The Interview With the Window Behind the Subject
A 3 pm interview takes place in a west-facing office with a large window directly behind the subject and white walls. The camera runs 1080/25p at 1/50 s, ISO 800, f/2.8, with zebras set at 70%. The subject has medium skin and wears a white shirt and dark blazer. The window is 3 m behind the subject and shows a bright street. Available lighting is two 3200 K 60 W LED panels with barndoors and one 5600 K battery light. There is no ND filter for the lens, but the camera has built-in ND. The producer wants a warm, natural look with shallow depth of field. The shirt reads 109 IRE on the waveform, and the face is underexposed against the window.
1. Give your exposure plan. Include zebra settings, ND choice and the 8-bit constraint.
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The shirt at 109 IRE is clipped; the face is underexposed because the meter is reacting to the window. Expose for the face, then protect the shirt.
Set zebras to 95–100% for the shirt and use a second check at 70% for medium skin, which should sit roughly 65–75 IRE. With ISO 800 and f/2.8 fixed for shallow depth of field, engage built-in ND (about 0.6, two stops) and add light on the face rather than opening up. If the face is still too dark relative to the window, bring the key closer or use the 5600 K battery light as a key, then re-check the shirt. Aim for the shirt peaking at 95–100 IRE, never above 100.
The camera is 8-bit 4:2:0, so there is little room to recover highlights. Do not 'expose to the right' until the shirt clips; keep skin in the upper midtones and let the street outside blow if necessary. Use a waveform rather than the LCD, and record a short test clip to check the grade before the interview starts.
2. Describe how you balance the 3200 K panels, the 5600 K daylight and the 5600 K battery light. Give two viable options and say which you choose.
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Option A: set the camera to 5600 K and gel both 3200 K panels with full CTB. That makes all sources nominally daylight, but full CTB costs roughly 1.5–2 stops, so 60 W panels become weak. Use the 5600 K battery light as the key and the gelled panels as fill or rim. This is the cleanest match if the panels are close enough to the subject.
Option B: set the camera to 3200 K and gel the window with CTO, or close the blinds and treat the window as a blue background. Use the 3200 K panels as key and fill and gel the 5600 K battery light with CTO for a backlight. This preserves panel output but requires a large gel on the window or losing the view.
A third compromise, camera at about 4300 K with half-CTB on the panels, is possible but leaves the face slightly warm and the window slightly cool. I would choose Option A if the panels can be placed within 2 m of the subject; otherwise Option B. Whichever I choose, I white-balance on a grey card and keep mixed colour temperatures off the face.
3. The window is directly behind the subject. Propose a revised lighting and composition layout that keeps the window visible but avoids a silhouette and blown highlights.
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Do not leave the subject with the window as a backlight unless it is controlled. Turn the setup about 90° so the window becomes a side key from camera-left, and place the subject about 1.5 m from the back wall. Put the 3200 K key at 45° camera-left, just off the window axis, and the fill at camera-right at about half the key intensity. Use the 5600 K battery light, gelled to match, as a backlight or edge light on the hair and shoulder. Use negative fill on the camera-right side if the white walls make the face too flat.
If the window must stay in frame behind the subject, ND-gel or curtain it down by 2–3 stops, expose for the face, and add a strong key and backlight so the subject separates from the background. Compose the subject on a third, not centred against the window frame, and keep the bright street as negative space rather than a distracting hotspot. Check the histogram and waveform again after moving the lights.