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f/ 1.4
f/ 4
fi ll
fl22
6.1 . (previous page) The basics
of exposure: a source and a light
meter. {Photo by author.}
6.2. (above) The aperture at vari+
OUS flstops.
ci nematography
104
LIGHT AS ENERGY
Energy from the Sun comes 10 the Earth in \ isible and invisible por-
ti ons of the electromagnetic spectrum. Iluman eyes are to
a small portion or thaI spectrum that includes the \isiblc from
the longest visible wavelengths of light (Red) to the shortt.:sl \\a\ c-
lengths (Blue).
Intensity of light is measured in foot-candles (in the United States)
or in lux (in most other countri es). A luot-eandle (fc) equals about
10.08 lux (or. for a rough convcrsion. ll1ultiply foot-candles by 10
to get lux). A foot-candle is thc light from a standard eandlc at a di,-
tance of one fool. One lux is the illumination produced by one stan-
dard candl e from a distance of I meter. When a film is e'posed for
1 second to a standard candle I meIer distance. it receives I lux-sec
of exposure. What's a swndard candle'! It"s like the standard horse
in horse-power. To provide some points of reference:
Sunlight on an average day range, rrom 32.000 to 100.000
lux (3.175 to 10.000 fc)
Typical TV stud ios arc lit at about 1.000 lux (99 rc)
A bright office ha> about 400 lu\ of illumination (-10 Ie )
Moonlight represel1l s about I lu\ ( a tenth of H fuot-candle)
The f/5top is covered in more detail in the chapter on Opric.\" . but
ror Ollr di scli ss ion here it is important to kno\\ hO\,\ it fils into the
exposure system. Fstop and lighting calculations apply equall) to
bot h f"i lrn and all forms of video as much of the information in
this chaptcr.
F/ STOP
Most lenses have a means of controlling the amount of" light they
pass through 10 the film or video receptor; this is call ed the aperture.
The I' SlOp is the mathemati cal relationship of overall sile of the lens
to the size of the aperture.
Stop is a short term lur f/stop. A SlOP is a lInit of light measure-
ment. An increase in the amount of light by one SlOp thl.!fl.!
is twice as much light. A decrease of one stop means there is half
as much lighl. A lens with an flslOp of 1.0 would theoreti call y pass
all or the light reaching through to the focal plane. The I' SlOp is the
ratio or the focal length of a lens to the diameler of the el1lmnce
pupil as shown in Figure 6.2. This works out to each stop being
greatcr than the previous by the square root of 2.
F'stop is dcri \'ed from the si mpl e formula:
1' = F' D
r stop = focal length/diameter of kns opening
I r the brightest point in the scene has 128 tiJ11 t:s morc luminance
than the darkest poim (se\ en Ihel1 we SHY it a sc\'en stop
scene.! brightness ralio.
EXPOSURE, ISO AND LIGHTING RELATIONSHIPS
The units \\ c deal with in exposure arc:
F stops
ASA. ISO or EI (dinercnt names luI' the ,ame thing)
Foot-candles or lux
Output ofsourccs as alTected by distance
Reflectance of objects
It turns out that all of" these can be arranged in
Tiley all lollow the same basic mathematical pHllern. The data in
these tables was compiled by "Vade Ramsey. Remember thai r .... lOp
l1uJ1lbcr!o! arc fractions. the relationship of the aperture c..lial11t'ter III
Ihe focnl Ienglh orthc lens, For exampl e. 1' /8 reall y means 1/8: Ihe
diameter is I X Ihe foca l length, FI II is 111 1, whi ch is obviously a
!-l lllalicr fraction than I 8. Each lime we opclllhc apel1urc Olle whole
r slOp lie doubl e Ihe quanlit y of lighl reaching Ihe Aim: cach lime
we close it one we halve the light reaching the film.
The I' stop ,calc (Table 6, I) is li ered 10 show that the same relalion-
ship, Ihal appl y to whole I' numbers. such as f/8 and fil l , appl y 10
intcnals between them. So the difference between f/9 and f/ 13 is
one II hole SlOp. etc, Modern digital meters measure in 1I I0ths ofa
, lOp, This is helpful for eaiculali ons and compari sons, bUI for mOSI
prac lieal purposes. thi s level of accuracy is notnecessaty. One third
or a SlOP is the practi cal limit or precision. given the vagaries of
opti cs. lab chemistry and telecinc transfer. This is not to say that
accuraLe exposure is not important. onl y that the degree of precision
in the overa ll process has limits.
LIGHTING SOURCE DISTANCE
The rstop scale applies to Ihe inverse square law of illumination,
in illumination due to distance with small sources foll ov,1
Ihis scale (Table 6,2), For example. i I' the lamp is II feel from Ihe
subj ccl. 1110\ ing it to 8 feet will increase the subject illumination by
I stop,just as opening the lens diaphragm from fi ll to f/8 would do.
The inverse square 1m\' applies to point sources. stri ctl y speaking.
bUI spotlighls fo ll ow it \\'ell althe di slances usuall y utili zed,
INVERSE SQUARE LAW AND COSINE LAW
Simi larly: a gi\cn output at a ccrtain di stance: say 1.000 l'c at 10 feel.
can be used 10 calculate Ihe outpul at other di stances by di, iding by
the distancc squared. Thi s is the inverse square law in appli cation
(Tabl e 6, I).
Figure 6.3 illustratl.!s the inverse square law graphicall y. A similar
principle is the cosi ne law ( Figure 6.4). As a surface is turned away
from the source. less of the surface is "visibl e" to the source and
therefore there is less c'<posure. Mathcmatieall y, the decrease ill
exposure is equal to the cosine orlhe angle of til e surface so this is
call ed the la\\-.
ISO SPEEDS
Since one-third 'ltop is the minimum exposure dirTercnce detectable
by Ihe unaided eye (I'or mOSI negati ve stocks), film sensi ti vi lY is
rated in no finer increment s than this. This scale is ti ered to make the
relat ionships between intervals more easil y seen. Just as ISO 200 is
I stop rasler Ihan ISO 100, so ISO 320 is I stop faster Ihan ISO 160.
(Table 6.3),
Although this is ob\ ious. memorizi ng thi s scale makes it easier to
sec Ihc difTerences bel ween odd interval s. such as ISO 80 10 ISO
32 (I- I 3 SlOpS,) The scaic may be expanded in eit her direcl ion by
adding or subtJ"acling digits (the intcf\ als below 6 arc 5. 4. 3. 2.5, 1.
1.6. j usl as Ihe inlervals below 64 are 50, 40. 32, 25.20, and 16.
LIGHTING SOURCE DISTANCE
DISTANCE IN Ft. 64' SO' 40' 32' 2S' 20' 16' 12' 10'
F/Stop 4 4.5 5 S,6 6 7 8 9 10
Light 2048x 1024x SI2x 2S6X 128X 64x 32X 16X
F/Stops
1/3
Stops
1
1.1
1.4
1.31
1.6
2 2.8
2,2 3.2
1.8 25
4 5.6 8 11
45 6 9 13
3,6 5 7 10
/I
j\
I \
LJ
,,1\
11
1
" ,
6.3. (top) The inverse square law. This
is important not only to understand
ing expsoure measurement, but to
lighting as well.
6.4. (above) The cosine law: how the
angle of the subj ect affects its expo
sure level.
Table 6.1. (left) Lighting source dis-
tance and exposure.
Table 6.2. (belowl Ught level s and
exposure. "X" represents a given
amount of light - each step to the
left doubles the amount of light at
the subject.
8x 4X
16 22
18 25
14 20
32
29
2X x
45
36
40
exposure
10S
6 12 25
8 16
10 20
5l
t lOO + 200 400 800
125 -r-- 250 500 Tl000
80 16or--- 320 640 T 1250
__ 64
40
Table 6.3. ISO or ASA in one-third
stop increments. The same series
can be interpreted as percentage of
reflecti on or shutter speeds.
FOOl-candies: The ISO scalc can also be appli ed 10 fool-candi es.
Doubling Ihe fOOl -candi es doubles Ihe exposure. The Ihird-slOp int er-
\ als give the intermedi ate Ie values. For example. the di fTcrl: l1 cc
belween 32 fc and 160 fe is 2 113 SlOpS.
Percentage of RcReclion: The ISO scale from 100 on do\\ n rcl al es
to percentage of reflection. For exampl e. ISO 100 can represent
100%. pure whil e. Other reAcclanccs, stich as 64% and 20
o
u. can
Ihen be seen 10 be. respecli ve ly. 2/3 SlOp and 2- 1/3 SlOPS darker Ihan
pure while (Table 6.4).
Shuller speeds: Referring 10 Ihe ISO scale, il can be seen Ihal . for
example. 11320 sec. is 1-2/3 SlOpS fa sler Ihan 1/ 100 sec. This can bc
helpful when unusual combinati ons of shultcr angle and frame rate
produce odd encclive shull er speeds.
LI GHT AND FILM
It is the energy in each photon ofl ight that causes a chemical change
10 Ihe pholOgraphic deleelors Ihal are coaled on Ihe film. The pro-
cess whereby electromagneti c energy causes chemical changes to
maHer is known as photochemistry.
All film is coalCd onlO a base: a Iransparelli plaslic malerial (cellu-
loi d) Ihal is 4 10 7 Iholl sandlhs of an inch (0.025mm) Ihick. OIli O Ihe
base. Ihe emulsion is adhered where Ihe pholOchemi slry happens.
There may be 20 or more individual layers coaled here Ihal arc col-
lect ively less than one- thousandth of an inch in thi ckness. of
the layers coated on the transparent film do not form images. They
are th ere to filler light. or to control the chemi cal reacti ons in the pro-
cessing steps. The imagi ng layers contain sub-micron si/cd grains
of si lver halide crystals that act as the photon detectors.
These cryslal s arc Ihe hear! of pholographic f-i 1m. These cry>!a b
undergo a photochemical rC<lcti on \vhen they are exposed to vari-
Oli S forms of electromagneti c radiat ion - light. In addition to vis-
ible li ght. the silver halide grains can be sensitized to infrared radia-
tion. A halide is a chemical compound ora halogen (any or a group
of five chemi cally relaled nonmelallic elemellis including flll orine.
chlorine. bromine. iodine. and astatine) witll a more
clement or group. in thi s case sil ver. Sil ver halide grains arc manu-
factured by combining silver nitrate and halide sall s (chl oride. bro-
mide. and iodide) in complex ways that result in a rangc of crystal
sizes. shapes. and compositions.
The unmodified grains are on ly sensitive to the bluc part of the
spectrul11, and thus are not VCI)' useful in camera fi lm. Spectral
sitizers are added to the of the grai ns to make til (.; m morc
sensiti ve to bille. green and red li ght. (Remember. "cre talking
Table 6.4. The relati onship of f!stops about black-and-white fi 1m here.) These molecules must attach to
and refl ectance. the grain surface and transfer the energy from a red. green. or blue
F/STOPS
REFLECTANCE
Cinematography
106
100%
1-, 13 - 2/3
80%
164%
., _1 1/]
-1 2/]
50%
40%
32%
2
_2 1fl
-3
-3
113
1_3 Ul
4
-4 1/]
25% 12% I 6%
20% 10%
16% 8%
photon to the ,ih er ha lide elystal a, a phot o electron. Other chemi -
cals arc added internally to the grain during it s gro\\ th proct!ss. or
0 11 the surfm:c of the grai n. These chemi cals affect the li ght sensi ti v-
i t) of the grain. abo knO\\ 11 as its speed that is. how to
l ight it
The speed or an emub ion is quantified by standards set b) the
ISO ( In ternational Standards Organi zation) or ASA (Ameri can Stan-
dards J\ssociC:lI ion) ra ting. ISO is the techni call y the correct designa-
ti on. but b) tradition. mas I peopl e still refer to it as ASA. The hi gher
the ASA. the lower the li ght I ev...: 1 the film is capabl e of res p Oll ding
to. For color 11 1m. l i st the sensiti vi ty of film as EI or
b posure Inde\. When you make film faster. the trade olT is that the
increased light sensi tivity comes from the li se of larger sil ver halide
grai ns. These larger grains can rt::s uh in a blotchy or "grainy" appear-
ance to the pict ure. Phot ographic film lllanufacl1Irers arc constantl y
ma king impro\ement s that result in films with less grain. For
Kodak, a major adva nce was the int roducti on or "T' gra ins in the
70s. These tabular grai ns arc roughl y tri angul ar which all owed them
to be packeol.:loser together. thus reduci ng apparent grain.
THE LATENT IMAGE
When the shutl cr is open, light aOecb the chemi stry of the cmulsion
and a latent image is formed. When " photon of li ght is absorbed by
the spectral sensit izl.! r sitt ing on the surface of a sil\cr halide grain.
the of an electron is raised int o the conducti on band fro111 the
\<l lence bam!. whcre it can be transferred to the conducti on band of
the sil\ er halide grai n electroni c struclUre.
This atom orsi l\cr unstablc. I-Iowc\cr ifcnough photoel ectrons
arc present at the same time in the crystal latti cc. they may com-
bine with enough pos iti ve holes to fo rm a stable lat ent image sit e.
A latent image site must cont ai n a minimum of 2 to -l si l\ cr atoms
per grain to rcmain !'I table. A sil\cr halide grain contains billi ons
ofsil\cr hali de molecule::.. and it only takes 2 to -l atolll :, of un com-
bi ll ed :-.il\ er to form thc lat cnt image In color film, thi s process
happens separately for exposure to the red. green. and blue layers or
the emub ion. The reason fo r thi s b si mple there is no way to sen-
si tile a grai n to "color: ' YOli can onl y sensiti ze it to a specifi c band
of the spect rum. The image that i::. fa nned is call ed "laten' " because
it remai ns ilwis ible until chemicall y dc\cloped.
Any photon that reaches the fi lm. but docs not form a latent image.
is lost information. Most color fi lms general ly take 10 to 60 pho- 6.5. Black-and-white negative.
tOilS pl.! r grai n to produce a dcvelopable latent image. Thi s is call ed
the "i nertia point" for the fi lm. 8c10\\ the inert ia poi nt. no image is
rccOl-oed at al l. Vi deo rccl.! pt ors arc sili con based and of course dif-
fe rent in operation. but the basic theory is quite simil ar.
CHEMICAL PROCESSING
In order fo r thc latell t image to become \ i!'lible. it mu:-. t be ampli-
fied and stabili 7cd. in order to make a negativc or a posi th c ( Figure
6.5). In black-and-\\ hit e lilm. the sil ver halide grains have to be sen-
si liLed to all \\a\elcm!lhs or visi ble li ght so the sil\er hulide I! ra ill s
arc coated in just or two layers. As a result. the development
process is e<Jskr lO understand.
The fi lm is pl aced in developing chemi stry that is actuall y
a reducill!! al!cnl. If the j-j lm wcre le n in thc solut ion long
enough. the reduc ing agent would cOI1\'e11 all the silver ions
into :-.ihe- f metal resulting in a uniform gray fog \\ ilh 11 0
discernible image. Those grains that hmc latent image sites
wi ll tb clop more rapi dly. I I' the film is left ill the de\'clop-
exposure
107
ing chemi stry for the proper amount of"timc. only grains \\ ilh
latent image in formati on will become pure siher. Thc lInc\-
posed grains remain as sil ver halidc crystals.
The development process Illll SI be "stopped" at right
1110ment. This is by rinsi ng the fi lm with \-\,atcL or by
using a "stop" bath that brings the development process 10 a
halt.
After development, somc of the altered halide and all of the
unaltered si lver halide remains ill the emulsion. It must be
removed or the negative will darken and deteriorat e O\'cr
timc. The removal of this undeveloped material is accom-
plished with fixing agents, usually sodium thiosulfate (hypo)
6.6. Color negative with its distinct- or ammonium th iosulfate. The process is called fixing. The
inve orange mask. tri ck is to fix j ust enough and not too mllch. as excessive con-
tact with fixers can begin to remove some of the desirable
si lver material.
Cinematography
108
Finall y. the film is wasl, ed \vi th water to remove all the pro-
cessi ng chemi ca ls. Then it is dried. The washing must
ex tremely thorough.
When all the steps arc finished. the film has a negative image or
the original scene. Other types of chemistry can rcsult in a positive
image. but thi s is not commonl y used in motion picture applications.
It is a negati ve in the sense that it is darkest (has the I, ighest density
of opaque sil ver at0111s) in the area that received the mostlighl expo-
sure. In placcs that received no light. the negative is clear.
COLOR NEGATIVE
Color ncgati ve is basically three layers of black-and-white film. onc
on LOp or the other (Fi gures 6.6 and 6.7). The difTerenee is that caeh
layer is treated with a different spectral sensitizer so tha t it is recep-
tive to a different band of the spectrum. These translate to roughly
red. bluc and green.
\Vith color fi lm, the dcvelopment step lIses reducing chemi-
cals. and the exposed si lver halide grains develop to pure
si lver. Oxi di zed developer is produced in this reaction. and
the oxi di zed developer reacts v.,rith chcmicals call ed couplers
in each orthe image fonning layers. This reaction CHuses the
coupl ers to form a cotor. and th is color varies depending 011
how the si lver halide grains were spectrall y sensiti7cd. A dif-
ferent color forming coupler is used in the red. green and
blue sensi ti ve layers. Thc latcnt image in the different layer::,
for ms a dinerent colored dye when the film is developed.
The developmcnt process is stopped eit her by washing. or
with a stop bath.
The unexposed silver hali de grains are removcd usi ng a fixing
solution.
The sil ver that was deve loped in the fi rst step is rell1O\ 'ed b)
bleaching chemi ca ls. (Note: it is possible LO ski p thi s step or
reduce it so that somc of the sil vcr remains in the ncgati\c.
Thi s is the basis of "'skip bleach" or ENR processing. \\hich
is discllsscd elsewhere.)
The negative image is then washed to remo\c as much of the
chemica ls and rcaction products as possible. The film slrips
arc then dried.
Unlike a black-and-white' negative. a color Il cgati\e no
sih er \vi th the except ion or SIJec ial processes known as "bleach
bypass:' These are covered in the chapter on Image COJ1lrol.
The end result is a color negati ve in the sense that the more red
the more cyan dye lonned. Cyan a mix of blue and
green (or \\ hite red). The grccn scnsiti\"c image laycrs con-
tain magenta dye. and the blue :-.ensili u: image layers contain ye ll O\\
dye.
The colors formed in the color ncgati\ c mm an..' based on the :-;ub-
tracti ve (alar rorm:Jti on system. The subtracti ve system uses one
color (cyan. magcl1lu or yellow) to control each primary color. Thc
addilin..' color :-.ystclll uscs a combination or red. green and blue to
produce a COIOf. Video is based on 3n additive system. The overall
or::lI1gc hue i!\ the result of masking dyes that help to correct imper-
fec ti ons in the color reproducti on process.
ADDITIVE VS. SUBTRACTIVE COLOR
In a pholograph. Ihe colors arc layered on lOP of each olher. so a
subtractive color reproduction system is used. In subtracti ve color.
each primary is afTected b) its opposi tl..' on the color wheel.
Red sensi ti ve layers form a cyan colored dye.
Green sensiti\ c layers form a magenta colored dye.
Blue layers fo rm a yello\' colorc:d dyc.
FILM'S RESPONSE TO LIGHT
There arc two steps in thc making or a negati\ c. as represented by
the thin sli ce from the negati ve sho\\ n in Figure 0.7.
Ex posure. The lIseful propert y ofsilvcr halide is that it s state
is altered \\ hen subj ected to li ght . in direct proponi on to
amount of light encrgy absorbed. Thi s change is not \ is-
ibl e. and if film is examined be rare and aftcr cxposure, littl e
change can be seen.
Development. Silver hal ide \\ hi ch has been altered by eon-
Wet \\ ith li ght can be reduced to pure sil ver if placed in con-
laet v.ith specifi c chemical s referred to as developing agents.
The activity of" tlt e developer and time of" development \\ill
determine hO\\ much of the sensiti 7ed halidl' will be con
\ crted.
DENSITOMETRY
To understand film we must look at its curvc. This. clas:-,i-
cal approach to densitometry (the scientifi c analysis of exposure)
\\a, devised by lIurter and Drillield in 1890 and so is called lit e
II&D curvc or SOllll'til11cS the J) log E curve. It pl ots the alllount of
exposure "E" in logarithmi c units along the hori zontal ax is and the
amount ordcnsi ty change in the negativc "D" along thc verti cal axis.
This is sometimes , hortencd to Log E cune (Figure 6.8).
In theory. it makes sense that \\e \\Quld \\a nt the film 10 change in
densit) in exact proporti on to change in the amount of li ght reflected
by different parts of the scene. After all \\e arc trying to make an
image \\ hich accura tely ponrays the real scene. right?
Let's look at a theoreticallinear"' film (Figure 6.9). For every addi-
li oJ1nl unit of exposure. the densi ty of the negati ve changes exactly
0111: unit. That is. there i:-. an cxact correspondence between the
amount or light in the !'Irene and the change in the dcnsi t) or the
Supercoat