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How to light subject (interior shot) and expose for background through window (exterior)?
We’re shooting a series of interviews inside a building but want to expose for the city exterior through the window. I was going to cover the window with ND… but is there a better way to do this? We’re working with a Lowel Super Ambi Kit so our options are limited.
Thanks
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23 Replies
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You can gel the window or light using HMI’s, (rentals, perhaps).
Picking the time of day may help as well.Unconventional approaches:
One other trick I’ve used is to lock down the camera, and shoot the space without the guy’s chair in it but otherwise composed the way you’d use it for the video, and expose for the exterior view. Now bring back the chair and the talent, and without changing the shot, shoot the talent with the exposure set for a good interior and talent exposure. Composite the two sources in post.
Variation:
Shoot an HDRI still or high def motion shot of the room and window, then insert a green paper on the wall for shooting the interview, which blocks the excess daylight, and chromakey the window in during post.This plan becomes harder to use if the interview requires changing camera angles. But OTOH, it becomes easier, if you shoot with a 2-lens 3-D camera and set each imager’s exposure to suit the window and the talent/room separately
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I considered the double exposure trick. But I have the strong feeling our framing will change often. What I think I’m going to do is just expose for the subject, cover the window in ND-9, and key him with at least one 1k filtered with some half or full blue and go from there. I’d love to have some HMI’s handy but yeah… budget never fits my wishes…
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[Steven Belcher] “at least one 1k filtered with some half or full blue”
That much gel is absolutely going to KILL your output. Full blue will turn that 1K into a nightlight. Probably about quarter blue would be all you want want, at most. If you are going to gel the windows though, you’d be far better off color correcting the windows as well… then your 1K output might be ok.
The ND gel is an ok idea… one way to do that one the cheap is get the smoky window film that they sell at our local Hancock Fabrics store (or online at hancockfabrics.com)….
It’s absolutely dirt cheap (compared to the real stuff) and works just as well. I’ve used it tons of times. You might also want to go to a Lowes or Home Depot and pick up a roll of black screen door mesh… and use that with the gel as well if it needs knocking down more (although you can always double up the gel if needed, which you can’t with mesh).
Yes, HMIs are the way to do it right, but if you don’t have that resource these other ways will work.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Gotcha. But if I were to color correct the window as well, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of color correcting the key if the camera’s color temperature is set to daylight?
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Yes, you do one or the other, of course… not both. Sorry, I realize I didn’t make that clear.
My theory on that is that since color correcting a tungsten instrument down to daylight cuts such a horribly high degree of the output, I’d forgo correcting them at all and correct the window instead… which would perform the double duty of lowering the window level and correcting its color temperature. You’d still need ND on the window, too, though.
Sorry for any confusion.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Another approach is to buy a roll of Lee 207.
It combines a full stop of ND with full CTO in a single gel roll.
Applied to the windows, it’ll usually give you an interior you can light with a tungsten kit and make work if the windows aren’t southern facing to direct sunlight – and your talent can tolerate hot lights put close.
If you’ve got southern facing windows, or the sun is direct, you can keep adding layers of ND, but it’s a hassle and takes a lot of time.
YMMV.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Bill, that’s the route we’ve taken, and the combo cc/nd gel worked well Ours was the Rosco brand. Stuff is pricy, so we carefully re-roll and re-use it, have for years.
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Unfortunately I think I’m stuck with correcting the tungsten. The room we’re shooting in is basically surrounded by windows so correcting them would be an extremely time-consuming pricy feat, especially with the 207.
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Well it’s still going to be time consuming, as you’ll still have to gel ALL the windows that are in view… with at least one layer of ND, maybe two. I’d re-suggest using that fabric store stuff if you have large areas to cover, since it’s so cheap.
The more details we learn, we can see this really IS an HMI job… I’d say at least a 1200w fresnel or PAR (personal preference is fresnel) and a big white bounce card…. or at minimum a Joker-Bug800 with a Chimera kit. Color correcting tungsten lamps to daylight just cuts their output by well over half or more… sometimes a lot more than by half, if you use much gel.
If you only need these for a one day shoot, HMI rental wouldn’t be too bad… couple or three hundred bucks. Probably less than the cost of gelling the windows, unless you already have the stuff (although you’d probably still want to knock down the windows quite a bit with either ND or hardware cloth).
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I definitely agree this would be much easier with HMI’s. But I seriously doubt that will happen. Only one window will be in frame throughout the whole shoot, as they are rather large. That’s why I say I’d rather correct the tungsten… even though it will severely affect the output. The shoot is still a good month or so off so there’s time to consider options. As always budget is an issue.
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