Question about exposing for outdoors while in video mode.

[harmonica]

I am an aspiring filmmaker, and trying to learn as much as I can for shooting. When it comes to shooting a scene outdoors, what do you do if the sun is constantly going in and out of the clouds? I don't want to put the ISO on auto, cause then the audience will see the camera exposure change, rather than the natural change of the sun. But if I have all my settings locked, the exposure may become too dark, if the sun goes behind clouds, or it may become too bright if the sun comes out. I don't want to say cut, everytime the sun comes out, because it can become too much wasted time, while shooting, when time is limited.

I also am not able to change the white balance from daylight to cloudy, when the sun comes in and out as well, or do custom white balances for both, since it keeps changing. Any idea on how to handle this as well?

Thanks.

 

[mcgregni]

In general for the shooting I would advise keeping both WB and exposure locked if possible ... The effect of either of these changing automatically during a single recording is never pretty. If you absolutely must keep shooting then I'd take the hit with a view to making some adjustments in editing.

Sony Vegas and the latest Movie Studio Platinum versions have a Match Colour filter, which can sample WB from one clip and apply it to others. You can cut your file where things changed and balance it out. To an extent you can do the same for brightness, but with less leeway.

Ideally you would stop filming and restart in the new conditions, perhaps from a more favourable angle ... Then you could cut from one angle to the other and this would make the changes in brightness and colour less jarring, as well as making adjustments in editing easier. But it all depends on the content and continuity issues.