Bright lights not welcome
 

Hello!

The link that follows shows a very common situation that happens to me, which is shooting a bride walking down (or up) the aisle with her father...
Whenever the church is much darker than the outside, a bright glow invades the picture. Look at the bride's father!!!
Should this happen?!

Note that, for ethical reasons, I blurred, in Photoshop, everyone's faces, but the father's, who is already unrecognizable.

http://somethingdifferent.com.sapo.p...ht%20light.jpg

Is there anyway to avoid this kind of situation?
I had a Sony DVCAM dsr250p, and though this used to happen, it wasn't so obvious (horrible).

Thanks!
Sergio Barbosa.

Switch the iris to manual mode.

Sergio,

Absolutely there is a way to avoid it. Camera placement. Take a look at the environmental surroundings and set the camera to avoid this scenario and if you can't avoid the scenario completely, maybe let your artistic side take over and take advantage by creating silhouette shots.

S.Noe

Problem: Bright lights produce glare in the image
Solution: Don't frame your shots with bright lights in the background?

Would it be possible to set up a diffusion screen outside the door, far enough to avoid impeeding the procession, but close enough to do the job? Some sort of screen material or even Muslin and some pvc pipe or something similar to hold it,some clamps and some guy ropes? Then the light would work as a natural back light.

Get someone (an assistant or relative) to slowly and quitely close the church doors after the couple have walked in.

Or....

Get the groom to wear a giant ND filter just over his head.

If you set up some sort of diffusion, you don't have to interfere with the wedding. Client first uber alles.

Hello, and thanks everyone for your answers.
In the first place, Scott, the iris was in manual mode, otherwise, it would probably be darker.
I know... the most obvious way to fix it is to frame differently.
The diffusion screen should work, yet there would always be someone who wouldn't appreciate that... ''a big piece of plastic in front of the church, on my wedding day?!?!?"
Do you think there's a way to tweak the camera settings so that I can close the iris, yet retaining some information on the people walking, and then, in post, brighten them up...that should reduce the glare, right?

Thanks!

Hi Sergio. Yes you should definitely close the iris a bit to prevent the backlight blowing out so much. You could try adjusting the white clip Knee and the black stretch together with this in order to reduce the overall contrast and still keep some detail in the darker areas. If necessary, you could also change the gamma settings and the Master Black level to reduce the contrast further. Then use a curves filter in your NLE to restore the image.

Richard

what's wrong with it
 

I think what i see is good enough
u can always put a ND filter to cut the light at entrance
as a DP i think this is fastest way

but i think overall is very OK,
u may up the fill in a bit, put a huge reflector behind ur camera and on floor


JY

i mean ND film on entrance not on camera
 

i mean ND film on entrance not on camera,
u can go to shop sell plastic film to put on glass windows


JY

Get someone to close the door !

Simple, free, does not involve setting up large sheets of plastic over windows/doors on someones wedding day.

!!??

The voice of wisdom

Closing the door after each and every couple walks through could disrupt the procession (bride and Father of the bride come through last). I wasn't talking about plastic, you could use gossamer curtains to cast a sort of soft 'heavenly' light behind them. Be creative, work with the wedding planner so no one is offended, make it part of the overall 'look' of the wedding. The bride will want everything to look perfect.

Then if all else fails, just close the door :-).

I treat a wedding like any other shoot.
I always go a few hours before the wedding looking in the church, together with the pastor. I ask him turn on all the lights in the church. Then I measure the different places with a lightmeter. If needed, I discretely place some extra lights (in cooperation with the pastor to make sure he feels good about it). Of course, taping the cables so nobody will notice is needed, and it makes the pastor more comfortable in what you are doing in his church securing the cables before he even can ask a question about it...
I use lights with dimmers and flaps, so they don't beam into somebodies face.
And... I always let the lights burn for at least an half hour @ full. To make sure I don't blow circuit-breakers during the wedding.
While the lights are testing I testout the PA system of the church. If needed I use my own mics and transmit them wireless to the HD100. If the sound system is OK, I setup one wirless Mic on one of the speakers.
Some people ask me, why do you do all this effort. Simply because it makes such a difference in the edited end-result. And I can ask more money for the few weddings a year.