Hi everybody,

I own a Canon Legria HV40. I record guitar lessons which I then post to YouTube. I have two soft boxes that house 4x30w 5400k globes. I've been attempting to record video during the evening in my office. I'm currently in the process of writing material for my first DVD production and am trying to get the balance right with lighting to get things looking as professional as possible. My background is temporary. I'm getting a proper muslin background and stand when I get the money.

I don't use all the globes in the soft box since I find the light they're too bright. I've ended up resorting to using just one or two. I find I only need one soft box with this method. If I use 2 soft boxes it gets too bright. I also have twin tube ceiling fluorescent lighting in the middle of the office, which helps to illuminate things a bit. The soft box helps to create more balance lighting and fill things in.

From time to time I've noticed that the captured video blurs in and out on close-ups. The first time this happened, I was using the zoom control on the Canon. Last night, when it happened again I had set the manual exposure to -2. After noticing this I switched the exposure back to neutral and did another test waving the guitar around and moving my hands quickly on close-ups. There was no noticeable blurring.

Here is a link to the YouTube video with the blur in /out. Punk Guitar Lesson - Old-School Hard-Core Rhythm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nHrw6OB_F4)

I record in HD25. Mode is set to P and the lighting mode to fluorescent.

There are some things I wouldn't mind getting an opinion on.

1. What might be causing the blurring in and out?
2. Is the lighting sufficient whilst I'm recording, or is it over exposed?
3. If I was to buy a light meter, what would be an optimum reading?
4. Should I be using both soft boxes?

I'm used to recording during the day with the Canon, and find I never get problems. With DVD production however, I require a consistent lighting arrangement. Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi, Corey......

Hope you don't mind a bit of input from a bloody Kiwi............(if only adopted)

Not familiar with the cam so no idea how much control you have over it's operation.

With the lighting level you're describing, I'm guesssing that the AF is hunting to find the "best focus" point in the frame and struggling because there simply isn't enough light.

With close ups there isn't a lot of room for manouver, and if the aperture is set wide, the DOF is so small that the AF would find it very hard to get it right.

Try:

Firing up all your lights and shutting the aperture on the camera down to F8 or smaller, depending on your shutter speed - I'm guessing 1/50th, though with flouro's 1/25 is safer.

Setting the Auto Focus to off and do it manually, it will stop it hunting, but a bit of a bugger getting it right if there's just you - can't be in two places at the same time.

See how that works out.


CS

Thanks Chris. Sorry. I forgot to mention I own a Canon Legria HV40. I'll try those ideas out next time I'm at the camera.