Rick Wise
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Forum Replies Created
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[Bob Cole] ” I thought the Zone System had mainly to do with black and white photography. Do you use it for cinematography/videography?”
All, all, all the time! While it has its limitations, it’s a great way to think about the darkness/lightness of elements of a scene. Let’s say you have figured out that your correct exposure is f/4. There’s a shadowy area that you know will contain key elements in the scene as it unravels. Setting the f/stop on the meter to f/4, then reading the EV number in the shadow, and then reading where that number falls on the zone sticker overlay tells you immediately if that area is too dark, or just right. Generally, we’d want that shadow area to fall in Zone lll, fully textured black, or higher, depending on taste.
Of course, with video, with its penchant to boost shadows (except the top-of-the-line cameras) you may end up deciding to drop that shadow area even lower, maybe even down to Zone ll.
The Zone system is a great starting point for thinking about exposure of all the elements in the scene. While you can use it to determine overall exposure (point it at a gray card) its main usefulness is to evaluate all the piece you have lit or not lit.
Once addicted to this meter, you are likely to use it until they pry it from your dead cold hands.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Todd, no doubt you meant, “ever since senseless.” Compression! (No doubt the pain of selling away your beloved 35mm gear kicked in here.)
Well, you can always buy another meter…. And if you need Zone sticker overlays, I have a good one. Let me know.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
That’s a perfectly good little meter. However, the dome is extremely small so it is hard to see how the light is falling on it and adjust correctly. A better bet for some more money but just a tiny bit over your budget is the Sekonic L-358. You have to be careful about not changing the frame rate — too easy to do if your hand brushes the large wheel. A significant advantage: you can retract the ball to measure individual lights, or push it out to take an overall reading.
My favorite incident meter is the Spectra lV-A. My favorite spot meter in the Pentax Digital Spot, which is no longer made but widely available used for between $250-900 on eBay. If I had to be limited to one meter, I would chose the Pentax Spot because it works so well with the Zone system.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
John, essentially, yes. I’m trying some other high settings as well. Looks good. Thanks guys! (Just back so first time I’ve had a chance to try this out.)
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Great! I’ll try that. Many thanks, John.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Hi, Steve, yes been a while. And yes, the properties are set to those dimensions. And yes, I’m trying AVI — but can use any format provided it will run on a Mac at school. (Via flash stick.) I am trying to preserve as much of the original quality as possible. Since it’s only a minute clip, size is not much of an issue.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
I left out: all I want to render is one minute of a scene from Jarhead to illustrate a lighting point for my students. So really good quality would be good.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
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Todd, you are far from the only person preferring Fresnels to Pars. Or maybe it’s just you and I…. But it seems to me that much depends on how you are using these lights. Direct and hard, Fresnels. Bounced or through diffusion, the Pars may be more useful as they have more punch/intensity. If you can afford only one, I’d go with the Fresnel since you can use it both directly as a hard light, and also as a soft light through a Chimera/bounce/other diffusion. One lonely 1200 is of course just a start…. So much money, so little time.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Maybe next time we’ll have the time (and budget) to really do it right.
Ah, you are ever the dreamer, Todd… and I so understand and share those desires. But it looks like you made pretty good lemonade out of assorted lemons. And next time, even if the budget’s not there, you will be even better equipped to handle the gig. Hat’s off to you.
Rick
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com