For those using the XH-A1 for weddings what preset if any are you using? And what format are most shooting with 24f 30f or 60i. I am finding that most videos are looking more film like and am wondering how it is achieved ie: still motion, and the last same day edit post on the forum. I would love to see what most are using. I am new to HDV so I have a lot to learn.

Thanks

For those using the XH-A1 for weddings what preset if any are you using? And what format are most shooting with 24f 30f or 60i. I am finding that most videos are looking more film like and am wondering how it is achieved ie: still motion, and the last same day edit post on the forum. I would love to see what most are using. I am new to HDV so I have a lot to learn.

Thanks
I just started with the A1 myself, but I did shoot a wedding with it earlier this month. I used the PANALOOK preset (you can find it on the A1 forum), and it looked fantastic. As far a 60i, 30f or 24f is concerned, it seems like a lot of A1 wedding videographers are now using 24f.

Thanks for the reply, are you finding that when you slow the 24f down to about 50% there is alot of motion blur or is the footage still useable. Also do you need to have an onboard light?

Jason:
With 24f you are not going to get great slo mo. The higher the shutter speed you can shoot, it will look much better when you slow it down. At some point you will need an onboard light especially when shooting HDV.

I been using 3 A1 for the past year in my weddings. I would say stay away from 24f for the wedding events and with lowlight receptions. My first wedding in 24f was 3 weeks ago and the results were not good for the pans and slowmo and focus.
There is too many things going on at the same time in a wedding shoot. I try to shoot the most of the time with the AF. My opinion is that in lowlight the 24f does not help with AF shooting.
Before I always used the 30f, not bad as long you keep your slow mo at 60%.
My next wedding I will use 60i to record and I will do the convertion to 30 or 24 in post based on my need and film look.I want to compare the difference.

Any way my clients dont see the diff on 24 or 30 or 60i in the final product.
But beleive me focus problems anyone can tell.

I will keep using my 24 just for the couple interviews with the tripod and good light.

I have the A1. I use 60i to help with slow motion using vividrgb from Steven.

Jason - I've been using NATURALO for a preset. My first two weddings I shot at 24f and was dissapointed with the results due to blurring on panning and inability to use slow-mo. I shot my last wedding at 30F and was much happier with results. Seems to be a nice compromise between 24f and 60i.

Art

Thanks guys,
I am just switching over and unsure what would yield the best results. I am looking for the whole still motion look from Patrick. He has that very film like look and am unsure if it is all done in post or a combination of post and preset. I guess it would be easier to ask him but the replies are great.

Hi Jason,

We use our A1s in 24F. Slow-motion isn't as good, but it is very useable if the slo-mo is interspersed with real-time shots. If you rely on a lot of slow-motion, I would go with the happy medium of 30P.

Shooting 24F gives you a lot of options in low light. You can get great results at 1/24th of second and can shoot in quite dim situations. If your delivering an sd product, 12 gain is very usable in my opinion.

The look we get is a balance between presets/shooting properly/post work.

Patrick

Thanks Patrick,
There is a reason your name is on the top 25 list. Congratulations to you and your crew! You guys and girl have really stepped it up this last year and what an amazing job you have done. Your constant effort to answer as many questions and help everyone else reach their true potential is outstanding. Would love to know the secret to the post work though, you mentioned native filters already. Also are you using your own presets or the ones posted on the site.
Thanks again and best wishes in the new year!

Thanks for the compliments Jason. It was this forum that really helped our work get to where it is so I always enjoy helping when I can.

When I mention using native filters to do my post work, I mean I am using filters that are bundled with FCP. I have come up with al of the setting I use myself, but some of the looks do come from other looks suites such as Magic Bullet. The key is using multiple filters and stacking them in the right way with the right settings. It is kind of like photoshop in which you could have many layers on one image. What those filters are exactly and the settings I use isnt something I would want to post on a public forum as I have spent years developing them, but it is surely something one could figure out in using the program and testing various things.

Patrick

I use the Vivd setting from steve. It save's me a lot of work on the post. This camera love's a lot of light so make sure you have a good on board light. What makes this site great is people are more than willing to share and to educate. There are plenty of present here. For wedding i like the vivid and panalook.

I use 30F and VividRGB for outdoor and Lowlight12 for indoor. The lowlight preset is bumped up in color a bit as the standard is a little flat. I also use 1/30 shutter in dim receptions along with a light.

From my experience, i would never set the gain to +12, too much noise for my eyes... +6 is the max i will push it under low light. You can always lighten your scene in post and since it is less noise, the end result is better than the +12 gain in my opinion. Also, I sometimes used 30f if I am in a darker room or shooting something static.

Thanks guys,
Eric can you use 24f and 30f on the same timeline? Are you shooting with an onboard light. With the 170 and vx2100 I use it is nice to not have to use a light and really be unobtrusive.

Steve
What is the lowlight12 setting? Is it in the preset section?

You can 30f on the 60i timeline but i don't think so with 24f.

I use 30F and VividRGB for outdoor and Lowlight12 for indoor. The lowlight preset is bumped up in color a bit as the standard is a little flat. I also use 1/30 shutter in dim receptions along with a light.

I am very new to this too but shooting with 2 XH-A1's and do the same as above but do shoot at 60i

I use 24f at the weddings I shoot. I love the look of the 24p as well as the better low light advantage. I do however shoot on Manual focus the whole time. I have been slowing down my footage with twixor, it works amazing! It takes some time to figure it out but you can get really good results. Here is a trailer that a finished recently with slowmo-

www.joesimonproductions.com/flemingtrailer.html

You can find the twixor plug in here - www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/

Joe,
Did you say you're slowmoing 24p???? I watched your trailer and loved the clean slowmo.
I've always avoided 24p cause I'm one of those sappy slowmo/dutch angle guys and traditionally 24p looked like poop when slowed down. If you're saying that Twixtor makes 24p slowmo look good then I'm listening.

Looks pretty good Joe. Liked the trailer too. Thanks for sharing.

That A1 can do some great things.

Patrick

I use 24f at the weddings I shoot. I love the look of the 24p as well as the better low light advantage. I do however shoot on Manual focus the whole time. I have been slowing down my footage with twixor, it works amazing! It takes some time to figure it out but you can get really good results. Here is a trailer that a finished recently with slowmo-

www.joesimonproductions.com/flemingtrailer.html

You can find the twixor plug in here - www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/

Joe, you make things confusing. I was all content to settle into 60i then look at your trailer, that is awsome.

Once again some of the talent on here is amazing.

Thanks for replying Joe,
The trailers were great, and the slo mo was astonishing, goes against everything i've heard. Was it because of twixtor or did you do something else in order to achieve that ie:really slow camera movement? Great site as well, you are very talented.

The slow-mo was done with Twixor only. The pull back shot of the flowers and shoes was at about 20% of normal speed same with the bride down the isle shot.

The exit of the couple with the pedals was the only thing that was shot on the HVX and it was shot in 24p at 60fps. A shot with pedals flying and lots of fast hand movement is hard to slow down with twixor. The twixor plug in " synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence". So when you have those small moving pedals it makes it go a little crazy. But almost all shots during a wedding are not a problem to slow down with twixor.

Joe that was fantastic. The demo clip on the Twixtor site is pretty cool too. I wish I could find a similar plug-in that would work in Vegas.

Art

Joe your work is so clean and has such a nice style.
Thanks for sharing.

Very Clean. i like it a lot you are not using crazy trans. It is nice and simple,

Here is a clip shot in 24F with a pile of A1s and an XL-H1, edited in FCP with a fair amount of slow-motion and no extra plug-ins. Looks okay, to me, but not nearly as good as what Joe posted. I wonder if twixtor could handle the time constraints of an SDE...

Patrick - did you intend to insert a link to the clip you mentioned?

Wow, completely missed that one:

http://stillmotionblog.com/?p=332

Joe, what presets are you using? The demo above is amazing, very cinematic.

Patrick - your work never ceases to amaze me. That clip gave me goosebumps even after watching it for the third time. Thanks for sharing!

Art