A Lighting Question

[Steve Robertson]

Not Mac specific- just a general question on shooting video, upon which 
some of you may be able to shed some "light."

Yesterday, I was shooting video of a musician. One performer on stage- 
playing a very shiny new guitar. I set up a consumer-type DV camcorder 
on a tripod, about 10 feet in front of (and slightly to the left of) 
the musician. This camera remained stationary to record the master shot 
and the master audio. I used another camera to move around the room and 
shoot different angles.

The main lighting came from two fairly bright spotlights hanging from 
the ceiling (roughly directly above the camera position) which lit the 
performer uniformly on both sides. When I started capturing the video 
from the tripod mounted camera, I noticed the picture was fluctuating 
between correct exposure and slightly too dark- seemingly a random 
intervals. After watching carefully, I finally realized what was 
happening. Every time the guitar reflected one of the spots. the glare 
would force the camera to adjust it's exposure setting. When the guitar 
moved- and the glare disappeared- the camera went back to the correct 
exposure.

So far, I haven't come up with any bright ideas to counter this kind of 
problem. Anybody care to venture a solution?

Thanks,
Steve Robertson