How Cinematographers Set Perfect Exposure for Cinematic Results

Learn how cinematographers set exposure - from understanding dynamic range and latitude to using a light meter, Emmy-winning cinematographer, Jason Tomaric reveals how the pros do it on Hollywood sets.
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[@AthanCondax]

There's something incredibly approachable about Jason's on-screen delivery. The content is top notch, and every single video I've seen here on YT has been a goldmine of info and production value. This channel is gonna blow up and I'd seriously consider enrolling if I were to ever consider making content at a professional level.

[@FilmSkills]

Thanks so much for the kind words - I really appreciate it :)

[@ajithKumar-yd2tr]

@FilmSkills, I have a doubt on the last part of the video. The reflective reading of her skin is f8 2/3. And the gray card reading is giving f 11.5. From my understanding of f-stops and meter readings I see the light reflected from grey card seems to be brighter than the skin. In that case you should be reducing 2/3 stop from the skin reading right ? Help me understand this. I am a beginner and trying to understand this stuff.

[@SevenSpringsStudios]

Absolutely the best explanation I’ve seen on exposure :) Many thanks :)

[@erikolson7080]

Good stuff, Jason. Proper exposure can be achieved using this, and numerous other approaches. Many may say, "well, my camera has zebras, or false color" and so forth; questioning the need to utilize a light meter. Understanding this core skill becomes so very important in pre-lighting sets, where cameras with taking lenses (and their now inherent exposure tools) may not be available at the time the lighting and grip are being rigged. Having levels (including choice of fixture types / grip modifiers for lighing the set) roughly where they need to be in pre-rig, saves time when the company and talent are there, with relatively minor tweaking necessary to get usable shots.

[@MaheshPatra-hi6ic]

What I have learned that in many situations you neither can change your aperture after a certain f stop because of the desired depth of field nor the shutter speed / angle because of the motion and your iso on slog is set minimum at 800 ( native ISO).. so you can’t go below that number as well. Say suppose my talents grey scale reading tells me an aperture of 8 or 8 + 2/3 but.. it is not suitable for me to keep that f stop since I need to treat the frame in given mood and I have to keep the aperture as shallow as possible keeping the treatment and my storytelling style… only gaffers craftsmanship can save you. You need to bring down the intensity of the light ( key light ) use diffuser or if it’s LED you can control it going inside the panel setting of the Light..

[@terencedesilva2403]

Valuable tips ... love the presentation

[@DatrysiadMedia]

I dont have a spot meter but do have the seconic l-358 if I rotate the disc I check the surface reflectiveness. So I just tried this and the grey card was f4 and my skin was f4.5 so I'm assuming if I meter at 4 I need to open up by .5 to expose right. Will try this tonight see how the footage is as I've been using the incident meter and its been working great but this little nugget of info is really helping me understand. I always feel my skin tones are a touch under exposed and this could be why.

[@ricosrya]

8:04 "so you OPEN UP the aperture", it means I have to set my aperture at f5.6 or f6.3 to get the skin expose properly. correct me if I'm wrong.

[@ianharper6015]

Very clear, very informative and very helpful. Thank you.

[@vinloc3854]

Film Skillz thank you so much for the videos you've posted on youtube

[@graphikeye]

This is nice to know but do pros actually do this every time with the gray card and all? What is a realistic workflow

[@FilmSkills]

No, as a professional cinematographer I rely on other tools for exposure such as false color and waveform monitors. I use a light meter to measure contrast ratios on set, for example the brightness of light on one side of an actors face compared to the other side. It is critical to understand how middle gray works however because it is the basis of exposure for both film and digital cameras. For example, metering an object with your light meter then setting the aperture to that exposure produces a illuminance value of 50 IRE on a waveform monitor. You can then add light or remove light to the desired look, provided you do it within the dynamic range of the camera’s sensor. I produced an entire series about this process as it’s too complex to explain in one single video. This is part of a bigger series.

[@bvangfilm]

Thank you so much!!! So truly appreciate this!!

[@5by5communications9]

Thanks again for this lesson. I had a question because I noticed you use an fs5 and a sekonic l758. I have the l858. Do you find that the fs5 sensor registers different than the light meter readings? For example an f4 on my camera will read about f2.8 on the meter. My solution is to exposure compensate the meter to match the camera sensor. Can you comment on that? Thanks again.

[@FilmSkills]

It sounds like you may need to get your light meter calibrated. While it's not uncommon for there to be a 1/3 f-stop variation or so, a full f-stop is too big a discrepancy. I will often light the set and the actors with my light meter, because I use it to measure lighting ratios of different objects on set. The calibration to the camera doesn't matter as much so long as you use the same light meter on set. To set the actual exposure on the camera, I prefer to use either a waveform monitor or false color, which is a dead-accurate reading of the image itself, after it's been processed by the imaging sensor.

[@alloneword154]

This was incredible

[@kristicifci5389]

How to shoot moody shots on dark or raining shots

[@alekseev4715]

Sorry, I’m struggling with the last part.. So, her skin tone is 8.6, you set your aperture to that and it’s too dark. The spydr chekr neutral grey is 11.5 - there is a 2/3 stop difference. But if you now close your aperture further down to to 11.5 (since that is your on set neutral grey), would she not be even darker than before?

[@FilmSkills]

I don't understand how you're measuring this. Are you taking screen brightness measurements from the video to determine these brightness values?

[@alekseev4715]

@@FilmSkills oh wow, you replied) Ahaha, no, sorry - my decimals must be confusing - I’m just used to the Sekonic’s display: You measured her skin tone to be 8-and-2/3 t-stop and the spydr checkr grey card to be 11-and-a-half t-stop. That is what I meant by (8.6 and 11.5).

[@markcinelast]

I think i get the question and Im curiuos about it, she mean to say is the fstop 11 will make less light than f8 so the exposure will be dark. i don know if i understand the lesson but i tying to figure it out, thanks

[@byronchang4330]

@@FilmSkills yeah i am also confused too. If you open up 2/3 of a stop from a t8.6, shouldn't the aperture be around t7.1 instead of t11.5?

[@FilmSkills]

OK - let me explain this. When you take a light meter reading of an object, then you set the aperture to that same reading, the object you metered will appear at 18% middle grey. So in my example, my meter reading of Karolina is f8 2/3. So if I set by aperture to f8 2/3, her skin will appear to be middle great, which is too dark. So what I did is metered the DIFFERENCE between the grey card and Karolina's skin. The difference is a little over 2/3 of an f-stop, telling me that Karolina's skin tones are 2/3 f an f-stop BRIGHTER than the grey card. So when I'm determining the aperture setting, I will ADD 2/3 an f-stop to my light meter reading. Instead of setting the aperture to an f8 2/3, I will actually set it to an f8. That will brighten Karolina's skin tones and accurately represent it on screen. I think where the confusion comes in is that I didn't specifically say that the final aperture is set to an f8 in this segment of the video. Hope this helps!

[@JosesGarage101]

Hi! Tell me this. How come that 2 different cameras gives 2 different exposure with exact the same settings??, my face was 2-3 stop overexposed by the Canon G16 powershot and the Nikon d800 full frame it was perfect exposed. Does sensor size matter when you measure light?

[@FilmSkills]

You need to check the native ISO, which may be different for each camera. For example, in dual ISO cameras, you can choose from either 800 ISO or 3200 ISO to deliver the optimal image, depending on the amount of light on set. Other factors that can cause this discrepancy include: different log curves, different baked-in LUTs, the speed of the lens, and sensor size.

[@ShahidMalik-pf6hm]

very informative

[@cresramos]

Thanks so much for the information

[@sachinjadhav9972]

very nice and thanks.

[@fowankoaugustinenfornansi9734]

Thank you

[@englishforsrilanka2535]

Fantastic work!

[@pradeepkbalan5019]

Very useful video ❤️

[@Lonelyeco]

Great tutorials

[@braveclyde]

Instead of reading exposure of her face and of the grey card and then calculating the difference, can I just expose for the grey card as she holds it in front of her face?

[@FilmSkills]

You could, but her skin tones are brighter than the gray card, so her face will look too dark on screen.

[@braveclyde]

@@FilmSkills Thanks! If I expose the grey card at 42IRE (as Panasonic suggests for their VLog-L) but using the camera's built-in waveform to get proper exposure level, and then I remove the grey card, her face will look too dark? Or is this different from using a light meter. I've never used a light meter before. Just a waveform and just recently, false color.

[@FilmSkills]

You are talking about different techniques to measure light. Light meters, false color, and waveform monitors work differently. Grey cards are used for light meters. So you don’t need a grey card if you’re using false color or a waveform monitor.

[@FilmQi]

Nice Video!

[@satish8889]

Fantastic

[@haroldmorganTulsa]

Is this obsolete when I use false color in camera?

[@FilmSkills]

It's not obsolete at all. Whereas false color is excellent tool to gauge exposure of a shot (and one I use all the time), it doesn't factor in other camera functions. By understanding f-stops, you can easily determine how shutter speed, ASA, ND filters, and the brightness of lights influence each other. This allows you to solve problems on set and determine not only the optimal exposure, but the optimal camera settings to get as clean an image as possible.

[@othmanaouinait7598]

please how to know the real iso of my camera and its real dynamique rang

[@johnnyweissmuller5838]

Google it! Whats your camera?

[@nilsen5109]

🤯 seriously

[@sf-mediafilm1784]

👍