American cinematographer (Nov 1936)

460 American Cinematographer • November, 1936 Frank B. Cood, A.S.C. reading from him than I was receiving from the other male characters under the same condition. The reading was about the same as I got from the women's faces using make-up. This gave me my cue. I lit him the same as I lit the women and our ghost disappeared. This is possibly an exceptional case as most players are made up and the photographic qualities of each are the same However, another incident that showed me the value of a meter was a set up that took in the sky, two straw stacks and people betweeen the stacks. My sky reading was f: 1 6; the straw stacks read f:22 and between the stacks people called for f:14. I wanted to bring my sky down with a filter, but couldn't do that very well when my reading for the people was lower. To offset these two readings I used more reflectors on the people to bring them up to f:l6. The straw stacks were unimport- ant excepting as to atmosphere. I had another instance where the meter helped me ba - once my light. All of the shooting was done in a heavily wooded location. I was using reflectors to relay light to the scene and the people. The day was cloudy and or long periods the sun would not come out; this called tor booster lights. Here was the condition. One scene in the same sequence, and in the same set, was with daylig and reflected daylight, the next might be with booster Using Photo M U SING THE PHOTO meter to balance light has be- come one of the major duties of my meter. Right exposure has always been the main purpose and to some people the only use to which a photo meter could be put. It is natural, that if one can secure the right exposure reading he can also secure the right lighting balance with the use of these instruments. I have had a number of cases where it was absolutely essential to balance lights, because of freak conditions, by the meter. This holds true whether you are working on exteriors or interi- ors. Let's say you have a reading of f:3.5 on one portion of the set; your people read f:2 and some of the light bits of decoration go as high as f:5.6. It's a simple mat- ter with the meter to change lights until you secure the proper balance, or if you are looking for high lights and shadows to work them out correctly with the meter. Much more valuable, however, is the meter in reading people. The stars of the picture are the key to the pro- duction, of course; from this central reading we must bal- ance the rest of our lighting. One of the characters in a recent George O'Brien pic- ture was being "burned up." He would photograph chalky white. He walked through a scene like a ghost . . . you'd spot him every time. George O'Brien does not use make-up which means no other male character in his picture can use make-up. This rule must be enforced or the photographic quality of all other men compared to O'Brien would be too con- trasty. This particular "ghost" character was being lighted the same as all the other players, so I decided to study his face. I used my meter and secured a much different eter to Balance Set Lighting by Frank B.Good, A.S.C. lights. This is a condition that would give almost any di- rector of cinematography heart failure and make him wonder if anything were coming out right. I used the meter for every shot and when I checked with the labora- tory there was not 3 points difference in the printing light of any of the scenes. Death Valley has proved a fooler to many. Here's what my record shows for some shooting we did there recently. At 9 A.M. my light was f:20: at 3:30 P.M. between f:6 and f:6.3 and at 5:30 P.M. between f:4 and f:4.5. I shot at those ratings and my negative was okay. Sometime ago at the ocean the meter reading gave me f:6.3. The sun was shining: in fact, it was the typical clear day. Others on the camera shook their heads when I asked that the lens be set at f:6.3. They wanted to shoot down to f:22. To convince them, I had them make a hand test; f:6.3 was perfect, f:22 was burnt up. I never take my readings from the camera. The meter Continued on page 469