Exposing filmstock for telecine

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

Jag har kopierat ett bra inlägg från ett låst (privat) filmforum inriktat på telecine. Inlägget skrevs av Christoph Manz (känd på bl.a. Filmshooting):

 

Exposing filmstock for telecine

 

for color negative film it's simple: always overexpose if you have enough light. the irony is that the higher ASA the filmstock, the more it benefits from overexposing, but usually if we shoot 500ASA we are tight on light anyway. how much to overexpose depends on the intended look, i'd say 1/3 to 1 stop. overexposing will result in higher density and moves the shadows higher up in the response curve. if we push this down again on printing or telecine, the shadows will tighten up becaus they are coming from the straighter part of the response curve, which makes them look much more solid. if necessary, we also have more detail in the shadow, and the overall graininess will be reduced as well because more of the smaller film grains have been exposed.

basically overexposing increases contrast, grain structure, shadow detail and saturation. so the only reason not to overexpose is if we want to have a more muted, low-contrast look with pronounced grain.

 

for color reversal it is a bit different:

overexposing will loose detail in the highlights, and will result in lower contrast and more pastell colors. this is why traditionally for slide film the advice has been to underexpose half a stop. this might still be true for projection (although personally i like to try to hit the "correct" exposure, whatever that means ;), but for scanning and telecine, the high density in the shadows means that we cant capture the full contrast range except with very expensive machines. even then, the image will look a bit grainy.

so my personal advice is to overexpose reversal too, but just very slightly, like 1/3-1/2 stops. it will scan much better and the highlights blow out much nicer on film then if we have to clip it in the telecine to recover the shadows.

 

b/w negative is a mixed bag:

underexposure will result in a loss of shadow detail and grainy film stock. overexposure will give a lot of shadow detail but the silve grains will scatter the lights more which makes it look grainy too. so my advice is to expose for the correct exposure, but the true EI of the filmstock depends on the developer used anyway, so tests are necessary.

 

finally, b/w reversal is similar to color reversal:

an underexposes, dense film is very hard to transfer, so i'd prefer to slightly overexpose, but really only just slightly.

 

 

finally one last comment about low light situations where you cant overexpose because of lack of light:

if you can, try to sneak in some extra light, maybe change the bulb from 60W to an efficient 100W one. if you can't, try to find a position where your main subject gets at least partly hit by a direct light. also find some hot spots in the background. generally speaking, try to find at lest some contrast in the image even if more of the scene is dark, we need some bright spots somewhere.

 

hope that gives fred something to do with his E64T ;)

++ c.

 

ps: dont even try to use E64T at nights except if you have an XL camera and people are standing directly next to a strong light source.