Need advice on shooting a wedding

[Tom Hardwick]

You're shooting NTSC Randy? Whatever - for utmost reality shoot interlaced at the camera's default shutter speed (1/60th sec) because this captures everything that happens in front of your lens. Zooms and pans are smoother and slo-mo generally likes all the fields to work with. This is romantic weddings we're talking about, flowing dresses and happy people.

If you halve the shutter speed to 1/125th you'll only capture half of everything that happens. At 1/250th only a quarter, and so on. This gives an 'edginess' to movement (camera or subject) that's fine when it'seeded.

Higher shutter speeds give a staccato effect, very effective for raising the tension, but hardly wedding fayre. Same too with progressive - if that's the look you're after.

tom.

[Randy Panado]

Yes, shooting NSTC.

I shoot at SD 60i currently at 1/60 most of the time (due to dimly lit reception venues). I'm looking to venture into different frames to catch a different type of feeling. 60i is great, but I'd like to get away from the "video" look.

I guess it's a double edged sword.

Thanks for the reply Tom, it's again very appreciated.

[Tom Hardwick]

You might want to get away from the video look, but I've found my bride and groom couples want the most natural look they can get. Of course there's always a place for different frame rates (Reservoir Dogs suits strutting their stuff and so on) but generally a wedding film is romanticised rather than electrified.

[Taky Cheung]

When I shoot in outdoor, I usually set in [A] mode so the camera will determine the shutter speed and aperture size for me. When shooting indoor, I will use Tv mode with shutter speed either 1/60 or 1/30.

Do you need to do slow motion? 24F is not a good way if you know you will be slowing down the footage to do slomo. 60i is better than 30F better than 24F in this regard. Also, like you said, panning will be a problematic in 24F.

The other issue is DVD doesn't support 24P. So you will have to perform the telecine process to convert the 24F footage to 60i. That's too much trouble for me. 30F doesn't have the home video look but a semi-film look. It works well for me.

[J.J. Kim]

I have tried to slow-mo with 24F when it was disaster... I used Twixtor (which is pretty good product), I failed big time.. I am never gonna shoot wedding with 24F in my career.
I see what you are saying with 30F being the best choice, but would 1/30 shutter in 60i would give similar effect as 30F? I have not done any comparison side to side with 30F and 1/30 shutter with 60i, I might be wrong, and I am not sure how exactly that's going to affect the slow-mo... Unless clients specifically request a 'film look', I think I am going to stick with 60i...

Taky, I just finished the video you told me to watch (I forgot to comment on the e-mail), but I liked it very much, and I laughed when Bride got blindfolded to try to find the groom!


JJ

[Taky Cheung]

I'm not tacky :)

I use Premiere Pro CS3. 60i slow mo in CS3 is just beautiful. No need to use other plug in or software.

Yeah Tv 1/30 shutter speed in 60i will give you a fake progressive look. I have used it before in HV20 (it doesn't have 30p). But it can't be use in bright environment. The slo-mo in Tv 1/30 in 60i and 30F will be no difference since it's the same image content in both fields.

I wouldn't wait for client to ask for a 'film look'. Most people don't know what it is to ask to begin with. The progressive film-like look will give you a better edge than competitors, weekend videographers, or even relatives shooting video in their friend's wedding.

I'm glad you enjoy that video. Here's another one I shot using XH-A1, and two HV30s. The second HV30 is mounted on Merlin. I think I match the output pretty well. The XH-A1 is using VIVIDRGB preset.

Birthday Dinner Highlights Video

[J.J. Kim]

Sorry about misspelling your name.. how horrible I am.
Funny fact, I actually watched this video a while ago, and I was thinking, 'huh, maybe I should get HV30 for the 2nd cam' and I did, haha. I did a lot of research of HV30, and your video really showed me how good HV30 can be as 2nd. Thank you for that!
I liked it then, now I watch it again, I like it again!
I actually shot some taxing in/out airplane and slow moving cars in the parking near my office (my office building is right next to small exec. airport!) and I am capturing right now to test out between 30F and 60I. If I don't see too much problem with slow-mo, I might stick with 30F 'cause I like the film look alot for the wedding without dealing with slow mo artifacts/blurs like 24F.

JJ

[William Tegethoff]

I just shot an outdoor wedding in bright sun in 60i using Preset #7 from the downloadable presets found in this thread. Looks so much like film and its still 60i...