David Elliott Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Okay I have basic skills with a light meter, I can operate a film cameras and Dslrs and so on. My questions is this. Say Im sat in a park doing a shot of two people sat on a bench, The weather is sunny with clouds and in the golden hour so not directly above, They are sat in partial shade and I will be using a reflector to bounce some soft fill. Do I take an incident reading from my actors faces and use that reading for my F stop Would this effect the exposure of the sky. As much as I have searched I have not found a decent tutorial anywhere that doesn't include Lighting, Seeing as I have access to reflectors only these don't really answer my questions. I ask mainly as I don't want to waste a ton of film before I get half a grip of what light Im putting in the camera. Sorry if there is a thread on this already. Im probably over confusing my brain. many thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Holland Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Is the shot of the two on the bench low angle looking up at them with a sky backing ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Elliott Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 No the idea is to dolly into the two having a conversation, eye level shot This will mean the sky will be in frame as there is no trees directly behind. From there I can use OTS shots Its just very hard when I scout for a location and have to think very hard about light, Which is great because I love the challenge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Holland Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 So yes just take a incident light reading , i would use my hand over the top of the meter sphere to avoid getting a false reading from the skylight . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Drysdale Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Usually the straight incident reading is fine. The only time skylight becomes an issue is if it's overcast (i.e.your light source) and you want some detail in the sky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Elliott Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 Thank you sirs helpful forum so far, I appreciate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Gray Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 You'll be exposing for their faces, with the assumption that it's an 18% grey card, how light meters work. If you want detail in the sky, and them to be at a proper exposure, do a spot reading of the highlight, or the brightest thing you want details of, and where their faces are at, and see what the range is. You may need to balance everything out and hit the couple with more light. Another option would be to underexpose them a bit, but not so much that you lose the shadows, but preserve the highlights (maybe get a monitor or hack for the camera, if DSLR, that you can see a zebra pattern on), and then bring up the shadows in color correction. You potentially bring in other problems there (noise, etc), but it's a way to work with what you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Mark Kenfield Posted January 10, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted January 10, 2014 It's a choice really, if you have the sun behind them so that they have a nice backlight on them, then you either expose for their faces with a direct incident reading (at the expense of having the sky possibly blow out), or you meter for the direct light and have their faces a little underexposed (which is how they are in reality), or thirdly - you meter both and split the difference. It's just a choice of how bright you want the different parts of the image to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 10, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted January 10, 2014 Usually when someone is framed against a brighter sky, you underexpose the faces a little bit to hold a bit more detail in the sky, sort of splitting the difference, but by how much depends on the mood and look you want, sometimes a near silhouette is nice, sometimes it's not the right mood. But as a starting point, I'd probably do an incident meter reading of the faces and then underexpose by one stop from that reading, unless the faces have really dark skin tones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Elliott Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 Great advise, I guess I want a more cinematic look, Unfortunately I cant afford HMI lights let alone the power source to run them, But listening to the advise gives me confidence, I think I will go for a more natural look and try and use the sun as a backlight as Mark suggested. It should set the tone of the scene better. Many thanks for all your help, I keep over thinking the technical and loose sight of what I'm trying to achieve visually Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Elliott Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 Usually when someone is framed against a brighter sky, you underexpose the faces a little bit to hold a bit more detail in the sky, sort of splitting the difference, but by how much depends on the mood and look you want, sometimes a near silhouette is nice, sometimes it's not the right mood. But as a starting point, I'd probably do an incident meter reading of the faces and then underexpose by one stop from that reading, unless the faces have really dark skin tones. Thanks also makes great sense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Munoz Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Not sure if I'm late on this thread but anyway,natural lighting still needs molding. The reflectors are magical, use them. Depending on your mood, decide between hard or soft reflection. This will help you expose for both sky and subjects. You can also experiment with distances on the reflectors to bring up and down the stops on the subjects. You can use the reflectors as key and fill too. the world is yours my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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