Voice and Vision: A Creative Approach to Narrative Film and DV Production

CHAPTER 14

Lighting and Exposure: Beyond the Basics

Now that you are familiar with the fundamental concepts and techniques of exposure and lighting, which are applied everyday on every movie set, we can turn our attention to slightly more intricate issues related to image control and interpretation through light. We need to look a little closer at how the film stock, or the CCD chip itself, actually responds to the various light values in a scene, beyond just its general sensitivity (i.e., exposure index). Two additional concepts are essential to a more advanced understanding of lighting and exposure for both film and DV: contrast range and latitude.

  CONTRAST RANGE AND LATITUDE

Contrast range (also called luminance range) is the difference ...