Windows

[Anthony Caffaro]

Someone standing in front of a window during the day is obviously a bit dark. Just like backlit outdoors, it be natural and help with the exposure to underexpose about a stop to a stop in a half. Almost semi silhouette.

[Carlos_Martinez]

you can always blast them with light and slap a couple of ND's

 

 

but then again i am kind of unclear as to what help you are looking for.

[Walter Graff]

Unless you have a tremendous amount of natural light in a room, hot windows will make your shot very difficult to be believable. And not dealing wit the intensity of the light in those windows, but rather simply adding more light to the talent to compensate is just as worse as you have to make it so bright indoors as to make it difficult for the talent to see. ND is the simplest and most effective solution. You can use any number of grades of ND depending on the ratio of indoor to outdoor light.

[Anthony Caffaro]

Hey thanks for the responses. I think I worded my question wrong. I understand how to deal with overly bright windows; gels, rosco blackscrim, nd filters, basic dressing up the window with curtians.

 

My question primarily is, is how does one expose a backlit window subject? Just like outside you go under 1 - 1 1/2 to compensate for the background and put the person in front a little darker because its there shadow side. Is that the same method used when someone is backlit by light coming through a large window?

[Michael Nash]

Hey thanks for the responses. I think I worded my question wrong. I understand how to deal with overly bright windows; gels, rosco blackscrim, nd filters, basic dressing up the window with curtians.

 

My question primarily is, is how does one expose a backlit window subject? Just like outside you go under 1 - 1 1/2 to compensate for the background and put the person in front a little darker because its there shadow side. Is that the same method used when someone is backlit by light coming through a large window?

 

Not trying be glib, but you expose it however you want to expose it. A silhouette is dramatic and realistic, but then so is a "hot" exterior with a normally-exposed interior.

 

If you're looking for a basic rule of thumb, I guess you'd have to consider how much of the frame is filled by the view out the window vs. how much is filled with the interior. In trying to mimic the way your eye balances exposure, you'd underexpose the person more and more as the window takes up more of the frame (bringing down the exterior view at the same time).

 

But I'm still a little confused by your question about the person being "backlit" -- exposing for backlight coming through the window and the bright view outside are two different things (not that you can't do both at the same time).