My question to you good people is if you have two subjects equally valuable to a shot; where you start is much brighter than where you finish, how do you accomplish that?

Can you rephrase that and be more specific? The more so, the better.

Lee,
I'm assuming you mean that you're doing a pan shot, starting on subject A, and ending on subject B. If subject A is lit much brighter than subject B, then you might want to adjust the iris opening as you pan. Kind of like having a camera assistant pull focus, although this would be "pulling iris", if there is such a term. ;-)

- Ken

P.S. -- Also, you might want to investigate graduated neutral density filters. With a little ingenuity, you might be able to make use of those.

Yes, pulling iris is indeed a term. If done carefully, it can be done invisibly. I recently shot a scene that brought some characters from broad sunlight into a large interior in one long take, and even though I lit the interior as much as possible, I still had to perform an 8 stop iris pull (the entire range of the lens) over a five second interval, and it's pretty well hidden.

However, under controlled circumstances, it's better to adjust the lighting to avoid having to pull iris if possible.

Funny, I was just having a conversation with a friend who shot one of the earlier space shuttles launches on 16mm film for our national Canadian broadcaster. He had to 'pull iris' as the rockets fired at lift-off. He said he had to guess but nailed it. Not much chance of a re-shoot or yelling 'cut' on that one.

Yes, pulling iris is indeed a term. If done carefully, it can be done invisibly. I recently shot a scene that brought some characters from broad sunlight into a large interior in one long take, and even though I lit the interior as much as possible, I still had to perform an 8 stop iris pull (the entire range of the lens) over a five second interval, and it's pretty well hidden.

However, under controlled circumstances, it's better to adjust the lighting to avoid having to pull iris if possible.

i'd like to see that. you have clips? I've always wondered how "invisible" it can really be, love to see a good example.

Hi Alex:

That example will air within the next four or five weeks--it was one of the sketches on "Key & Peele". I'll try to remember to post about it if I know which episode it will be on.

That one is more visible (if you look for it) because most of the pull occurred while the camera was backing through a doorway, so you can see the exterior "heat up" outside. A much more invisible type of pull can be done while the camera is panning with actors around a corner, for instance.

OK! Finally this clip showed up online.

https://vimeo.com/channels/311011/39112696

Iris pull is around :29 to :34, from T16 to T1.4.

Lee:

Depending on your camera, you could always set it to Tv, pick your shutter speed, and let the camera take care of the aperture. I don't --LIKE-- doing that, but there are some times you have to pick the lesser of the assorted evils.

Using Tv assumes you're using a lens that interfaces with the camera's electronics. As you know, I shoot on the 5DM2 using a lot of Nikon primes, so I'm pretty much locked to doing things manually, which I'm more comfortable with anyhow. However, I have no qualms about mounting one of my EF "L" lenses, picking the focal length, and letting the exposure automation handle things --IF-- that's the only or best way to get the shot.

In the end, the audience REALLY doesn't care how you did it, as long as it looks good.

Martin

Charles,
I got a "page not found" when I tried your link.
Ken

Huh. It works for me, even when I log out of Vimeo. Anyone else try it, successfully or not?

Charles, I also got a "page not found." on your video. I'm logged in.

Not logged in, 'page not found'. I'd like to see it too thanks Charles.

Cheers.

OK, try this.

Tea Party Sweetheart on Vimeo

Thanks Charles .. whoooa! another masterclass. I watched it 1/2 dozen times to pick up all the bits, gets better each time .... just the framing, man!

Can I ask, if you pulled iris then a close buddy pulled focus?

Cheers.

Ha, well sure, I'd call my 1st AC a close buddy, why not!

I'm fortunate to have two great focus pullers on the show (we have A and B cameras fulltme) and this was a particularly tough one for Doug Oh, the A camera 1st, because we ended at such an open stop. I shoot most of the show between a 2.8 and 4 because my zooms are 2.8, but because I needed the full range of the iris on this, I used a prime and we ended up at a 1.4 for the interior portion. It's not all that apparent when you watch it, but it's pretty shallow and there's not a soft moment in there. Using the Preston FIZ Doug was able to walk alongside and judge distances with the handset while I did the iris pull from the monitors with a separate handset.

This one wasn't my favorite take for the pull--I was a touch late so the exposure at the transition is momentarily dark-- but it still looks pretty natural. The bulk of the pull happens quickly, from T16 to T4 or so, and as the characters walk from the door to where they turn the corner, I'm sliding it further open to T1.4. I had an 8x8 bounce with two Arri M18 pars lighting the entrance through the doors to a T4, and as they walk the 10 steps or so to the corner (and I take the rest of the pull), I had the grips slide a triple net up into the bounce to dial the output of the source down. The idea was to not have to make the exposure change as gradual as possible, and that two stops helped soften it a little.

Interestingly, because we went from daylight balance outside to tungsten interior (I needed to work with the existing wall sconces), I knew we would be doing a color temperature correction dissolve in post and I wanted to help soften that change also, so attached to the triple net was also a half CTO frame. I already had the HMI's corrected with half CTO, so this took the correction all the way to tungsten.

So in a nutshell: the guys walk from the outside at a T16 and 5600k, as they break the threshold I start to open the iris to a T4 (and in post, we begin to dissolve in a correction to around 4400k, the color of the HMI source) That all happens within a few seconds. As the guys progress forward, I'm opening up from T4 to T1.4, the net and gel is rising up into the source to counteract two stops and the rest of the correction down to 3200, which is being compensated for in post. It's all about softening what would otherwise be a pretty abrupt shift right at the doors.

Whew! That's a lot happening in a few seconds! But we weren't the only ones working hard at that point--the wardrobe folks were struggling to get the suit front attached to Keegan just after this. Sadly this too was not a great take for them--if you watch closely, the neck springs open at the back just after it was clipped in place by our lovely on-set dresser Wendy (the short blonde who can be just glimpsed behind Keegan doing the work). It's still a pretty neat magic trick although one of the cuffs didn't work out that well either, and there is a flash at the stairs to the stage where you can see the open back of the suit as Keegan rotates just a bit too far.

It took about 18 takes to get one that was seamless enough to use and a few options thereafter. My Steadicam operator Nick Franco killed it--not easy backing up the ramp and through the doors that quickly--and as noted, focus is bang on. A lot of people don't even realize that the shot plays out in a continuous take, which means we did our jobs.

Thanks for that Charles, a wonderful insight! I once worked in live TV and can follow what you're saying.

Do you go and participate in post, send in sheets .. or do they just know it?

Yeah 18 takes, there's a piece that goes, 'we work like blazes to make it look effortless'

And to work in a creative environment like that beats all, every-other-thing. With your comments I'm going back to look again.

Cheers.

Thankfully our schedule is such on Key and Peele that by the time the episodes go to color correction we are months out of shooting. Thus I am able to attend the color correction, which is important because every sketch has a different look and requires a different approach in post. Peter Atencio, the director, is also very hands on with color correction and between the two of us we puzzle through the looks.

This season we will be dialing in LUT's on-set via LiveGrade from the looks of it, which will get ported through dailies and into the Davinci as a starting point.

Great work by a master(s).