Stage shoot Settings?

[Ron Evans]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

Edit: I just reread this whole thread again. Ron, I guess my comment above only applies to old handycams. I did not know they had refined spotlight to the level you speak of.

For most of the new Sony's I have, the spotlight seems to do a peak exposure reading instead of the whole scene. Hence the naming. It will not manage a full wide shot of a dark stage with a small person in a spotlight !!! But it does do a good job of a medium shot with people in the spotlight better than just AE shift and has the advantage that if the lights go up and down quickly is a lot faster than trying to manually adjust. I normally shoot with 3 or 4 cameras and they are set up differently to try and account for changes in lights.

Ron Evans

[Steven Digges]

Tom,

It is AE Shift. You set the value you want in the menu. You can also turn it on and off there. If you assign a preset button to it, that button will activate it to the level you set.

Thanks for the info Ron. And yes, rapidly changing theater lights has always been a difficult situation to shoot in. Especially when the LD designed his look for the human eye and not video exposure latitude. That is why I love to be there for dress rehearsals if there is one.

Steve

[Bruce Dempsey]

my 2 bits concentrate on focus and exposure leaving wb til post

[Ron Evans]

Yes I have all my cameras set for indoor WB. With a mix of tungsten and LED ( that can have variable white balance ) lights these days that can change from scene to scene it is almost impossible to get one setting correct for the whole show. Better to do it afterwards. Focus is critical especially in HD and under expose a little. Fixed camera set for AE shift of -.5 to -1.0 and occasionally the medium shot camera with Spotlight or full manual depending on what is happening !!! Easy to make lighter not so easy to replace lost highlights.

Ron Evans

[Tom Van den Berghe]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

Tom,

It is AE Shift. You set the value you want in the menu. You can also turn it on and off there. If you assign a preset button to it, that button will activate it to the level you set.

Thanks for the info Ron. And yes, rapidly changing theater lights has always been a difficult situation to shoot in. Especially when the LD designed his look for the human eye and not video exposure latitude. That is why I love to be there for dress rehearsals if there is one.

Steve

Steve, in the menu I can set it from -2 till +2. After I set this to, for example, -1 it stays all the time at -1?
When I set it off It goes to 0?

For stage I will set it to -1 or -2 I think.

[Ron Evans]

Can't speak for the AE50 but for my small Sony cameras I set them to -.7 if the set is light and -1 if there is darker scenes or more contrast. Simplistically if you think there is a lot of darkness in the shot go more negative to stop the camera opening up too much.

Ron Evans

[Steven Digges]

Tom,

Let me be more specific. You said you set the AE shift and you assigned a button to it. The button will then give you three options: 1. ON 2. Off 3. Set the value

Anytime you see the white box around a number on your viewfinder the camera is telling you it wants you to pick a value manually. Some times you select the value with the menu wheel and sometimes it is the iris wheel.

Steve