Window scenes can be challenging if you don’t know how to make necessary adjustments with your gear. Say for instance that you are shooting a simple video clip for a newly installed window from Accurate Glass & Mirror Inc. To create a perfect shot, you wouldn’t want to show your viewers an overly exposed lighting that covers the features of the window you are trying to portray.
In this post, we are going to show you how to shoot in front of a window without being overly exposed? There are quite a few ways to get this look with your camera. Watch the video below for a more detailed technique.
[Video] How To Shoot Video In Front Of A Bright Window
source: Harve Video/YouTube
The following text below is an excerpt from the video.
1. Shoot in Log, high bit rate or RAW format.
This doesn’t work with the canon 5d mark fours MJ peg mode. When you use this technique then you will be in a good position for keeping that exterior from being overexposed. Drop the exposure to have a great view of the exterior of the window.
Masking certain areas in your scene to either lower or raise the exposure. This is a very common practice in cinematography but it can be quite time-consuming because if you’ve got any camera movement in your shot then you’ll need to use motion tracking.
Sure you can lower the exposure or you can use an underexposed shot and raise the exposure of everything else. However, this technique is not ideal because assuming that you are using a standard linear ie not log mode, you will either be trying to recover highlights from the window area or you will be bringing up shadow noise from everywhere else.
You can also consider making use some sort of a composite show where you take the correctly exposed areas in multiple shots and combine them into one cheesy looking HDR style shot.
2. One of the first choices for correcting an overexposed window would be to light my interior in an effort to balance the light in the scene.
So if you have an underexposed shot and then bring in a two light set up (this can come from a camera with zero correction). The difficulty in doing this is to make your lighting blend in with your practical lights and it’s really not easy and it may take a lot of trial and error. But when you get it right then you should have a nice natural-looking scene and you’ll be able to lower the exposure of that overexposed window.
3. Reduce the amount that comes through the window.
You can use neutral density sheets which you can get from most stage lighting shops. Using nd sheets brings in some of the ambient light into the room. Play with the exposure settings a little bit to make it look a little more acceptable. The point of using and sheets becomes clear when combined with some lighting.
So just combine all the techniques – Shoot in Log, light the scene, and cut the light coming through the window – will help create a window scene that’s not overexposed. It allows you to create a scene that reflects what’s outside the window. It all boils down to adjustments and proper lighting.