shooting farms in hard light?
 

My biggest problem in my outdoor shoots is taking away the hard sunlight. I'm making films with a farming subject and many times when we schedule for a shoot, or the only time that is available, we have hard sunlight on the face. It's necessary that I have the landscape properly exposed behind but it's difficult to keep the face and landscape exposed properly.

I try and shoot early in the morning or late at evening but that is not always possible.

--I use a large white foamcore to bounce light in the shadows but it doesn't take that much of it away. Maybe I should try silver.

--I've heard that I should use a butterfly that takes the sun down a couple of stops

Any suggestions here. This is one of my biggest problems.
Thanks alot.

Michael

Michael,

I've worked with a home made diffusion panel for years that utilizes a certain brand of shower curtain liner ( I think they sell it at Bed bath and Beyond) it's very translucent, heavy weight and has a fine embossed pattern on it. The magic of this stuff is that it does a nice job of diffusing the light with little or no loss in light level...I've used it to shoot people, winegrapes and other ag subjects...with little more than a polarizer to control reflection and sky values. stretch it on a homemade frame or get an empty matthews frame and stretch it over that. It's about $15 and you get an 80x80" piece...

Over filling with silver cards almost always looks fake...especially at mid-day. The magic of this diffuser is that it's gentle enough to give you a look that is still sunlight-like, so it won't look like you put up a big softbox.

Barry

barry,

That's a great rec, that's what I was looking for. Is there a way that you can think to make that frame portable for airline travel. Perhaps pvc pipe?

Buy the PVC when you get to the shoot and give it away before you leave. Much cheaper.

I do it with car batteries. Buy a good used battery that will fit someone's car and give it to them after the shoot. Great perk.

I'd probably look into a commercially available collapsible frame. PVC gives me the willy's as it always seems to fall apart just when the light gets good...(or the wind strong)...Calumet makes several in varying materials...I'd personally spring for an aluminum frame...light weight and stronger.

Here's a bunch of em

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=search&Q=&ci=1340


Barry

Nets are used often. For a portable frame, Fastfold
by Da-Lite would be a good choice.

A good camera (better processing) like the DSR-570 wouldn't hurt ;)