Best way to deal with too much light?

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scythe000

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Best way to deal with too much light?

PostWed Jul 21, 2021 8:01 pm

Hi!
I'm fairly new at this. Right now I've got a BMPCC6k and a Canon 50mm 1.8 and a Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens. Lately, it's been crazy bright outside, and even closing up the shutter all the way and putting ISO at 100, I've got overexposure sometimes. How do you handle that? A filter?
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Brad Hurley

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostWed Jul 21, 2021 8:33 pm

Neutral density filters are essential in filmmaking. Stopping down all the way is going to cause your image to soften due to diffraction so you want to avoid that anyway. If you can afford it, get individual ND filters in different strengths, either screw-on, magnetic, or cinema-style in a matte box. Variable ND filters don't work as well and can degrade your image and in a worst case they can introduce x-shaped vignettes.
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Jamie LeJeune

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostWed Jul 21, 2021 9:06 pm

Firecrest full spectrum IRND filters https://formatt-hitechusa.com/products/firecrest-neutral-density-filter-irnd
+ magnetic XUME adaptors


This combo is what I've been using for all the BMD pocket cameras with good results.

I try to avoid variable ND filters unless absolutely necessary (though it is sometimes necessary in run + gun situations with electronic lenses that don't have a stepless aperture).

If you have the time on set + the budget, you could instead get a matte box + 4x5.65 filters. At that level, there are excellent full spectrum IRND filters you can get from Nisi or Lee or (if you really have the cash) ARRI.
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drknsss

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostThu Jul 22, 2021 7:55 pm

There isn't any good way to record in bright sunlight IMO. There are situations where you have to like some documentaries or sports-type life events.

I suggest you shoot early morning or sunset if you can.
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Ellory Yu

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostThu Jul 22, 2021 8:32 pm

All of the above suggestions are on point. Since you are asking this question in a Blackmagic forum, I will assume you have a Blackmagic camera (at least a BMPCC 4K).

I will suggest that you shoot at ISO 1000 (not 1250) instead, keep your shutter angle at 180, and turn on false color. Adjust your aperture so that you cut down the red and yellow, and try to get to gray or green, and use ND filters to stop down as you need it (and to also control the aperture so as not to close too much - I'd stay at about 5.6 or smaller). Experiment. Also, shoot in BRAW.

Edit: I mistakenly reverse the ISO - should be 1000 not 1250.
Last edited by Ellory Yu on Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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John Griffin

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostThu Jul 22, 2021 8:39 pm

Ellory Yu wrote:All of the above suggestions are on point. Since you are asking this question in a Blackmagic forum, I will assume you have a Blackmagic camera (at least a BMPCC 4K).

I will suggest that you shoot at ISO 1250 (not 1000) instead, keep your shutter angle at 180, and turn on false color. Adjust your aperture so that you cut down the red and yellow, and try to get to gray or green, and use ND filters to stop down as you need it (and to also control the aperture so as not to close too much - I'd stay at about 5.6 or smaller). Experiment. Also, shoot in BRAW.

Why would you shoot at the higher gain stage in an over exposure situation?
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Ellory Yu

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostThu Jul 22, 2021 8:51 pm

John Griffin wrote:Why would you shoot at the higher gain stage in an over exposure situation?

You'll get more DR in the highlights as you exposed for middle gray. Then you have much more flexibility to recover and adjust in post.
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Sean van Berlo

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostFri Jul 23, 2021 5:45 am

I have never ever understood this advice personally. Yes, theoretically ISO 1000 provides more highlight room but your image will look terrible because the pocket 4K sensor is just too noisy at that stage (at least for me). Just shoot 400, you already have a ton of highlight headroom for most situations.
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Mike Potton

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostFri Jul 23, 2021 7:18 am

Yeah exposing for a higher iso to 'protect highlights' is bad advice, you're essentially underexposing and pulling the image back up hence terrible noise. No dynamic range advantage either.
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ttakala

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostFri Jul 23, 2021 11:41 am

OP might be a bit confused by now. This is the dynamic range chart in the camera manual, page 50:
Pocket 6K dynamic range.jpg
Pocket 6K dynamic range.jpg (403.08 KiB) Viewed 1054 times

It shows how many stops of dynamic range is above and below middle gray. At ISO 1000 there's 7.3 stops above middle gray vs. 3.9 stops above ISO 100. That's what Ellory means by shooting at ISO 1000 for more highlight retention. But this only applies if you're exposing for middle gray with shutter, aperture and lights. And it does bring noise levels up a lot. You would get the same result by selecting ISO 250, underexposing two stops and bringing the middle gray back up in post.

Since OP has problems bringing light levels down in the first place, using ISO 1000 is not going to help for that. Neutral density filters are the solution when lights can't be controlled. 2, 4 and 6 stop ND filters will cover most needs.

The chart also shows that within each ISO range 100…1000 and 1250…6400 the black and white clipping points are the same. That is, if you have the same exposure (shutter speed, aperture) it doesn't matter if your ISO is set as 100, 400 or even 1000 the white point will clip at the same light intensity. ISO is only metadata that can be changed in post (if you're shooting braw).
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Mark Foster

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostFri Jul 23, 2021 12:53 pm

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scythe000

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Re: Best way to deal with too much light?

PostFri Jul 23, 2021 2:30 pm

There’s a lot of great information here, thank you guys so much for sharing!

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