Daytime Sun Backlight

[oldboy]

I just shot a short film on 16 (7205). I ran into a really big contrast problem. We were shooting on a beach and it was a real bright sunny day and I found at some times to be reading a 4 stop difference between the background and the shadow side of the character (they were backlit). I didn't want a silhouette feel but also not a blown out background. I decided to split the difference and let my shadows go 2 under and back 2 over (on the very wide shots) when we punched in I went like a 1 1/2 under to keep continuity exposure with the wide. I'm concerned if I went under too much. How do you deal with such situations?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

No, what you did sounds right -- 1.5-stops under is not that dark in the shadows; neither is 2-stops under in the wider shot. All depends on the amount of bright highlights in the frame. For example, when the sun is setting, you can get an intense halo backlight but if the background is not hot, just the halo on the hair, then most of the frame is in shadow and you'd want to favor the exposure for that, perhaps only underexposing the shadow side by one stop. But when the sun is a bit toppier, and the background is hot, then setting 2-stops or 1.5-stops under for the shadow side is pretty common.

 

[solomon55]

shooting at the beach can be really cool but at the daylight you will face few problems like shadow adjust and the sharp sun light.

 

[tinx]

sunny day exteriors

sunny day exteriors

I've heard that when you have a shot where it's a bright sunny day and you don't have the budget for 10k HMIs, it's best to position the subject so that the sun acts as a back light.

But what if like in this situation, you have the sky in the background so you either have the subject appear too dark, or the background appear to bright--

are there any other options-- working with what you have?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Your basic tools are exposure and lighting. You can use bounce cards and reflectors to bring up the shadows if you find yourself needing to expose more for the sky but don't want a silhouette effect.

Beyond that, there are some minor tricks that may or may not help -- contrast-lowering filters, Polas if they help reduce glare, ND grads if the bright area is only in one part of the frame and the camera isn't moving. Sometimes you can put a large frame with a scrim/net on it to darken the background behind an actor's head a little, but if the sun washes out the scrim, it doesn't help much. Plus the netting will blur the background.