HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please.

Nigel Barker · January 3rd, 2012, 03:34 AM

We used to own XHA1s & in good lighting the quality is really, really good but in low light it gets grainy very quickly & looks like crap. Recently my wife was editing a wedding shot with a couple of XHA1s & it looks great but the church was very well lit

Jeff Hinson · January 3rd, 2012, 05:42 AM

Nigel...the video looks really good.

What was used for the shallow DOF clips? I also noticed a camcorder near the end of the video on tripod, that did not look like the A1. Did you use another camcorder besides the A1 also.
Thanks Jeff

Patrick Janka · January 3rd, 2012, 09:50 AM

Nigel, not bad. A few of the shots could have used some color correction, however, like the one right after they kiss where you're filming upwards towards the sky as they're walking by. There's a massive blue cast on the whole picture.

Jeff, you don't need a special camera to get a shallow DOF. DOF is affected by distance to subject, focal length, and aperture setting. If you either get right next to your subject, or back up a fair amount and zoom into your subject you will narrow the focal plane. Add to that keeping the aperture wide open and throwing on the ND filter to compensate, and you've got shallow DOF. DSLR's don't have a monopoly on shallow DOF.

Nigel Barker · January 3rd, 2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Hinson

Nigel...the video looks really good.

What was used for the shallow DOF clips? I also noticed a camcorder near the end of the video on tripod, that did not look like the A1. Did you use another camcorder besides the A1 also.
Thanks Jeff

I didn't film it. This was some work that my wife edited for a colleague. As it turns out it seems that I mislead you & in fact this was filmed with two Sony Z1s & not Canon XHA1s as I thought. They are pretty similar though in that they are HDV tape camcorders & therefore only 1440x1080 resolution.

Nigel Barker · January 3rd, 2012, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Janka

Nigel, not bad. A few of the shots could have used some color correction, however, like the one right after they kiss where you're filming upwards towards the sky as they're walking by. There's a massive blue cast on the whole picture.

Patrick, I didn't film it or edit it. My wife edited it for a colleague & I mistakenly thought that it was a good example of XHA1 footage in adequate light. As it turns out Sony Z1s were used & it wasn't the finished graded version of the video which can in fact be found here

Patrick Janka · January 3rd, 2012, 04:14 PM

Gotcha, Nigel. Not to be a pain, but I prefer the ungraded version. This one is over saturated, and the red channel is overrepresented. Just my opinion, though.

Nigel Barker · January 4th, 2012, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Janka

Gotcha, Nigel. Not to be a pain, but I prefer the ungraded version.

Me too which is why I posted the other mildly graded version. I am also not keen on the faux widescreen cropping with black bars top & bottom. However that was the way that our colleague wanted it.

Jeff Hinson · January 5th, 2012, 05:41 AM

Newbie question...

I use Adobe CS5..

In the monitor window you can click the safe area button and get the rectangles on the screen. Useful for making sure your "titles" are seen on TVs. Do you resize the complete video to fit into the safe area.?

Corey Graham · January 5th, 2012, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Hinson

Newbie question...

I use Adobe CS5..

In the monitor window you can click the safe area button and get the rectangles on the screen. Useful for making sure your "titles" are seen on TVs. Do you resize the complete video to fit into the safe area.?

Hi Jeff,

I would never recommend doing that . . . the title/action safe guides are just that: guides. Some TV's/display devices will crop somewhat, and it's usually a good idea to keep all the highly important stuff inside these guides, just in case (however rare it may be that significant cropping actually happens). However, for display on a computer screen or the web, no cropping will occur. So if someone puts the DVD into a computer to play it, and you've resized your whole video to fit inside the title safe area, a black box will appear around the whole video.

Jeff Hinson · January 5th, 2012, 09:06 AM

Corey...
Thanks for the info. Won't do that then.

I have seen people that their video has a "cinemascope" look to it. How are they doing that without cropping the vertical. Is it shot that way or done in post.

Another question....
I want to shot in the manual mode with my GH2 for some still portraits. Id like the LED and EVF to reflect WYSIWYG. But it's not doing that. I have checked to make sure the auto brighness level of the display is not on. The only thing I can do right how is shoot,review and reshoot the pic.
Id like to have the display show exactly or close to what I will get with the settings. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Jeff

Corey Graham · January 5th, 2012, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Hinson

I have seen people that their video has a "cinemascope" look to it. How are they doing that without cropping the vertical. Is it shot that way or done in post.

Are you talking about letterboxing (black bars on the top/bottom)? If so, I don't believe there's any sort of in-camera technique for this. This has likely been achieved in one of two ways:

1. It's shot in HD, then converted to SD without cropping any of the original footage. Since HD is 16:9 and SD is 4:3, black bars appear on the top and bottom to fill in the rest of the SD frame.

2. It's shot in HD, but they crop the vertical by placing black bars on the top and bottom, as you mentioned.

Hope this helps!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Hinson

Another question....
I want to shot in the manual mode with my GH2 for some still portraits. Id like the LED and EVF to reflect WYSIWYG.

I can't really speak on this, as I use GH1's and still have a hard time bringing the LED/EVF to the point where I can consistently rely on it to be a true representation of the video being captured.

Jeff Hinson · January 5th, 2012, 09:35 AM

Re the display....
Surely there's a way to do WYSIWYG...other wise it's trial and error...not great expecially for video at a wedding ha.
Thanks will keep on trying.

update: I found some settings.... if I put the lcd on its lowest brightness setting, AND there's a setting call Live View that you toggle on and off, Im now seeing what I shoot.
Dunno if that's the way to do it or not, but its working for me until I find a better way.
Jeff

Patrick Janka · January 5th, 2012, 02:18 PM

Jeff, one frustrating thing about shooting stills in M is that if you take the shutter speed past 1/1200 or so, there's no resultant effect in the evf/lcd. The picture remains constant even though as you increase the shutter speed the actual pictures come out darker. This is infuriating.

Jeff Hinson · January 5th, 2012, 04:16 PM

My only experience has been video...
Im quickly gaining a lot of respect for photographers....sooooooooo many options to deal with.
I still don't have a handle on it, but Im shooting everything with my GH2. I just wish the LCD would be closer to the actual shot. Im shooting stills in manual only, just so that I can get the correlation between A,S,ISO, etc.
Ive taken some great shots all in natural light....just cant remember how I did it. haha

Thanks for the tip,
Jeff

Jeff Hinson · January 6th, 2012, 03:20 PM

Im in trouble...

I shot outside for the first time today using both the XA10 and GH2.

I CANT SEE A DAMN THING USING THE SCREEN....and very little using the EVF.
Guess Im gonna have to put a cover over my head. haha

Im gonna need a large eyecup for both cams outside. I don't see how you folks are seeing enough to compose and focus outside with the sun behind you.

Am I blind or do I need an attachment. I dont think those small clip on shades will be enough for me.

What are you using?

Jeff

January 3rd, 2012, 03:34 AM	#76
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. We used to own XHA1s & in good lighting the quality is really, really good but in low light it gets grainy very quickly & looks like crap. Recently my wife was editing a wedding shot with a couple of XHA1s & it looks great but the church was very well lit Tolulope weds Charles on Vimeo

January 3rd, 2012, 05:42 AM	#77
Jeff Hinson Major Player Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Down South, IN Posts: 422	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Nigel...the video looks really good. What was used for the shallow DOF clips? I also noticed a camcorder near the end of the video on tripod, that did not look like the A1. Did you use another camcorder besides the A1 also. Thanks Jeff

January 3rd, 2012, 09:50 AM	#78
Patrick Janka Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 623	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Nigel, not bad. A few of the shots could have used some color correction, however, like the one right after they kiss where you're filming upwards towards the sky as they're walking by. There's a massive blue cast on the whole picture. Jeff, you don't need a special camera to get a shallow DOF. DOF is affected by distance to subject, focal length, and aperture setting. If you either get right next to your subject, or back up a fair amount and zoom into your subject you will narrow the focal plane. Add to that keeping the aperture wide open and throwing on the ND filter to compensate, and you've got shallow DOF. DSLR's don't have a monopoly on shallow DOF.

January 3rd, 2012, 04:14 PM	#81
Patrick Janka Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 623	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Gotcha, Nigel. Not to be a pain, but I prefer the ungraded version. This one is over saturated, and the red channel is overrepresented. Just my opinion, though.

January 5th, 2012, 05:41 AM	#83
Jeff Hinson Major Player Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Down South, IN Posts: 422	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Newbie question... I use Adobe CS5.. In the monitor window you can click the safe area button and get the rectangles on the screen. Useful for making sure your "titles" are seen on TVs. Do you resize the complete video to fit into the safe area.?

January 5th, 2012, 09:06 AM	#85
Jeff Hinson Major Player Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Down South, IN Posts: 422	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Corey... Thanks for the info. Won't do that then. I have seen people that their video has a "cinemascope" look to it. How are they doing that without cropping the vertical. Is it shot that way or done in post. Another question.... I want to shot in the manual mode with my GH2 for some still portraits. Id like the LED and EVF to reflect WYSIWYG. But it's not doing that. I have checked to make sure the auto brighness level of the display is not on. The only thing I can do right how is shoot,review and reshoot the pic. Id like to have the display show exactly or close to what I will get with the settings. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Jeff

January 5th, 2012, 09:35 AM	#87
Jeff Hinson Major Player Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Down South, IN Posts: 422	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Re the display.... Surely there's a way to do WYSIWYG...other wise it's trial and error...not great expecially for video at a wedding ha. Thanks will keep on trying. update: I found some settings.... if I put the lcd on its lowest brightness setting, AND there's a setting call Live View that you toggle on and off, Im now seeing what I shoot. Dunno if that's the way to do it or not, but its working for me until I find a better way. Jeff Last edited by Jeff Hinson; January 5th, 2012 at 10:19 AM.

January 5th, 2012, 02:18 PM	#88
Patrick Janka Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 623	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Jeff, one frustrating thing about shooting stills in M is that if you take the shutter speed past 1/1200 or so, there's no resultant effect in the evf/lcd. The picture remains constant even though as you increase the shutter speed the actual pictures come out darker. This is infuriating.

January 5th, 2012, 04:16 PM	#89
Jeff Hinson Major Player Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Down South, IN Posts: 422	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. My only experience has been video... Im quickly gaining a lot of respect for photographers....sooooooooo many options to deal with. I still don't have a handle on it, but Im shooting everything with my GH2. I just wish the LCD would be closer to the actual shot. Im shooting stills in manual only, just so that I can get the correlation between A,S,ISO, etc. Ive taken some great shots all in natural light....just cant remember how I did it. haha Thanks for the tip, Jeff

January 6th, 2012, 03:20 PM	#90
Jeff Hinson Major Player Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Down South, IN Posts: 422	Re: HELP THE NEWBIES THREAD.....please. Im in trouble... I shot outside for the first time today using both the XA10 and GH2. I CANT SEE A DAMN THING USING THE SCREEN....and very little using the EVF. Guess Im gonna have to put a cover over my head. haha Im gonna need a large eyecup for both cams outside. I don't see how you folks are seeing enough to compose and focus outside with the sun behind you. Am I blind or do I need an attachment. I dont think those small clip on shades will be enough for me. What are you using? Jeff