lighting Camera exposure/blown highlights

[gebo]

Hi,

My camera is a Canon powershot so it's not a great camera but I wonder if it's possible to improve a shot like this:

The higlights are blown, if I lower the exposure the highlights will be fine but the darker areas will be largely underexposed. This happens in sunny days...

How can I shoot better video on sunny days?

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

I mean it is what it is, too much DR for the camera. Split the difference and underexpose the shadows a little to try and not blow out the highlights.

 

[gebo]

Well I guess there's not a simple solution for shooting under strong sunlight...better shoot in the shade.

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

Well I guess there's not a simple solution for shooting under strong sunlight...better shoot in the shade.

Pretty much. Unless you are in a controlled situation where you can blast HMIs into the underexposed areas or fly gigantic silks to shade the sunny areas (in a tighter shot some bounce can do wonders).

Sunny days outside are THE most difficult situation to shoot in IMO. I'd rather deal with almost anything else. I avoid them like the plague unless there is just no way around it. I think long and hard before I write a daytime exterior into the script because I know what a PIA it's going to be to shoot it.

 

[IndieBudget]

Why I like to shoot outside early or later in the day and the cheaper cams ( like mine ) have less DR

 

[Pete]

Your highlights aren't totally blown out (there's still SOME detail), so you might be able to help it a little by reducing the highlights and a bit of the midtones with a three-way color corrector (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-colorista-free/). I know that the paid version of Colorista has a highlight recovery option, which is more what you're looking for, but I don't have the coin for that personally

 

[jax_rox]

The highlights on the people are not blown out, no; but on the walls etc they're completely gone, on the table and on the top of that kids head.
Fly in a silk, or stop down. I prefer to underexpose digital than overexpose anyway.

 

[WalterB]

It's about making choices: is the shadow part important or the sunny part?
Another choice is to choose angels where only shadow or only sunny parts are visible. (Or at least not 50/50 )

Bouncing light into the shadows can work very well, but it can look cheap as well

In Colorista the highlight recovery will (probably?) only work when the camera can shoot 'superwhites'. (My EX1R goes to 109%.) Otherwise there is still little detail left in the whites.

 

[knightly]

Add a circular polarizing filter to your lens... this will allow you to darken the highlights slightly (mostly reflections and the sky) and resolve the color better which may help lower individual channel's luminance in areas... and perhaps a UV/Haze filter which should cut a little but of the highlights down slightly as well. Careful for your corners so they don't suffer from "Filter burn" (the edges of the filters showing in the corners of the frame) as you stack them.

Frame that huge building out of the background which is reflecting all that light. Choose your angle in relation to the sun very carefully with shots outdoors in bright daylight.

Accept that your shadows will be a little dark... they are shadows after all. Better cameras with more Dynamic Range will do better in these situations... everything else is workarounds and tricks.

 

[CamVader]

Knightly offered some great advice, but we're not talking about overblown highlights here, it's just overexposed - be the dynamic range or any reason.

If you can find a way to work around the limits of this camera, there will be lessons learned for life making you a better photographer and cinematographer.

Best of luck and try Nightly's suggestions.