How to deal with contrast lighting

[AAC]

I hope there is sub-Forum discussing Video Lighting.

Anyway, I need advice to deal with contrast lighting in video.
I was shooting video in a new house with beautiful zen garden outside the living room. The house owner asked if I can showcase his zen garden on the video when my camera panning through the big sliding glass door from living room. I told him that I need to rent more lighting to light up the living room inside to balance the strong daylight of the zen garden outside. I don't know if my answer was the only solution or there are many less expensive ways suggested by your guys. In still picture, I can shoot many picture in various exposure and stack them by PS or HDR software to create a well lighting balance picture. But what can I do in video production ? It's not justified to install more lighting for 1-2 seconds of video to showcase the outdoor zen garden.

[newpball]

A (Tiffen) contrast filter perhaps?

[poisondeathray]

Lighting is going to be much less expensive than a camera that can handle that situation

You can do tone mapping in video as well, but you need the 2 shots to be perfectly matched on a mechanical rig (you can't do this hand held walking though a living room) . Again, lighting less expensive.

Some DLSR's can do this through Magic Lantern firmware with a single camera. 2 exposures are taken (one "bright", one "dark"), and they are tone mapped in software. The negatives are the frame rate is cut in 1/2 , one frame is taken for each exposure (you interpolate with software back to normal framerate to generate "inbetween" frames), and it doesn't always work perfectly. But the firmware is free, and there free and low cost tone mapping software options. If you don't already own one, you can probably borrow a Canon DSLR from a friend or rent one cheap. The problem with rentals (or friends) is they probably don't want you flashing firmware on their hardware

Or use your powers of persuasion and make up another creative shot of selling the beautiful garden outdoors. Hey... wouldn't it look better if we shot it outside ... blah blah blah

[AAC]

Thanks for good advice.
Actually the house owner gave up when adding lighting cost to this 1-2 seconds clips. Personally, I want to advance my level to deal with such situation.
I don't have DSLR for HD video, I use pro-conusmer Panny camcorder with full manual control to tape video. Contrast lighting or complicated lighting (different color temp in one shoot) always drive me crazy. Something like the kitchen is under daylight tubes but adjacent dinning room has warm halogen bulbs. When sliding camera through two area for video, lighting on footage didn't make viewers feel comfortable. How can I overcome this everyday issues ?

[poisondeathray]

Thanks for good advice.
Actually the house owner gave up when adding lighting cost to this 1-2 seconds clips. Personally, I want to advance my level to deal with such situation.
I don't have DSLR for HD video, I use pro-conusmer Panny camcorder with full manual control to tape video. Contrast lighting or complicated lighting (different color temp in one shoot) always drive me crazy. Something like the kitchen is under daylight tubes but adjacent dinning room has warm halogen bulbs. When sliding camera through two area for video, lighting on footage didn't make viewers feel comfortable. How can I overcome this everyday issues ?

In general for indoor shooting situation you usually need to control the lighting situation, and have lots of it . It's usually easier to fix it before shooting, than fixing in post.

Even if you have to change the lighting, bulbs, or use your own lighting - use your powers of persuasion that it "will look better"



But for "HDR" situations, you should look into getting a DSLR , even if only for backup. Although DSLR's have plenty of other issues, it's a really cheap and handy tool for that exact situation you faced with the nice outdoor garden. You should be able to get a used T2i for $400-500, or even less

Here are some random magic lantern examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQNR4HcfjtI

(If you're epileptic, don't watch this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t9HRT3CxMU

https://vimeo.com/53846974

[AAC]

Thanks again.
The attached Vimeo clip is exactly what I need. Too bad, I'm on Nikon camp for 15 years. Not sure if Nikon offers Magic Lantern or similar.

[poisondeathray]

nikonhacker.com offers bitrate hacks, but nothing like HDR dual exposures such as ML offers that I know of

[smrpix]

1) Shoot an HDR still and use a slight zoom in post to add some motion.

2) Add ND filtering or netting to the windows

3) Shoot at dusk or dawn and hope there's a moment of good balance.

If they want it fancier they can pay to do it right.

[poisondeathray]

1) Shoot an HDR still and use a slight zoom in post to add some motion.

This is a good idea, and another reason people carry a DSLR for backup

You can do background replacements in post with a still to "fix" problem areas in video. So you can motion track the normal video shoot, and replace the window view with the still