Figure 3-2. Use of reflector to lighten shadows

Basic Television Lighting Techniques
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often push the contrast ratio beyond the 30:1 limit.

This extreme contrast

would cause background overexposure.

If you cannot avoid the bright

background, you may have to shoot the scene anyway. If this is the case, be

sure your subject is exposed properly, by using the manual iris control on the

camera, and allow the background to overexpose.

c. The dense shadows (fast falloff) on bright days can be lessened (slow

down the rate of falloff) somewhat by using a reflector. The reflector bounces

back some of the sunlight and renders the dense shadows more translucent (fig

3-2).

Figure 3-2.

Use of reflector to lighten shadows

5. When shooting in inadequate outdoor illumination, try to keep the camera as

steady as possible in order to minimize lag and comet-tailing.

It is also

important to note that when you are shooting under low light conditions, the

camera iris must be opened much wider than when shooting under adequate

lighting.

This will shrink the depth of field, making the focus much more

critical than when shooting in bright sunlight. This is because the amount the

iris is open directly affects depth of field. When the iris on the camera is

set to a wide opening, the depth of field is shallow, meaning that some parts

of the scene will be in focus while others will not.

In good lighting

conditions, the iris will be set to a smaller opening, which increases the

depth of field.

If this knowledge is combined with the fact that the focal

length of the camera lens also affects depth of field, (the longer the lens

focal length the more shallow the depth of field will be); you should be able

to shoot under low light conditions and still keep the important parts of the

scene in acceptable focus.

Learning Event 2:

DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIELD AND STUDIO LIGHTING TECHNIQUES

1. Shooting outdoors may require the use of lighting instruments in addition

to reflector.

However, you will recall that most lighting instruments

illuminate a color temperature of 3200 degrees kelvin.

But outdoor