Do you have control over the lights? Can you increase the light on the other side of the model to compensate then up the shutter speed to compensate for the light increase?
Are the lights in the scene? Or outside of frame? If they are outside frame, just add some ND gels in front of the lights.
Stone,
Thanks for the reply. Actually I have no control over the scene - they are time lapses of live street scenes with neon, zippy cars, pedestrians, bright shops, and even pesky delivery vans that stop smack-dab* right in front of the camera. (*"smack-dab" is a highly technical Latin term meaning, "Dude! Why did you park there? It's not even a loading zone! You've blocked my entire frame! grrrr.")
A couple of times my time lapse featured drunk guys walking straight up to the camera, also standing smack-dab* right in front of the camera and asking what I was photographing. I so wanted to say "at the moment, I'm photographing your drunk face and at this distance I'm probably shooting a macro of your sinus cavities" - Alas, I refrained and was polite. Instead, I merely said "I'm shooting a time lapse series of the street, blah, blah, etc..." Meanwhile, I was also nervously thinking, "please don't vomit on my camera", please don't vomit on my camera, please don't vomit on my camera ..." (No kidding!)
Anyway, back to the need for strong ND Grads - your name suggests you're familiar with Manhattan, so think Times Square for half the frame and a dark alley in the other half of the frame. It's actually a time lapse series of long exposures ~30 seconds and my city isn't as remarkable lit as Times Square, but same idea, really bright scene in part of the image, really dark part in another part of the frame.
If it were a single image, I might have a chance at controlling some of the bright parts of the scene and even might be bake to avoid the drunk guys stumbling around my camera. But it's a time lapse of a street scene, so I don't have much control. I just stand there and my camera clicks away for a couple of hours. Although, I've gotten better at playing "Dots" on my phone while waiting for my shutter to click away.
When I get some slightly better results I'll post them.
B.