Mixed Lighting: Exposure When a Character Moves Between Rooms

[vw98la]

I just have a question regarding a scene of mixed lighting. If you're doing a set-up where a character for instance is moving from room to room (one room to another or multiple) and each room has a different intensity of light, how should you expose your scene?

If each room only has a stop or two difference, since you're within the latitude could you get away with exposing at a 4 and the next room which is at 5.6 or 8 render well? (and vice versa if you expose for the 5.6 and the next is a 4)

Also in extreme conditions where maybe you're going from a pitch black room to a lit room and the brightness range is pretty drastic, would it be best to find an exposure in the middle?

THANK YOU

 

[Gohanto]

I'm far from the expert, but I would suggest leaving the camera on auto-exposure (or if you can doing an iris pull mid-shot) as that's the easiest method. I'd rather see 1/2 second exposure change in a shot than the entire shot being over- or under-lit.

Or, if you cut between angles that's a super-easy method as well, but since you posted this I'm guessing you need it in a single shot.

Or, you can try balancing the light so that you don't have to change exposure, but that may be out of the budget.

 

[vw98la]

Thanks but I'm talking about film not DV so auto-exposure is out.

I'm not looking for everything to be in the same brightness range. I might have not been too clear. If it's a scene of mix lighting you go from one room that is bright to another that is dim to another that is in the middle of the two, what should you expose for? I want the bright room to appear bright, the dim dim and the one in the middle to appear in the middle.

 

[Red Prince]

I would do a few test shots first. Just film the scenes (without the actors) with different exposures and compare the results, then choose whichever worked best for the actual performance. And even after that I might shoot the scene several times with different exposures and pick the one that looked best.

That's just what I would do, I am not saying that is the right way to do it.

 

[element80]

Are the rooms supposed to look like they're different intensities, or are they meant to look uniform? If the latter, then you need to increase the intensities in the darker rooms, or decrease it in the lighter rooms, so it's uniform from room to room. If they're all supposed to be different, then just expose for the one that's meant to look normal, and the rest should fall into place. If necessary, you can always rack the iris, too, but try not to make it too obvious.