Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 10.4. (top, left) An overexposed image. Notice how the highlights are burned out — they have no detail.Figure 10.5. (below, left): The same image “fixed” — it’s better, but the highlights are still burned out. There is noprocess that can bring back burned-out highlights; that information is lost forever.Figure 10.6. (top, right) An underexposed image.Figure 10.7. (below, right) The underexposed image “fixed,” almost back to normal but very grainy and flat.We’ll Fix It in PostOne thing you will hear sometimes, especially on a set is “don’tworry, we’ll fix it in post.” There is nothing wrong with making animage better in postproduction: there are many incredible tools youcan use to improve the look of your footage. What you don’t wantto do is take the attitude that you can be sloppy and careless on theset because “everything can be fixed in post.” It’s simply not true.When it comes to exposure, fixing it in post generally means scramblingto come up with an image that is merely acceptable.Improving or fine-tuning an image in post is a part of the process.It always has been, but now with all the great digital tools we haveavailable (including things we can do in post-production on filmprojects), we have even wider latitude to adjust the image. However,this is not to be confused with “fixing” a mistake, which almostnever results in a better image.Whether we shoot film or video, we always make some adjustmentsin the post-production process, slight changes in color andexposure. Mostly this is done to ensure consistency within a sceneand consistency across the whole project. The key to this is that theyare slight adjustments. If you start trying to repair problems causedby mistakes made during shooting, there are almost always negativeconsequences. Here are some examples: Figure 10.4 is a badly overexposedimage and Figure 10.6 is a badly underexposed image.Once you “fix” the overexposed frame, some parts of it (the middletones and shadows) are OK, but what is still not good are the highlights— they are still blown out, they have no detail, no tone, nocolor. Fixing the underexposed frame is different: the highlights areOK, but in the shadows there is a huge amount of video noise. Thisone was fixed digitally; on film the result would be similar, except infilm it is increased film grain. In the “fixed” underexposed frame, it’sflat and dull and low in contrast and the color is flat.cinematography184