Exposing for landscape shots

[J. Anthony Gonzales]

I'm hoping that some of you professionals can give me some advice on shooting wide landscape/establishing shots. Is their a basic rule of thumb or easy/off the cuff way to expose for such a shot?

 

John G.

[Filip Plesha]

What is the problem anyway?

 

just use the sunny 16 rule.

(f-16 aperture opening,exposure 1/ASA of the film),in motion picture

cameras it can only be about 1/50s. This is for a bright

clear sunny day. (Unles you are shooting in the desert or

something)

 

So you could shoot without problems,at f-16 using

eastman 5245 (if you are not using any filters). If you are using anything faster like ASA 100 film,then use f-22 aperture opening of course.

 

You should put one stop more light if you have

a weak soft sunshine,two stops if the sun is covered with white

clouds (not overcast) etc..

 

Or use a lightmeter

 

but i still don't get what is the problem with shooting landscapes

and outdoors? I think it is fairly simple,if you are only asking

about correct exposure that is.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I guess the concern is that by metering close to the camera you may not be accurately metering what the lighting situation is a long distance away. However, I'd have thought you could probably make an eyeball estimation as to whether it was going to be close enough.

 

Fast moving cloud can always screw you up, especially in video.

 

Phil

[Michael Nash]

Well, that's the nice thing about sunlight -- it's just as bright 1/2 a mile away as it is where you're standing (minus any cloud shadows). Hold out your light meter in the direction you're shooting (in the sunlight), expose and go. Works as long as the sun is at least half way around on your subject.

 

You could also use a spot meter and make an educated guess as to how bright you want things to be. Green foliage when taken in mass is close to 18% gray.

 

For really distant shots where there's a lot of atmospheric haze between you and your subject (on a long lens) you might close down the iris just a tad to keep things from looking too washed out. Or, you can go the opposite way and deliberately overexpose for more density on the neg, and adjust in timing or transfer. When I shoot helicopter shots on video here in LA (where there's often a lot of haze), I crush the blacks in the camera just a little to restore some "snap" to the image.