Thin Neg.

[Nick Keller]

With mild overexposure of stock (1/3 slower) and underexposing by one stop, for certain times like backlit sun or night stuff do you end up with a thin Neg? I assume with Vison 3 and newer stocks it doesn't look two different than normal exposure. Have only shot reversal which has no lat. Just don't want to underexpose for instance a scene where I'm making the shadow side of an indivdual a bit darker since the sun is behind and end up with a dark muddy image.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

If you are making the shadow side of a face look darker than the sunny backlight, then technically you aren't underexposing, you are exposing the image normally to get the look you want, which is, for the face to feel a bit darker than full key level. The negative would still be printing normally so it isn't technically "thin" even if areas in the frame are darker than key. "Thin" would imply overall underexposure that requires printing "up" to look correct in brightness.

If it prints normally and some area in the shot, like a face in shadow, is deliberately a bit dimmer than other areas, then you didn't really underexpose the negative, you exposed it correctly for the look you were trying to achieve.