{"id":86837,"date":"2017-06-06T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=86837"},"modified":"2017-06-05T11:35:27","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T16:35:27","slug":"filming-with-natural-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/filming-with-natural-light\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of Natural Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued improvements in digital camera technology are making low light and natural light more appealing for productions of all sizes.<\/h2>\n

Cover Photo via<\/em>\u00a0Kimberly French<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Filming with natural light isn\u2019t a new practice, but digital filmmakers have faced more challenges in this regard than their celluloid counterparts. When digital cinema cameras<\/strong> first entered the scene, they simply didn\u2019t have the same dynamic range<\/strong> as film. As a result, cinematographers couldn\u2019t push the camera as far as they wanted to. Esteemed DP Emmanuel Lubezki in his interview with DPreview.com<\/a>\u00a0has the following to say:<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the transition happened too early and the cameras weren’t ready. The digital cameras that came out in the beginning (around 15 years ago) were not even close to the high dynamic range of film. I worked with a few directors, including Michael Mann, to do\u00a0tests with digital video imaging. For certain things, we liked and used it, but it was primitive and it wasn\u2019t ready to take over and become the main technology for capturing images.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Filming
\nImage via 20th-Century Fox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since then (fifteen years ago), digital cameras<\/strong> have come a long way. I’m sure the purists will argue that digital is still not as a great as celluloid, but when the RED WEAPON can provide 16.5 stops of dynamic range<\/strong>, it sure expands how far you can push your images. With film, you can overexpose and bring the highlights back<\/strong> into the picture in the lab \u2014 to a degree. However, digital is somewhat unforgiving with highlights. Once they\u2019re clipped, the data is gone. Therefore, most digital filmmakers\u00a0expose for the highlights and enhance the shadows in post. This can be a problem because noise can creep into the image.<\/p>\n

Today, though,\u00a0you can easily push many cameras to ISO 1600<\/strong> and get\u00a0completely noise-free shadows.<\/p>\n

Why Light Exterior Day Scenes?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Film production crews light exterior scenes for\u00a0several reasons: keeping the light consistent<\/strong> throughout the day, filling in shadows<\/strong>, and lighting compositions evenly<\/strong>. This allows filmmakers to expose for the bright highlights of the sky \u2014 the lights will illuminate the actors in the foreground.<\/p>\n

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\nImage via AMC.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, since\u00a0new camera systems have such wide dynamic ranges<\/strong>, coupled with powerful RAW processing, this is no longer necessary in many circumstances.<\/p>\n

Tips For Filming with Natural Light<\/h3>\n

Let’s say you’re going completely natural like\u00a0Yves Belanger in Wild<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0a film that relied\u00a095 percent on natural light \u2014 without any bounce boards or silks.<\/p>\n

We have an in-depth article on dynamic range here<\/a>, but, in short,\u00a0dynamic range refers to\u00a0the range in which\u00a0a camera\u00a0can capture the\u00a0brightest and darkest areas of an image\u00a0<\/strong>without losing details. If you can\u00a0capture the highlights in the sky\u00a0and the shadows of the forest floor, you can\u00a0film without lights.<\/p>\n