Shooting scenes with drastically different exposures

[grd]

Hello,

I am very new to video (been a RAW still photo shooter for years, however) and am having difficulty with scenes that are shot in one take and have drastically different lighting from origin to end point.
For example- tilting from ground level on land (fairly dark) to a well-lit body of water.

I expose for the ground by force of habit as that (in this example) is the origin of the shot.
Of course, by the time the tilt has completed and the camera is recording the water/sky portion-we're very blown out due to the ambient light levels.

What are techniques that RAW shooters use to either take or process the MLVs so there is an even transition?

My basic workflow is as follows:
1. Shoot.
2. Process with MLV app to Cinema DNG files
3. Create RAW sequence in After Effects
4. Export to .MOV/Apple ProRes422 HQ
5. Import into Premiere Pro CC and do whatever else.

Kind of feel like this is probably a very novice question or could be "common sense" but can't seem to wrap my head around a good way to pull these types of shots off.
Thanks!

-Grant

[Kharak]

ETTR for the brightest part of your tilt shot. If that will make the darkest part of the shot underexposed  then you need to light or perhaps try DUAL iso.

And depending on your post-process you might be eliminating a lot of the DR of your files by converting to prores.

[zalbnrum]

This is how I do it, but there is many proper ways, since this is not strictly technical, but also creative choice.

I use Resolve and learned what I can do with cDNG's in different color spaces. Getting friendly with Resolve color management and getting to know ACES lately.

You can recover some detail in highlights with Resolve's highlight recovery option in Camera RAW. Sometimes you can get color artifacts but there are workarounds.

So, during the take, you have to know what you can do in post, for me it is a simple rule. If it is well lit, eg daylight scene, than you can preserve highlights and in post lift shadows with much success, if it is a night scene it is good to watch for shadows, lifting causes noise if you don't have good noise reduction, eg Resolve Studio. That way you can "fake" more dynamic range, or use the whole of it. I ve seen many videos using Dual ISO that don't use all of its potential with lifting shadows in post, so there is actually no extra DR visible in final video heh. Of course lifting exposure is also needed to some extend, but people go too crazy and blow out everything, or on other hand underexpose it all. There is a fine line of lets say full potential of these cameras, since 5DIII has around 11 stops in crop mode. That's the main reason I cant wait for 5DIV ML, it has DR 13.6 in photo mode, so video should come close. Those extra stops help alot and 14-11...8 bit RAW is supercool in post.

It is common practice if using cinema or older manual lens that are decklicked, so you can smoothly close aperture during the take. They do it on pro level too, especially when changing indoors to outdoors, or sometimes leave it to blow, if its a creative decision.

With practice you will come to your own rules that apply to your own camera and post workflow.

I dont know why people are using anything else than Resolve. It is free and have it all. Just convert to cDNG lossless with MLV App (the best) and then all of the post in Resolve 15. Suits me the best. Adobe was just a pain in the ass with all of the round-trips and all of the hassle. pff

[mothaibaphoto]

Hello,
I am very new to video (been a RAW still photo shooter for years, however) and am having difficulty with scenes that are shot in one take and have drastically different lighting from origin to end point.

1. Use Canon's autoISO with compensation according to RAW histogram(For me +1.3 works good in any scene).
2. Use David Milligan's bridge script or any other deflicker software to compensate exposure shifts.
3. Bingo!!!
IT would be great if Auto ETTR keeps working during take. RAW histogram keeps updating, though...

[grd]

All- thank you very much for these suggestions!
Am in the midst of experimenting with Dual ISO (Kharak) and will certainly take into account the suggestions for shooting/planning (zalbnrum) and the exposure comp+bridge script for post (mothaibaphoto).

I really appreciate the time you all put in responding and giving helpful suggestions.
What a nice community!

-Grant

[mothaibaphoto]

I think this thread is the best place to keep notes on shooting with Canon's AutoISO.
Reminder: Currently Canon's AutoISO is the ONLY way to shoot RAW video scenes with drastically changing exposure over time during one shot, if you want camera exposure changes too.
All the information hereafter relevant to magiclantern-crop_rec_4k.2018Jul22.5D3113 build.
Preparation: Need to put camera in Av or Tv mode, ISO Auto, of course.
Disable "Exposure Override" and "Small hacks".
Use RAW histogram and/or RAW zebras to evaluate exposure, use exposure compensation to manually ETTR scene.
Usually, +1.3-+2.0, depends on the Dynamic Range of the scene.
Shoot 14 bit, lower bit-depths confuses AutoISO.
Camera disables AutoISO at all at x5/x10 zoom, so no 3.5K crop mode  
Often, not only exposure, but DR changes drastically too.
For example, you want to shoot the sunset, than the promising look of your girl holding your hand attracting you towards the sun
Use more conservative settings(less compensation) in such scenes.
Postproduction. If you shoot timelapses, use the same deflickering workflow to compensate exposure shifts.
Alternatively, it's possible to manually compensate in Resolve with keyframes and primaries wheels (keyframes not affect Camera RAW settings, no easy way to change exposure during one clip). Or, cut the clip into several ones.
Regarding bit-depth and zoom modes limitation: It's possibly no way to get AutoISO working correctly with redused bit depths.
But, maybe it's possible to enable AutoISO at zoom modes?
Moreover, I remember discussion about AutoISO with exposure compensation in M mode.
That will be the best option to shoot this way...