Filmmaking > Camera & Lighting
DV Cameras and Light Exposure
Videographers often measure their light by simply using the automatic setting on their camera. This is a reflected light reading and isn’t the best method. Taking an incident light reading gives a more accurate reading unless the shot is a panorama or has a sunset in the background. In fact, I’d recommend the automatic reflected light setting only be used in a fluid shooting situation where the camera is moving a great deal and your lighting jn condition is frequently changing in the shot.
If you are using a DV camera to shoot a low budget feature, then besides utilizing incident light readings, also use a calibrated broadcast monitor to study your lighting. It is critical that the monitor is set up correctly or you’ll be sadly surprised later when you view your shot on a monitor in the post facility that has been calibrated by a broadcast engineer. If you have an accurate monitor on location that is at least 16 inches, you can study shadow detail and see lighting problems. You’ll also be able to see problems with blotchy color in scenes.
Budget permitting, have an engineer supervise the setup of your broadcast monitor. It is good to have an E.I.C. (Engineer in Charge) on such a shoot to do field maintenance on equipment. If you have a wave form meter and vectorscope, then the engineer can verify that you’re seeing the true picture and also look for problems that might not appear in your monitor’s picture.
I’ve rarely seen American DP’s utilizing electronic cinematography utilizing light meters. I’ve found it much more common in Europe.
Another reason for setting your iris to manual, is to control depth of field. Depth of field is a dimension of distance where objects appear in focus in front of and behind the focal plane. When shooting the various shots that make up a scene, you’ll want a consistent depth of field so the scene is consistent. This is possible only when using a manual exposure mode.
The next decision is whether to take an incident reading or a reflective reading. That is an easy question to answer. If it is a panorama, then go with a reflective reading. What counts is that you keep the depth of field consistent within the various shots that make up the scene.
Good rules of thumb are to always take an incident reading and also keep your exposure somewhere in the 5.6 to 8 f-stop range. If possible, have an accurate broadcast monitor that allows you to study the image. This is a good starting point on the road to proficient electronic cinematography.
During my brief work at a film lab, I was amazed at how unprofessional many camera departments were at providing proper camera reports. Camera report forms can be purchased from a camera rental house or picked up for free from your laboratory in advance. The reports have information such as the date the film was loaded into the magazine, company name, billing address, shipping address, production number, director’s name, Director of Photography, magazine number, roll number and kind of film. This is a good record to have if you ever have to track down missing negatives. This information should also be used for video shoots. It’s great to have notes on filters used and any pertinent notes for later color correction in postproduction. I’ve even run into situations where the colorist made a nighttime scene daytime. Most video camera departments do very little other than number the tape roll since no processing is required. When numbering videotapes, make sure you also number the case or box that contains the tape. Also, on-location plastic-wrap the case with a Ziploc bag. This helps keep rain, dirt, and sand out of the tape and film rolls. Once in China I came back to my hotel room after diner to find the entire room flooded. My tape rolls were saved by the zip lock bags and fortunately, I had placed my active battery charger and batteries on top of an equipment case.
Properly storing, labeling and logging what’s on your tapes or film rolls is a tool that will solve many problems for you in postproduction. If you handle this area in a casual and messy manner, the wonderful story images you worked so hard to capture might simply disappear.