EXPOSURE CONTINUTY

[85hal9000]

Hello!
First of all would like to say thank you to David Mullen for the previous answer on metering techniques. it was very illuminating!
but now i've got another question (actually i've got thousands...!!!):

how do you deal with exposure continuity in high contrast situations?

lets say for example i' ve got a wide shot with main character in shade and some parts of the frame in bright sun. lets say i set my exposure to keep the shade about 2 stops under and the sun 1 over.
now...what do i do when i go in close-up of my character in shade?
do i work at the same t-stop or i give him full exposure and print it down later to balance the wide shot and the close up?

it would be very nice to get an answer for this, that isn't just an exterior matter!
thank you.
Matteo

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, if a character is in the shade, they should look like they are in the shade, so even when going into a close-up, I'd still underexpose them about a stop if I established in the wide shot that they were shadowed.

The hardest thing to light and expose for are those shots where the wide master has the figures in total silhouette (black cutout shape) against a bright background, let's say standing in profile, and then you move 90 degrees around for the close-ups where they would naturally be side-lit. Even though now you can justify light on their faces, you want to keep half their face black enough to maintain some feeling for the same contrast of the wide shot.

Or even harder, a wide silhouette shot of someone facing camera and then a tight close-up where now you want to see their face -- in that case, you need to cheat some light on the face but underexpose it enough to not look like a mismatch. In that case, the face may need to be three stops under to be very dark but hold detail, or at least two stops dark.