ABSTRACT
Frankly, exposure can get pretty technical, so it’s important to grasp the basic concepts before the cinematographers plunge into the world of exposure control for technical and artistic purposes. Frame rate or Frames Per Second (FPS) applies to both film and video. Obviously, if the camera is running at a very low frame rate (such as 4 FPS), each frame will get more exposure time. At a higher frame rate, such as 100 FPS, each frame will be exposed to light for a much shorter time. Exposure is about much more than just it’s “too dark” or “too light.” It’s also about whether or not an image will be noisy, it’s about the overall contrast of the image, and it’s about whether or not the cinematographers will see subtleties in the shadows and the highlights. Overexposure and underexposure will desaturate the color of the scene; this is particularly important in green-screen shooting.
