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136
EXPOSURE IS
AN ESTIMATE
FIG. 1: Boat in background is chief subject, but dark foreground will drag down meter reading. Correct exposure (C.E.) would be f/10.
F.d m
<^=E$
FIG. 2: Ideal density range for color film is shown above, with only one stop gap between bright and dark elements.
EARL L. CLARK
Director, Associated Screen Studios
THE great bogey of all cameramen is consistent exposure. The still man can compensate for his errors in developing and printing. But the motion picture cameraman, especially when working in color, is denied the aid of print correction or latitude in his film stock. He must be right — or be off color!
Surprisingly, exposure error is not confined to beginning amateurs. Many professional and amateur cameramen of considerable experience are guilty of faulty estimates. What is the reason for this apparent inability to be consistent? The answer is threefold.
First, the excessive reliance of many present day filmers upon a meter as a cure-all for all exposure conditions. Sometimes it is physically impossible to use a meter correctly due to terrain and position. In Fig. 1, note how impossible it is to approach the principal subject matter, the boat, for a reading. Yet, from camera position, the dark foreground is obviously falsifying the correct scene exposure.
But, for the most part, the meter is not essentially wrong; it is the human element which fails. Since a meter possesses neither brain nor experience, the cameraman must supply both. He must remember that a meter does faithfully the job for which it was designed — the job of averaging all the light intensity appearing within its range. Further, and perhaps more important, the cameraman must realize that this averaging feature is not always desirable.
The second reason for exposure inconsistency is the failure of cameramen to compose scenes that will make good exposures possible. Color film, at best, has a satisfactory density range of about 4 to 1, or two stops between the brightest and darkest elements in a scene. Note
FIG. 3: Shadows from cross or back lighting tend to balance meter readings on brilliant subjects like snow or sand and are a necessary part of good lighting composition.
FIG. 4: Scenes over water, widely affected by graduating density of sky reflections, should be exposed for principal subject. Here visual scale of comparative values helps.