Two Question

[Patrick Hunter]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and I have two basic questions.

 

1st. When shooting a grey scale in daylight, does the daylight act as your white light? Or do you need to light it with a sepreate lamp? I assume, shooting on Daylight film the daylight is what you would shoot your card under. If so when your subject is backlight should you shoot the card in open shade and then when you move to shots where the sun is acting as front light do you change the posistion of your card towards the sun? Or can you just get away with shooting the scale in the sun and having shots backlit, frontlit and sidelit and not having the card shot at different angles?

 

2nd. Exposure. I understand its up to your interpertation. But when your doing a dark scene or bright scene what is a good number of stops to underexpose/over key? Like lets say for real dark scenes would it be best to play it safe and never go 2 stops under key or for a very bright scene like a desert go 2 stops over key? Also for a dim scene such as a room in the day time, no lights on, curtains down but light peaks through making it somewhat dim but not very dark. Would like half-1 stop under key be sginificant. I understand that like ambient, wall light, backlight, etc. can go more under but I'm just looking to understand whats enough for key without crushing or blowing out my image.

 

THANKS

PATRICK

[Bobby Shore]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and I have two basic questions.

 

1st. When shooting a grey scale in daylight, does the daylight act as your white light? Or do you need to light it with a sepreate lamp? I assume, shooting on Daylight film the daylight is what you would shoot your card under. If so when your subject is backlight should you shoot the card in open shade and then when you move to shots where the sun is acting as front light do you change the posistion of your card towards the sun? Or can you just get away with shooting the scale in the sun and having shots backlit, frontlit and sidelit and not having the card shot at different angles?

 

2nd. Exposure. I understand its up to your interpertation. But when your doing a dark scene or bright scene what is a good number of stops to underexpose/over key? Like lets say for real dark scenes would it be best to play it safe and never go 2 stops under key or for a very bright scene like a desert go 2 stops over key? Also for a dim scene such as a room in the day time, no lights on, curtains down but light peaks through making it somewhat dim but not very dark. Would like half-1 stop under key be sginificant. I understand that like ambient, wall light, backlight, etc. can go more under but I'm just looking to understand whats enough for key without crushing or blowing out my image.

 

THANKS

PATRICK

 

 

1st: your grey card is your means of communication to the lab/timer, etc., so you need to know how to use it or manipulate it to achieve your look. For example, if you shoot your grey card in direct sunlight, your direct sunlight becomes your white reference. That refernce will, of course, change throughout the course of the day as the color temp. of the sun light does. However, if you want to have some warmth to your day ext., you could choose to shoot your grey card in the shade (ambient daylight, cooler color temp.) so the timer will time out the blue bias in the grey (by adding points of red and yellow), and add warmth to the overall image. The angle of the light hitting the grey card, then, has nothing to do with the angle of light you choose to shoot your scene in, it's based on your interpretation of what you want to be determined "white light" in the scene itself (or lack thereof).

 

2nd: Exposure. You answered your own question.

 

Bobby Shore

DP

LA/Montreal