cinematography Overexposed windows/doors

[Re-Maker]

*Looks like my threads keep disappearing, or I keep forgetting to press "Submit New Thread" after "Preview Post"

Please, have a look at these two shots:

I do not want to reduce aperture.
So, here are my assumptions

How to fight overexposed windows/doors?
Windows: Gels can be used to reduce light coming through windows. This way lighter ND filter can be used and less light is required indoors. Gels suppose to have "a darkness grade figure". What grade gels are usually used to darken windows on a sunny day?

Doors: It is best to frame a shot to avoid open doors or leave little part of interior scene while having an open door. Since darker ND filter is required to get correct exterior exposure more light needed to brighter interior scene.

I'd love to get interior exposure like in the shot above and exterior exposure like in the shot below, but with the same wide aperture.

 

[Zensteve]

Yes, you can get ND gels.

You can even get them on huuuuge rolls, big enough to cover entire bay-windows in two passes.

What grade gels are usually used to darken windows on a sunny day?

That's something that you, some math & a lightmeter will need to figure out. It's going to vary.

 

[gpforet]

Another option is to place shades on C-Stands outside the windows and door. I've seen this used quit a bit to tame really hot sunlight.

 

[knightly]

Rolls of ND filters from Lee or Rosco is what you're looking for specifically... or you can blue screen/green screen the window and replace it in post (just as expensive and not as good a result).

The amount depends on the ratio between the lighting you have indoors and the amount of light coming in through the window... you can also just bump up the amount of light inside to match the brightness of the sky - then there's no issues whatsoever.

 

[chilipie]

For the shot you posted above, it looks like some kind of netting might be better than ND gel - easier to put up if it's not going against glass.

How to work it out? Inside is properly exposed at f/5.7 (we'll call it f/5.6 to simplify things). Outside is properly exposed at f/18. This is a difference of 3 1/3 stops - going in thirds, the scale goes like this:

1.0 1.1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.2 3.5 4 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.3 7.1 8 9 10 11 13 14 16 18 20 22

So, if you use .9 ND gel - which takes off three stops of light - the outside will be 1/3 stop brighter than the inside… which may be too little difference for you. One thing you need to consider when NDing windows is that you're going to need a huge amount of daylight-balanced lighting inside, to make up for all the light you've cut out.

 

[wheatgrinder]

in my recent little ditty (work in progress... ROC's on audio) I hit that same lighting situation ..

I didn't have any ND filters for windows, but I lit the inside bright. There is a 1000W of work light just out of the frame on these shot. Its effectively about 500W with the Change To Blue filter on the tungsten work lights..

The practicals in the shot.. the yellow glow in the back, is just normal incandescent bulbs.. I liked they way they look, nice and buttery, lent some nice color to that plain wall back there..

In post I masked the windows (in both shots) and darkened it a bit.. if you compare to the uploaded video (http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=25398) you can see the diff..

The top one is still to blown out in the sky for me.. Ill have to tweak that if I can..

I did just notice the inconstancy of the color out the window.. each shot has different trees in the background.. the evergreens (bluish) and the walnut (greener) even though its REAL difference, maybe Ill tweak the evergreen to be more green like the other shot.. but I digress.

 

[David.rhsc]

All great answers, one thing to look for to bring windows down is called rosco scrim. Comes in told of various size, is durable than nd gel, and has tons of uses. Recently used some on a cop car to drop the lights by slightly more than a stop. Great stuff. Kinda spendy, but on post with nd gel in the price range.