Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 2/4/2004, 6:40 AM
You generally have to underexpose and deal with it in post. Or get the spotlight op to not use white and filter it with a peach or frost. You can also use glass filters, but even then this won't cure overblown. Better to underexpose a little and pop it/pump it in post than to have blown out vid.
mcgeedo wrote on 2/4/2004, 6:53 AM
I underexpose about two stops, and get the lightman to not use any green gels on the flying lights. Like Spot said, a warm color gel on the spots helps, too. You can always brighten and color-correct a bit in post, but overexposure loses information, which you can't get back.
berenberen wrote on 2/4/2004, 7:27 AM
Thank you.
I take it that there's nothing that can be done with overexposed footage in post. Correct?
johnmeyer wrote on 2/4/2004, 8:42 AM
Once it is overexposed, you are toast.

I shoot ballet all the time. If you have a Sony camera, some of them have a "spotlight" mode. It works pretty well under some circumstances. It performs the underexposure automatically by looking for bright highlights and reducing the exposure. If you do a wide shot, however, you usually still have to manually underexpose.

If the lighting for a given scene is pretty static, you can get good results by zooming in all the way, and let the auto exposure do its thing. Then, simply turn on manual exposure. This should start the exposure at the level given by the auto exposure at that moment. Then, as you zoom out, the exposure will stay constant, instead of getting brighter (thus burning out your highlights).

Finally, if your camera has a zebra pattern, use it. This is what it is for.
GaryKleiner wrote on 2/4/2004, 8:51 AM
I'd also like to add:

Always use an external monitor when shooting allows for it. You can judge exposure far better than using a viewfinder/LCD on aa camera.

Gary
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/4/2004, 9:47 AM
If your cam will allow for a zebra at 80, set it there so you can get a better idea of blown out areas while underexposing too. If the cam is fixed at 100, then you can't have ANY zebra at all or you are in trouble.
berenberen wrote on 2/4/2004, 11:39 AM
Thanks so much for your replies.
I don't know what a "zebra" is. Could you clarify?
mcgeedo wrote on 2/4/2004, 12:41 PM
A "zebra" is a pattern that shows in the viewfinder of your camera. It shows when there is a problem with the exposure level. Most cheaper consumer cameras don't have them.

And to answer your previous question about recovering overexposed video, no, there is very little improvement you can make. Understand that digital video ranges from 0 (black) to 255 very white. <Actually, 0 and 255 are not allowed, but for this discussion assume that they are>. Now, the highlights in your picture should never go quite all the way to 255. At most, the very brightest pixel can be 255, and the surrounding ones go lower than that.

Now overexpose: The brightest pixel and dozens around it all go to 255. When you try to turn the brightness/contrast down in post, ALL of those pixels are reduced the same amount, and you lose whatever difference there was between the "brightest" and its neighbors.

Does that help? That is the explanation for "lost information" You can't recover the original brightness once a pixel has been forced to it's "ceiling."

Good luck,
-Don
farss wrote on 2/4/2004, 12:59 PM
I can tell you from past experience things can be lit on stage that are nigh impossible to capture on video, even with manual exposure. Image a 1K shining down on a MC with shiny white hair, behind him is black out cloth. So you stop down enough so that nothing's overexposed and you get to see, well just hair!
That was a pretty extreme example. You'll find though that if a stage production is using lighting for effect and not just illumination then to caprtyre that well on video it needs to be relit just for the video. If there serious about making a video of the production and keeping the same feel then this can be quite an art getting the lighting levels so that video can cope and yet not letting it look like it's lit for the 6 O'Clock news.