Exteriors: does time of day play on tape?

[Kelly Wilbur]

I will be shooting exteriors in the daytime. I've never shot exteriors before so this is new for me.

The script I have calls for scenes in the morning and afternoon. The morning does not mean dawn with a rising soon...just an early morning.

My director has suggested that we might need to actually shoot the morning shots in the morning even though we don't plan on having the sun in any shot. I didn't think that the angle of light on the actors would necessarily play in the shots. In other words, with all the other adjustments that we'll most likely have to make (placing actors in shade or using reflectors, etc.) I didn't think we'd notice the original angle of light enough to tell if the shot was actually shot in the morning or not.

I wanted to get the opinions of more experienced shooters.

The question: do you have to shoot in the morning to have a convincing morning scene?

Please let me know if I can provide more information to help answer this question.

Thanks,

Kelly

[Jack Smith]

Are you talking 10 am or 6:30 am ? I don't know what your shooting and that might make a difference
The light QUALITY and temperature at 6:30 is different and I would consider difficult to reproduce.So why not shoot the early AM light (if it's 6:30)
I do some shots early just so I can get that light.
One down side is it only lasts a short time so if you have a page to do the light will change before you get much .If the light needs to be consistent through the scene it might be better to wait til later.

[Stephanie Wilson]

Hello,

Major studios may be able to recreate early morning in a studio with millions of dollars worth of lighting and effects equipment, but you can't. The sun is "god's" key light and you can't redirect that with a reflector.

Also, as the last post stated, early morning light is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT color temperature than any other time of the day. Shoot with a 5600 preset with no N.D.

If you are serious about your craft you're just gonna have to love getting up at 4am in the morning to capture a magnificent sunrise.

Good luck and perhaps you could later post your video here.

Steph

[Jay Gladwell]

What Stephanie said.

Too, be aware of color temperature. If you're not when shooting, you sure will be during the edit!

Jay

[Glenn Chan]

I think the thing about mornings is the relative color temperatures.

You have light coming from the sun, but also light coming from the sky. The relative color temperatures between the sky and the sun change throughout the day. At magic hour, there's a big difference between sunlight (very very "warm") and the light from the sky (very cool).

If the light was just one color temperature and it shifted through the day, that wouldn't be a big problem. You could white balance in the field every so often and away you'd go.

If you need to match continuity, you can deal with mixed color temperature a little bit through secondary color correction. You can apply color temp. changes to just bright parts of an image. The bright highlights are likely lit predominantly by the sun, so you are isolating mostly the sun-lit parts of the image. This is a small cheat that may let you shoot a little longer.
*Not all programs have secondary color correction.

[Stephanie Wilson]

Originally Posted by Stephanie Wilson

Also, as the last post stated, early morning light is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT color temperature than any other time of the day. Shoot with a 5600 preset with no N.D.

If you are serious about your craft you're just gonna have to love getting up at 4am in the morning to capture a magnificent sunrise.
Steph

This is alittle weird posting to my own quote.... Doing so because I think I misunderstood the original post. YES, do as Jay and Glenn suggest and white balance often to get a correct color temperature on your subjects during the early morning hours or early evening hours, for that matter.

When I suggested 5600 preset I guess I was remembering my days of trying so hard to get a decent SUNRISE on tape. Still trying actually....

Sorry for any confusion.

Steph

[Joshua Provost]

Kelly,

If you have morning and afternoon shots in the same location, you can't forget about the directionality of the sun, which will likely be opposite at those times of day, shadows going one way in the morning and the other way in the afternoon.

Will anyone notice? Maybe not. I would because I watch for lighting almost as much as I watch for story. If you get it wrong, most people won't notice. However, if you get it right, it will add to the overall production value, and, I think, subconsciously add to the experience for even uneducated viewers.

There is also no replicating the beauty of light during an actual sunrise or sunset. They don't call it the "magic hour" for nothing.

Josh

[Kelly Wilbur]

Thank you all for your continuing discussion. From what I gather, it truly WILL play on tape.

This weekend, I will shoot test shots near sunrise, in the later morning and in the early evening. I'll report back what I find.

Thanks again,

Kelly