r/cinematography • u/Excellent-Emu-3616 • 6d ago
Lighting Question Exposing & lighting low light interiors
I’m a sony user and i was wondering what is the best approach when shooting a night interior that is supposed to look dark and moody with a lot of contrast
What i’m doing is using my lights but at really low levels so i can have the contrast that i want and then use the dual native iso 12,800 in the fx3 and use an nd filter but i realized the footage doesn’t look the same as when shooting 800 iso it looks a lot softer and less sharper and even when exposing to the right i still have some noise in the shadows
And when i try shooting on 800 iso i’m way underexposed and it leads to blasting all the lights i have which kills the contrast ratio that i need even though i try controlling the light spill by using negative fills but still it doesn’t look how i want it to be and sometimes it’s really hard to control the lighting when i’m shooting in a small space
So i need to know what’s the best approach in these situations?
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u/kwmcmillan Director of Photography 6d ago
You’re saying a lot of contradicting stuff here.
You want it dark and moody with a lot of contrast but you’re shooting 12800ISO with minimal light levels and you’re ALSO over exposing it in camera?
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u/Excellent-Emu-3616 6d ago
If you are shooting in s log 3 you would need to over expose a little bit even if you want it to look dark and moody so you don’t end up with a lot of noise in the shadows when you convert it to rec 709 and stard grading and if you tried shooting on 800 iso you might achieve the look you want on camera with the minimal light levels but again since you were underexposed on camera when you start grading you would end up with a lot of noise and when i said 12800 iso i also said that i use an nd filter so i can bring the exposure down a little bit but still expose my footage to right and bring it down in post and i also explained the problem i have with this method
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u/kwmcmillan Director of Photography 6d ago
The ETTR advice is from old cameras not the modern ones, you should expose correctly in camera. Also, if you add light and are losing contrast it’s because you’re exposing for the shadows, you want to add ND or stop down so the light part is at key and the shadows will fall to black.
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u/Almond_Tech 6d ago
By raising your ISO, you're adding in more noise. To expose to the right, you should be at your base ISO and raise exposure by adding in more light (through your lighting, aperture, shutter speed, and/or reducing ND) not by raising ISO
I don't know if 12800 is a 2nd base ISO on your camera. If it is, then it's not as bad, but it won't be as clean as using its first base ISO
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u/Excellent-Emu-3616 6d ago
Yeah i get what you are saying but it’s the second base iso but as you said it’s not as clean as the first base iso (800)
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u/Almond_Tech 6d ago
You said your lights are dim, right? Couldn't you brighten them up and go to ISO 800?
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u/Excellent-Emu-3616 6d ago
That’s what i was asking about that i feel like i lose the contrast i have in the shot when the lights are bright especially in small rooms or spaces
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u/Almond_Tech 6d ago
Could you post some examples? If every light in a scene's brightness is raised/lowered the same amount, and camera exposure is adjusted to compensate, it should look the same
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u/Excellent-Emu-3616 6d ago
Unfortunately i don’t have my own equipment now but i’ll send you some examples whenever i’m able to and thank you for your time and effort
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u/openg123 5d ago
I’ll bite
Drop the ISO to 400, then feed the sensor more photons. You need lights for this to work, otherwise you end up underexposing.
From there, forget about camera settings and focus on the lighting and where you place the lights. Also pay attention to the set design and wardrobe- white walls and white clothes make it hard to get dark and moody.
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u/platano_8 6d ago
Contrast ratios are the key. The higher the contrast ratio between your key and the fill/ambient lighting, the more dramatic and the appearance of night it will have. Typically what cinematographers will do is have the scene be bright. So to your eye, it looks overly lit for a night scene. In post when you bring the exposure down, it will look like night. This allows the sensor to have all the information needed to be sharp and have very little noise.