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Matching lighting in Scenes-Wides w/ Meds & CUs
Hi,
My wide shots are darker than my mediums and CUs. Have over an hour of finished product to edit that that was shot in a classroom thus we had wide dollies, mediums and CUs. The latter 2 match pretty good and are better lit. The former wides are not matching with the meds and CUs. Looking for the most efficient and effective way to do this. I know I can go to 3way color correction and click white, and black dropper on true white and blk in each clip. I know I can balance skin tones in in the vector scope. Also know I can use color corrector to white balance each clip or somewhat match the hue of prospective clips. The problem is that when I do the 3 way the final product is decent at best.
Would my best way be to 3 way color correct and then get into the details of 3 way by playing with all of the sliders such as saturation, etc.? When I do this I feel i can get pretty decent to good matches. Just wondering if there’s a more effective and efficient way as getting into the 3 way details is time consuming.
Thanks for your help!
joe
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2 Replies
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Hi Joe.
I’t kinda counter-intuitive, but what you’re seeing is pretty much the result of how all lenses function.
Know how kids love to take a magnifying glass and use it to burn holes in dry fall leaves?
What’s happenin is that the lens is concentrating the light from a large area into a smaller one. Light energy concentrated by the lens is stronger than it is naturally.
So (all things being equal) zooming into stuff typically makes it brighter.
The corollary to this is that it’s a lot easier to light small things than it is to light big wide scenes. The power required to raise a wide shot to the same values that you can get pretty easily in close ups – is why people invented grip trucks and generators.
Outside on a sunny day – it’s not a big deal. Inside a warehouse, it’s a major hassle. (It’s why those hollywood stages always have a zillion lights hanging up on the grids.)
In the future, set your exposure for your wide shots – use whatever lighting you have, then open your lens up to make that scene look the best you can. Remember the more open you set your aperture, the shallower the depth of field you’ll have for a given sensor size, so if you truly have inadequate lighting, you may be fighting focus issues a lot.
But when you use your lens to go tight, you’ll normally have enough light to do what you nee if you start with good lighting for your wide shots.
Hope that helps.
“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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Hi Bill,
Thanks for your response. I appreciate it.
We used daylights in the ceiling lights of the classroom. I lost my dp midway through and had to wear so many hats I was relying on others for consistency. I’ll have to edit about an hour of various clips that take place in this classroom, thus match all lighting. I simply 3 way color corrected blacks, whites, and skintones and kept that consistent from clip to clip in the classroom. I then used the brightness filter and brought it up 1 notch to 2 and mixed it at 52. I think it matches okay. I’d be interested in your opinion. It would only take a minute to watch the trailer here – https://www.therealonenationundergod.com
One question I have is if I get this on a big screen will the added brightness through the filter look hochy? Any suggestions in terms of making it look as good and authentic as possible are appreciated.
Thanks again!
joejoseph zabrosky
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