Jump to content

Advice on shooting 16mm in low light


brandon kaufman

Recommended Posts

Hey!;

I'm shooting a concert tomorrow. There's going to be a crew working with digital cameras, but I'm bringing my Bolex too. I'm fairly certain it's going to be pretty dark, but I'm expecting a spotlight on the performer's face. This was a short notice thing, so all I was able to get was 200T and 250D rolls. Anyway, I'm of course nervous about not exposing correctly (especially because I usually direct and leave the technical stuff to my DP). 

 

Should I be intentionally setting my light meter to a different ASA in order to overexpose? Should I ask the lab to push/pull? Or some combination of both? Just wondering what you all would do in this situation.

 

Thanks so much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Ask the electronic camera operator(s) for f-stop numbers read from a close up  of (zoomed in on) a face on stage. They can read at an ISO setting of the film you’ve loaded. Don’t care about background and surroundings. The artificial lighting will most probably stay constant, at least during one performance. If you have a see-through spot meter, use that on the faces.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Honestly with 200T you'll be hard pressed to find an exposure that's sufficient unless the stage is pretty well lit. I've done a lot of concert shooting on film and I always find myself shooting 500T all the way open, under nearly all circumstances. My XTR has a built in meter, so I'll just look at the meter and it's never in the perfect exposure window, it's always at the lowest level which is one stop under. It's way easier to deal with over-exposure than under exposure in my opinion. With 200T the darker areas just get muddy and you can't bring it up because there is just no data there. With 500T, you have an extra stop of working rage, which may not sound like a lot, but it's actually quite a bit because now when you're under exposing, you don't have to push it as much. Being a stop under exposed isn't the end of the world, being 2 or 3 stops, is a big problem for the darker areas. 

So you'll need 500T most likely. I would absolutely spot meter at least once or twice (one dark area one bright area) and see where you are. Your camera is probably not fast enough to really get a proper exposure. Even if you had a 1.3 lens, going through the beam splitter, you're now a 2.0. Not the end of the world, but if you're trying to get a good exposure, every bit of light counts. 

Here is an example for ya. Shot all the way open (1.3) on my XTR prod with 500T. Meter was 1 stop under for the stage and the dark areas were of course, way under. I have a lot more like this, but I don't know where the final pieces are... people edit them and never show me. ?
 

 

Edited by Tyler Purcell
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...