Hi all,

I've been shooting some projects recently, and I thought I'd ask opinions on exposure. I shot a project that to my recollection might have been set on auto exposure, but I can't remember at this point. I might have set a higher manual exposure. I know that I did raise brightness and contrast in post, and to my mind the image looks nice as a result. I can't remember if I had to add a noise reduction plugin.

The other day I shot a project that might have been some on the bright side, manually exposed. I still had to adjust brightness and contrast a bit in post (actually it was to turn brightness down some and add a bit of contrast). For this project I added a noise reduction plugin. It worked well, but I think there is some noise, or some kind of artifacts, that are apparent in the subject's face when he moves.

My question is, do you think it's better to leave the exposure a bit dark, or perhaps even on auto, and add brightness/contrast in post? How do you choose a place to set your exposure? I have been playing around with it, but I'd like to know your opinions. Also, I'm not sure if skin tone has anything to do with it as in the former project my subject was white, and in the latter project my subject was black.

In the latter project I did, I don't remember noticing any noise when shooting, but now I'm having to raise this question due to what I was dealing with in post.


Thanks in advance,

David H.

David,

I am very interested in seeing the responses to this question as I could also benefit from the other experiences.
I was wonder though, did you have face detection on? In my very limited experience I find that using this can alter both the focus and exposure.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply. I have set the focus to manual which afaik turns the face detection off. I was having issues with the focusing being off (going in and out) even when I had a face lock. I posted about this before and the consensus was to manually focus, or try spot focusing. Here's a link to the thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/avchd-format-discussion/134419-sr12-autofocus-issue.html

Cheers,

David H.


PS, thoughts on the spot exposure?

I think it's always going to be a combination of both. If the camera exposer is too low the image just won't be there. I'd rather have it too bright than too dark.. just me though.