How to fix overbright backgrounds?

Hi all!

So recently I've been having a bit of an odd issue. I have an off white table with white stripes I use for recording. When I record something that is not filling a lot of the frame, I'm fine. But as soon as I film something that nearly fills the frame, the entire background gets blindingly bright and overexposed. This happens with two cameras I've tried. (Kodak Zi8, Sony Bloggie DUO HD)

Here's some pics to give you an idea.

This is ruining my shoots and driving me nuts! Any idea how I can fix this?

Well, I don't have a video cam!

And, since this is a "General Photography Talk" sub-forum in which most of the talk is about still photography, you might be disappointed in the lack of responses.

So, I'd suggest you check in the Digital Video section:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdis​play.php?f=131

I don't know anything about video either, but wouldn't this be the same issue as with still photography? If the camera is exposing for something dark, there's a good chance it will blow out anything light or white. This would probably become more noticeable as the darker object takes up more of the frame.

Maybe use a different background?

Jason

The camera is looking at the dark object filling the frame and trying to even out its exposure regardless of the white background. In other words, the camera thinks the black package is too dark and lightens it thereby brightening the background too. When the white background is filling the frame the camera sees it and no dark objects so it looks normal. I don't know anything about those two cameras. Do they have a manual mode that allows you to tell the camera the exact exposure you need?

goldboughtrue wrote in post #14385755
The camera is looking at the dark object filling the frame and trying to even out its exposure regardless of the white background. In other words, the camera thinks the black package is too dark and lightens it thereby brightening the background too. When the white background is filling the frame the camera sees it and no dark objects so it looks normal. I don't know anything about those two cameras. Do they have a manual mode that allows you to tell the camera the exact exposure you need?

No. Both are essentially on autofocus/exposure.

Any auto exposure attempts to expose for an average of middle-grey.
In your case on the first photo, there is a good balance of dark and light so the average works out well. But when you fill most of the frame with a dark object, the meter still "wants" that to be middle-grey so it increases the exposure.

The metering mode you choose however can help with this......assuming you have options for changing your metering mode. Different modes give different weight to different things. The spot meter for example would make this problem even more extreme. The metering I am guessing you are using is some king of "center weighted" metering where more importance is given to the middle but the outside is partially included in the calculations. An "average" metering option if available would give equal weight to the outer regions as it does the center. This is what I would suggest trying unless manual exposure control is available in which case that is the best way to go.