BLOG QUESTION ADV: GETTING THE CORRECT EXPOSURE

Explain your answers to the following questions in a detailed, long paragraph:

1. What is a gray card used for? What does it help represent?
2. What is a waveform monitor used for? How should you use it?
3. What is false color? How can it be used to determine exposure?

A gray card is used to determine what setting to use on the camera to get perfect exposure. It helps represent skin tones on camera. A waveform monitor is used to tell the exposure levels which are found on the y-plane of the monitor. the x-plane shows the exposure of what's in the frame from left to right. You can use the gray card along with the waveform to fix your exposure, as the gray card shows up as a distinct white line. Usually having that line around 40 is adequate exposure. False color is similar to a waveform, except it reads differently. It can be used to determine exposure by using colors on a scale, which each represent different exposure levels. These colors will appear on the monitor in places where the exposure is high or low, allowing you to make adjustments to fix the highlights of your image.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: F-STOPS EXPLAINED

What is the difference between the aperture and the iris? In your own words, what is an F-stop? What is the difference between each stop? Explain in detail.

The iris is the mechanism which is a circular shield with a hole that opens and closes depending on how much light you want in the camera. The aperture is the name of that hole. The F-stop numbers is the scale of numbers that tells you how much light is coming into the camera (aperture size). The F-stop scale either doubles or halves the amount of light. The smaller the aperture, the less light is being let into the camera, giving the image a Deeper Dof. The larger the aperture, the more light is being let in, giving the image a shallower DoF.

BLOG QUESTION BEG/ADV: SPRING SEMESTER GOALS

If you remember, we blogged about your goals at the beginning of the fall semester. Revisit those goals when you first enter the spring semester.
Look back at the goals that you set in the fall. Did you achieve them? Why or why not? How can you take steps or make corrections to achieve these goals? Where will you need to look to gather help or resources?

I had three goals at the beginning of the year: Submit more films to a festival, learn how to color grade on DaVinci and edit more on AE, and learn how to light. So far, I haven't completed any of these goals, but I've been working on them throughout the semester. This semester, I hope to submit my college app film to a short film festival or contribute to a project that gets submitted to a festival. I've also started editing more, going out of my comfort zone by taking on challenging projects outside of class that require me to learn more editing skills. Lastly, I'm trying to learn more about lighting, and I've only taken one skills test, but I hope to complete a lot of the lighting skills this semester.