American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

Meters (Continued from Page 224) very helpful tricks, too. For example, it run automatically calculate filter-factors and filtered exposures for you. If you know the correct filter-factor for the filter you're using and the film you're using it on, all you have to do is divide the meter's film-speed setting by the filter's multiplying factor, and re-set the meter's speed setting accordingly. Then take your readings in the usual way, and you'll get the right exposure every time. Suppose, for illustration, you were using a film with a daylight speed-rating of 32, and you were employing a filter with a factor of two. Just divide the filmspeed, 32, by the filter-factor, 2, and the result is 16. Set your meter for a filmspeed of 16, and your filtered exposures will come out right. The same trick will simplify exposure when you're shooting slow-motion. Just divide your film-speed by the number of times normal your slow-motion cameraspeed represents in comparison to the normal 16 frames per second. For example, still using a film rated at 32, suppose we want to shoot at 64-frame speed. This is four times the normal 16frame silent speed. So divide the 32 filmspeed rating by 4, and you'll have 8. Re-set the meter's calculator for a filmspeed of 8, and take your readings normally, secure in the confidence your slowmotion shots will be correctly exposed. You can turn this trick around backwards, too, when you're shooting at camera-speeds below normal. In this case, of course, you multiply instead of divide; for instance, shooting at 8-frame speed instead of 16, you're shooting at half normal speed, and each frame is getting twice normal exposure. So set your meter's speed-rating for 64 instead of the 32 you'd use normally on the same film, and again your exposure will correct itself automatically. Finally, there's the matter of normal film-speed ratings. Too few of us realize that the speeds as indicated on the meter manufacturers' film-speed charts are intended as a guide, rather than as a completely accurate figure. They should be modified according to the way you personally use your meter, and sometimes according to the meter itself. In practice, therefore, take the published speed-rating of any film as only a guide: if you don't get the results you want using that particular speed-rating, try a different meter-setting — one point under the published speed of your shots consistently tend toward underexposure; one point over it if the tendency is toward overexposure. You can vary things even farther if necessary. In the same way, sometimes using a different meter, or a different model of the same make of meter, you may find it beneficial to modify the speed setting similarly. I have a friend who discovered that when he changed to a new Weston "Master," after many years of using one of the older, wider-angled types, he had a tendency toward underexposure — slight, but enough to bother him. He cured the trouble by the simple trick of using a speed-setting one and sometimes two points below the generally published rating — 6 instead of the usual 8 for daylight Kodachrome, and so on. A bit unconventional, perhaps, if you're a great believer in the infallibility of the printed rule — but it got him consistently satisfactory exposures! And isn't that what we're all after, anyway? END. Filters (Continued from Page 225) turned the sky black also turned her dress white! And filters can do strange things to faces. For example, if you have to photograph a pretty girl with freckles, or perhaps with too deep a sun-tan, a yellow filter, or even an orange one, will improve things a lot, wiping off the freckles and lightening up the tan amazingly. On the other hand, you'd better watch the heavier filters when you're making close shots of the ladies. The same filtering action that washes out the freckles can also lighten up make-up, and especially lipstick, amazingly. And a red filter will turn the average girl's lip-make-up completely white, so that it looks as though she had no make-up at all on ! One of the most important things in filtering is consistency. The professional cinematographer never allows himself to use filters indiscriminately. Instead, he considers each scene in relation to those with which it is to be cut to make up the sequence. Therefore we seldom see a longshot heavily over-filtered, with black sky, etc., if it is to be cut in with closer shots which, by reason of the players and their facial rendition, cannot be filtered so heavily. Instead, the professional tries to figure out just how easily he can filter his close-ups, and then coordinates the filtering of the other scenes with this. However, he can and often does filter the scenes in which the people are farther from the camera more heavily than he would the closer shots. There are, of course, certain exceptions to this. For one, there is the matter of making extreme long-shots where you want to penetrate distant haze. This almost invariably demands heavy filters — usually the deeper red ones. The same is true, too, of night-effects made outdoors with filters. These depend for their effect on the overcorrected effect, and so have to be made that way. In close shots of people, special make-up is used, with the lip-rouge, particularly, of a slightly blue-red tone, so that the filteraction won't wash out the lips. The professional, when he makes night-effects, has the advantage of being able to use special infra-red sensitive film. The amateur seldom has this film available. But in either 16mm. or 8mm. night-effects can be made quite satisfactorily by using a heavy red filter and then underexposing. Even more satis 242 May, r.»r American Cinematocrapher factory night-effects can be made t combining a light red filter with a gr e one; this, in fact, is a favorite filter-c n bination of many professionals wjie making night-effects even today. "\ combination gives you the dark sky, \ yet at the same time gives a sofW effect than is possible with a red filtfl alone. In using some types of revei film which are processed with an auto matic photoelectric control you will h.v to underexpose much more for nigh effects, by the way, than you do wit films that don't have this automati compensation. Night-effects in Kodachrome, byway, are very easy: simply use Type without the usual pinkish daylight c< a pensating filter, and underexpose. If yo want deep-blue skies, simply add a Pola1 screen. There is one group of filters which th professional uses, but which are almo? unknown to the amateur, yet which ca be very useful. These are the Neut Density filters. They are colorless gra filters, which hold back light-rays of a' colors uniformly, and, being colorles have no effect whatsoever on color-rend tion. They have two uses. For one thir.g naturally, they are invaluable in control ling exposure in very bright light, o with some of today's super-fast film such as Super-XX or Agfa's Triple-.' Pan reversal film, which have spe» d! ratings of Weston 100 or more to day light. Often you will find your meter tell you that for a normal exterior shot wit! these films, the correct exposure around /:32 or smaller, and most 16mr and 8mm. camera lenses don't close t^ apertures smaller than /:16 or perhap /:22. But if you put on a 100 Xeutra Density filter, which has a factor of 1 for all films, your exposure comes up f fill. But the Neutrals are even more val uable in controlling excessive contrast and glare. They will soften extreme cent trasts in lighting and scene-brightness as, for example, shots at the beach ir, which you have a foreground of bril liantly sunlit white sand, or, for tha^l matter, white snow, rocks, concrete, or I the like, or similar glare from larg^ white walls, and so on. For this purpose and for softening the effects of contrast}! illumination, contrasty film, and the like! the Neutrals are unexcelled, and can bea of even greater service to the amateuii filmer than to his professional broth* r. Finally, remember one thing: that color-filters work well only when thej have clean colors to work on. One of tliej | most common uses of filters is in dark-! ening skies — and no filter will darken aj hazy, blue-gray sky. Neither will theyjj do it shooting too close toward the sun, I for the scattered light from the sun tends also to make the sky less clearly blue. Correct exposure, too, has a tr mendous bearing on a filter's action. Overexposure lessens the effect, while correct exposure, and exposure that is perhaps just a trifle on the low side, will accentuate it. Altitude, too, has much to do with