Reversal Vs Negative and Grain in 500

Alex Konveski · Jan 21, 2010

How much leeway do I have with negative film, specifically in the highlights? During my first semester at school, one of my class projects was a 3-5 minute short on black and white reversal shot with a Bolex.
When I got my film back from the lab I had a lot of shots that were ruined because my background had either blown out from the sun or my dark areas in the frame were underexposed. Of course through more practice and study I learned reversal has a very small latitude compared to that of color negative.
My final project for the year is again on the bolex though this time with color negative. I'm using the new daylight stock outside and the 500 for a few interior scenes.

Will I have enough latitude in a wide with a background that is 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 stops over outside? Or will it blow out?

My second questions is what the grain is like on the 500 stock. First year packages from school are a tweenie and arri kit (1k softbox and 2 350s). Being that I don't have a lot of light I went with the faster stock. The kodak video of vision 3 on their website looks great with very little grain.

Thank You
Alex Kon
Petaluma, CA

David Mullen ASC · Jan 21, 2010

The 7219 Vision-3 500T has only moderate graininess, similar to 200T.

As a background goes overexposed, what burns out first to white depends on how light-toned it was, or whether it had extra light on it.

But generally if you mean an interior where the view outside the windows 2 1/2-stops overexposed, it would hold detail out there. With color negative film, a scene with midtones would have to be nearly five-stops overexposed before it goes to white. So a background that was 3-stops over would be very hot and washed-out but would have some detail. 2 1/2-stops over would be even better for holding detail of course.

But I don't know how you are going to balance a daylight interior so that it is only 2 1/2-stops darker than the exterior, unless you are using ND gel on the windows and HMI's inside. On 50 ASA film, you get an f/16 in direct sunlight. Let's say the background is semi-backlit so that outdoors you be shooting at f/8 on 50 ASA film. That means the interior would have to be lit to a f/2.8-4 split at 50 ASA to only be 2 1/2-stop darker than the outside, which is still a lot of light. Which is why you need ND gel on the windows to control the brightness of the background.

But yes, color negative has a lot more latitude and dynamic range than reversal.

Alex Konveski · Jan 22, 2010

Thanks. As for the background I mean more of a wide shot exterior on a sunny day. I just don't want to find myself with a overexposed background. I researched the forum and found your advice on underexposing a little. If I'm underexposed one in half stops and my background is one in a half stops over on a wide shot I should have detail in both ends? Should I go darker? I metered with the schools sekonic and found myself at a 11 (shadow) and 32 (background) so there is a 3 stops difference.

Thank You
Alex Kon
Petaluma, CA

David Mullen ASC · Jan 24, 2010

Sure, you can get away with splitting the exposure and it will hold at both ends other than for extremely light-toned objects in the sun or dark-toned objects in the shade.

My method is more to look at the frame and decide whether to bias the exposure more one way or the other depending on the percentage that is in sun versus shade.

There are high-contrast situations where you really have to think about exposure because of the extreme range present -- like the sun glaring off of water or snow in backlight.

Alex Konveski · Jan 31, 2010

Thanks for the help. I shot this weekend and will be bringing it to the lab on Monday. For a lot of my EXT. wide shots I had a ND 6 in with a 3 stop difference between my background and foreground. I underexposed the shadow side by 2 and let the bg go 1 over. Hopefully this will work out ok.

Also I had some shots in this bare wooded area with no leaves. Again I was in some backlit situations and I underexposed the face a stop. There were scattered highlights all around (it would either be a shadow of a tree or a bright spot) though I'm worried that it will look a bit dark 1 under because of all the trees around.

Thank You
Alex Kon
Petaluma, CA

David Mullen ASC · Feb 1, 2010

Tell us how it all came out. You are all in a safe range, some of this is a matter of taste, just how hot or dark you want things.

Alex Konveski · Feb 5, 2010

I checked out my footage. I found no problems. I actually had some scenes where I bracketed just to see the difference. At least to me I like the bg to be almost normal instead of a bit blown out. One stop under seemed pretty much the same to me and I think a regular audience wouldn't notice the difference unless it was pointed out. 2 stops worked well and had a lot of information still in it. I still will probably bring the image down a little more in post.

Being that this worked out very well for a narrative film. Can you apply splitting exposure on commercial or music video work? (specifically for videos of female talent who have to be lit in a "beauty" sense) Or in those cases are bigger lights/bounces brought in to even things out?

I could see the difference at two stops (nothing bad) and at 1 stops I could barley tell anything

Thank You
Alex Kon
Petaluma, CA