Always look out for hotspots. These are areas of fully blown out white which are often reflections on shiny surfaces. With digital, one must be extra vigilant as unlike film there is no gentle rolloff in the gamma curve. This translates into a soft edge into the over exposed area. Over exposed areas will apear as flat solid and white with no detail. Most broadcasters will be leanient with very tiny hot spots though. Allthough they are spotted by the camera zebra display, most good D.Ps can spot them by eye.
The simplest solultion is of course to remove the offending item. After that a slight tweak of the lighting angle can usually fix the problem. The most popular answer is dulling spray which creates a temporary matte finish which can be easily cleaned off most surfaces. In other cases the principles already coverd for controlling light such as diffusion or flagging may be the answer.
The glint caused by eyeglasses is so common and they are in fact a whole new ball game. As the eyes are so important for conveying meaning in cinema you can see why they need to be completely unobstructed. A common answer is to ask the actor to wear contact lenses and then have them wear flat glass in the frames. The fancy alternative is to have something called AR coating applied to the lenses. There are still many more ways for getting around this problem, you've just got to see which ones work for your situation.
Light sources in the frame (known as practicals) are a large hurdle to get across as they create a contrast range that is way outside what the camera can take. Here are the various ways one can get around the problem.
- Lamps with lower wattage bulbs.
- Using dimmers (they dim).
- Paper inside the lampshade.
- Neutral Density Gel.
When lighting somone with a darker complexion just remember all the contrast range rules and principles behind directing and manipulating light. So diffused light, flagging and reflectors can be used to keep hard light away from the face. Another idea is by using the inverse square law to try and make the person of darker complexion further from the light.
Especially in outdoor situations there can be too much light in all the wrong places; highlights are too hot and shadows are too pronounced. Obviously the idea is to bring down the contrast ratio by bringing in lights for a fill or redistributing the light already there. There are times when both are requried but obviously the latter is the more stylish and cheap. A good knowledge of where the sun will be and at what kind of intensity and temperature, will be the most important thing to bear in mind.
The last major common problem that one will have to deal with (and this is a common problem) is different colour temperatures in the scene. You shouldn't have to worry about this in a studio environent but on location, say in a large office with flourecent lighting that can't be turned off and sunlight coming through the windows, no white balance will satisfy both sources so you'll have to find ways around things.
There are a number of solutions.
- ND Gel for the windows.
- Shoot when strong sunlight isn't coming through the windows or when overcast.
- Balance with a filter
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