Anyone have any neat tricks on improving the latitude of XL1 in highly backlit situations?

I did a shoot where there was a key provided and a frontal fill through a large scrim, but the backlighting was very overwhelming to the point of looking like rim lighting that the subjects walked out of...almost looked like walking out of a wall of light. Blasting the place with frontal fill is an option, but then depth becomes squashed.

If the answer is here, I appreciate a map to it.

The XL2 has a master pedestal adjustment which is a great help... but DV is DV and there isnt much you can do, especially with no MP adjustment...


ash =o)

Some light from the sides instead of front fill?

Solution 1) Use an XL2.

Solution 2) Side fill.

The trusty old XL1 does have its limitations. The mini-35 breathes new life into the camera, and if you work within its latitude and don't do any crazy panning it can fool you into thinking its a much higher end camera.

The XL2 is an incredible camera. In my humble opinion, the XL2 just beats the pants off the DVX100a and leaves it naked in front of the classroom. It is unquestionably light years ahead of the XL1, with 24fps, 1/48th shutter speed, adjustable cine gamma, cine color matrix, and the option to be fitted with a mini-35 adaptor.

Side fill if done on both sides simply makes the picture flat. From one side, on a groups scene looks weird. Angles are a good rule of thumb or diffuse frontal fill.

Has anyone ever tryed tiffen´s low contrast filter?

Use a hazer on set to lower the contrast. Helps the background fall off nicely.

if only we had one in the mad rush..