Lighting Through Window

[vw98la]

Hello,

What's the best way to expose when throwing strong light through windows, to give the effect of shafts of sunlight on film? This also can be when someone is sitting and a shaft a light is hitting them from the side.

I know exposure is an artistic choice and varies within from scene to scene but where I get confused is in two parts. One is how far can you go over on the face? If your 2 - more like 2 1/2 stops over on the highlight side which means then 3-3 1/2 over with a white face (reflected) does that mean its going to be overblown (since were close to the shoulder)?

Also do you usually just measure the side thats not going to be highlighted and expose for that or underexpose for contrast? I guess that is all depending on the feel.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Depends on the dynamic range of the system you are using in terms of how much overexposure you can hold.

Best thing is to shoot a simple over and underexposure test to see what a face looks like when it is exposed differently.

You also have to look at the frame and decide whether you should expose for the level of shadow detail you want or the level of highlight detail you want. If a face is heavily backlit, then you'll probably meter the face, which is in the shadows, and decide how dark to make it -- as opposed to if the face was in the sunlight, when you'd meter that to decide how overexposed to make it. One stop over is pretty conservative for film, but many digital cameras can't handle much more than that.