Had to record a wedding yesterday which gave me some problems with the light.
It was held in a function room of one of our stately homes which had a series of tall windows evenly spaced along its length through which streamed the low october sun on to the floor
We set up our cameras on the window side so as not to record into the light and adjusted our exposure so that the rooms walls and seats looked normal. All looked ok as the bride started of in shadow but as she walked down the aisle every time she hit one of the pools of light she became over exposed.
Similarlr when she srood next to her husband the congregation were all in shadow but her face was in one of the light pools. so everyone else is properly exposed but she is over exposed.
Is there anything I could have done , apart from obviously draw the curtains ( not possible )to have got better results?
Nothing you could have done David, short of carefully positioning a few thousand watt of lighting. You can see this effect on TV every time you watch a football match played on a sunny day, half the pitch in bright sunlight, the other half in shade. You can only expose on one or the other. I would always correctly expose the bride, groom etc, leaving the congregation over/under exposed. No controlled environment whilst shooting weddings, UNFORTUNATELY.
Thanks Colin, thats a very good analogy /example I can show the couple when they look at their wedding.
David, I'm afraid I disagree.
In this situation it would be best if you are using manual exposure and exposing for the subject or the most important thing in your frame at all times; in this case the B&G, and to some degree ignore everything else. Obviously this is more difficult with consumer and prosumer cameras as they usually dont have an iris ring on the lens, and also if you have long lingering shots rather than 2-3 second cuts, but if you 'ride' the aperture control you should be able to adjust it during the shot. Try to test it sometime in a similar setting and see if you think it would be applicable to your way of filming (and plausible with your equipment). The REAL problem is the lower-spec cameras that will not let you adjust apature in a smooth way but use stepped f-stop settings as then it's impossible to do it well and it will look awful in the finished production without some 'nifty' post. :D
This is a classic case for the manipulation of the gamma curve. In a pro camera, I';d have wound the gamma value down, and wound in knee compression with a point as low as I could get it (assuming the camera has headroom). That would allow for acceptable exposure of both the highlight and lowlight. Works every time.
I had a similar problem at a wedding recently, I use manual exposure at all times and was able to get round the problem not to bad, worked out well infact.
Tony.
This is a classic case for the manipulation of the gamma curve. In a pro camera, I';d have wound the gamma value down, and wound in knee compression with a point as low as I could get it (assuming the camera has headroom). That would allow for acceptable exposure of both the highlight and lowlight. Works every time.
Can I do that on My Z1? I know there are lots of settings to adjust in profile , is that a good place to start?
David, I'm afraid I disagree.In this situation it would be best if you are using manual exposure and exposing for the subject or the most important thing in your frame at all times; in this case the B&G, and to some degree ignore everything else. :D
Thats exactly what I said.
QUOTE. You can only expose on one or the other. I would always correctly expose the bride, groom etc, leaving the congregation over/under exposed. No controlled environment whilst shooting weddings, UNFORTUNATELY.
Don't be so tetchy Colin... I was mostly disagreeing with David's suggestion to close the curtains!! :D Not your suggestion to expose for one or the other... however I was suggesting riding the exposure, which was an advance on what you said. Depends on equipment though which was also the point I was making; to some degree we're restricted by the choice of tools.
Not being tetchy at all Chrome, simply clarifying points made on my post
DV is like slide film. Overexpose at your peril - expose for the highlights and let the shadows take care of themselves. Black stretch can help here.
the only other alternative which probably wouldn't have been on, would be to add ND filters over the windowed area. Easier to to if it's one window, rather than a whole series