get a more low contrast or give a diferent perception.

I am using a tiffen 85 filter and a polarizer.

Whats your opinion or suggestion?

Thanks!

Miguel

[David Mullen ASC]

There's a difference between how you rate the stock and how you expose the scene. You can rate the stock 2/3 of a stop overexposed as your "normal" speed rating for the stock and then expose for the highlights or let them be a stop "hot", whatever you want for the scene. Two separate issues.

 

So if you want to rate Fuji 250 at 160 ASA so that the negative is 2/3 of a stop denser for a scene of normal brightness, then fine - shoot your grey scale with this rating. You will get richer blacks and tighter grain in the print with snappier color and contrast. As for the shot itself, using that ASA rating, how you expose the sunlit or shadow areas depends on how bright they need to look.

 

If you're getting f/32 in the sunlight and you don't want grain, why aren't you switching to Fuji F-64D or something slow and fine-grained like that?

[Miguel Bunster]

HI,

I got the idea perfectly thanks!

About using another stock, we cant as a matter of fact we are using leftovers from other films...

From the south.

Miguel

[John Pytlak RIP]

Slight overexposure on color negative films will generally reduce graininess and give more shadow detail and "richer" blacks. But too much overexposure will result in a very dense negative that requires very high printer lights (or even a different TRIM setup), or more noise in telecine transfer.