Dealing with sunny exteriors

[illia]

I´m going to have to shoot a little commertial in a few days that will take place in a garden, the creative wants an ambient that communicates comfort, with broken backgrounds and a shinny morning light. He wants medium shots of a person talking as if he was speaking with another persons about how the product changed his life... sound quite easy but I have a couple of questions.
The first is how to deal with direct sunlight, as we´re going to shoot in digital and the contrast between direct sun exposed areas of the image and the shadow ones is so big we have to balance it. I have the idea of placing the character as the sun will be backlighting him, and the filling with some B-boards or so, but I´ve heard about using big silks and I´m not sure of the way people use them. I´ve seen shootings where the silk is placed as a diffusion device between the sun and the character but I think this creates a shadow area and I would like to maintain the effect of the rim created by the direct sunlight. I´ve also heard about the use of big nets (as to decrease the exposure on the bright areas while keeping the light quality) and adding a military camouflage net as a way to create subtle leaves patterns. I like this idea and would like to test it, but I´ve also heard that the best way is to put the character benath a shadow and starting from this point... the fact is that I don´t think I´ll have hmis to increase the exposure and I´m afraid about how will this match with a bright background, should I use mirrors for the backlight in this case?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

When the sun is low enough, shoot in backlight with darker foilage in the background (not a hot sky or glarey ocean, etc.) Use some bounce cards for fill.

When the sun gets toppy and high, use a silk on a frame (you may need to go as large as a 12'x12' on hi-rollers for a medium shot of someone.) Again, frame darker greenery in the background, since you will be exposing more for the person under the silk and the background will get brighter.

If you have the budget, besides the silk, also get a 12'x12' Half Soft Frost, which is a little like Opal, in case you want less softening but more exposure, so the background doesn't get as bright. Then you have some options. Also get the scrims for the 12'x12'.

Yes, at that point you can use a 4'x4' mirrorboard or the hard side of the shiny board to get a hard kick / edge from redirecting the sun. Be prepared to set up a flag to take the lens flare away.

 

[illia]

Thanks a lot Mr Mullen.
I´ve talked today with my gaffer and he suggested me to use only the scrims on the 12by frame, as a way of cutting the light without loosing the quality of the sun light, and told me that silks are used mainly to bounce light.
Nevertheless I imagine that this technique is used mainly to keep the consistency of light all along the day, is it?
It's not the first time I hear about this technique and another cinematographer told me during a workshop that he used to replace the sun by using big HMI's to light the ones who are under the silk, but we never did the test so I don´t really know the result of such a work.
Even if we'll bring little hmi's (just in case we'll have to shoot under the shadow of a tree, as a way of balancing the exposure with the background, or to be prepared to a possible bad day,) I'm still not sure about which method to use... I took some pictures during location scouting and found that an overexposure of a stop under digital (the medium we'll be using) can be a disaster, I had the idea you gave me a bout framing with a dark background but I think this is not going to be entirely possible and the sun blasts with strenght this time of the year... and if we put the characters under a shadow the difference of exposure is too big for digital...
Do you think that only by using the scrims and a little bouncing I would succeed in my intention of making a warm and comfortable looking picture, or do I have to try to make a test with a silk (I've tried to ask for a small frame and a silk but the electritians only had big 12by frames....), I did a test using a white diffusion but the result was as bad as If I had put the character under the shadow of a building, I did loose all the feeling of direct sun light...

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Like I said, try using something thinner than silk, like Half Soft Frost. Then your actor won't get as dark under it.

Nets (scrims) will just take down the intensity so your fill light will be stronger in comparison, making it easier to reduce contrast, but you'll still have the hard light on the actor.

Now one trick in a telephoto close-up is that you can blur and darken the background by using a net on a large frame, far enough back to be out of focus.

 

[illia]

Aha, that seems a good trick! Thankyou!
Anyway I've been thinking about using a silk (or something thinner) and I think this would be the best way to handle a direct sun light aiming towards the actor's face and to avoid racoon eyes. As we'll be finally shooting with two cameras recording a dialogue between two characters I think that I'll always have someone facing the sun and then a bad quality of light. I expect the light to keep enough harshness to be able to play with branch-shaped shadows.
Thankyou, in a couple of weeks I'll shoot a short where some scenes will take place in the beach so I'll have enough time to practice exteriors techniques and it's amazing how few info I have found about the subject on books (only john alton's painting with light gives this area it´s importance..)