What did I do wrong here...?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Aaron

I had a wedding on Saturday which had much the same situation as your shoot too. The venue walls were BLACK and I had a speech maker standing behind a BLACK lectern!!! As you can imagine the camera "sees" 90% black background and then a lit persons head for the remaining 10% of the image. The camera will obviously try to expose for the complete scene so the blacks are exposed correctly with lots of noise as the gain screams upwards and of course the person's face, like your situation, is totally blown out.

Here's what I do and STILL run the camera in full auto but with a manual lens.

Stage 1 : You need the camera to firstly expose the background correctly so it remains black and not full of noise speckles! Set your gain limit to an absolute maximum of 21db (it shouldn't ever be higher anyway)
If you shoot the background and check out the video you will see that the background is nicely exposed by the camera BUT lit faces are still blown out.

Stage 2 : Assign your EV value option on the camera to a button on the camera (that's the 6 buttons in front of the audio panel) Mine is set to Button 2. You need it so when you push the button the LCD shows an EV value at the left bottom corner of the screen.

Stage 3 : Set your zebras to 90% and keep them on ALL the time

On the shoot look at the scene and you should have the background slightly over exposed and any faces badly over exposed as your video has shown. The faces will also have zebra stripes all over them as will any light clothing as the camera is screaming for more light due to the black curtains.

Now hit your assigned EV button and use the SEL/PUSH/EXEC wheel to change your exposure value to a negative ....as you turn the wheel and the EV goes into minus numbers you will also see the zebras start to vanish from faces and white clothing .... !! It's as easy as that!!

Obviously if you are shooting normally lit rooms later you just turn the EV off using your assigned button.

Pete Rush also uses this for abnormally lit situations and it works a treat!!

Chris

[Noa Put]

I only use the AE function in situations where I have to run unmanned camera's and where the light conditions change throughout a recording. But for the camera that I operate the AE function is not a substitute for exposure control. Maybe I am old school but I always get the best results when I manually adjust the exposure. I use the zebra's and/or histogram to judge if I"m right. This has always worked well with all my camera's, I only had some start up issues with my gh4 to get the exposure, especially on faces, just right but after some use and experimenting with presets and zebra settings I can nail it every time now.

[Chris Harding]

Each to their own Noa

I prefer to use the EV enabled and on the wheel because using the aperture ring on the adapter means I might change my DOF (if I have to open the lens) just enough for me to lose focus and not realise it. If you use the iris then you also need to check focus very carefully too, especially if you are making the DOF smaller!!

Using the EV wheel your aperture (and focus) remain untouched and locked in and all you are changing is ISO/Gain or shutter speed slightly.

I prefer not to mess up my DOF range and both do the same job!

Chris

[Noa Put]

What has focus to do with changing the iris? If your focus is correct and locked, changing the iris doesn't have an effect on that. If you loose focus and don't realise it means you are shooting in automode which is asking for problems on a camera that has a larger sensor, just like letting your camera decide what the exposure should be autofocus can result to the same problem.

[Joel Corral]

AE = Auto Exposure.. :)

[Aaron Jones Sr.]

Well, the fashion show host liked my video enough to post it on their facebook as a showcase, even though I felt bad it turned out the way it did. I have learned how to make the necessary adjustments thanks to all of you guys. I really appreciate your help. I'm asked to do the next one so I'm sure I will have a better product.

[Steve Bobilin]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hi Aaron
Now hit your assigned EV button and use the SEL/PUSH/EXEC wheel to change your exposure value to a negative ....as you turn the wheel and the EV goes into minus numbers you will also see the zebras start to vanish from faces and white clothing .... !! It's as easy as that!!
Chris

Great directions, Chris. I had to get my camera and try it. One thing is missing in your directions, though—the auto/manual button HAS to be set on auto for this to work, but the Auto Focus/Manual button HAS to be st to manual, otherwise you can't scroll with the wheel.

At least that's with the stock lens. Perhaps this is not needed with a manual lens.

[Steven Digges]

I am with Noa. I am in manual ninety percent of the time.


My old school photography days greatly influence my video shooting. Aperture/iris and shutter settings are not just about exposure to me. I understand exposure well enough to get it right. Then I manually choose the settings I want because of there effects on the look of the image. That is what separates the EA50 from three chip cameras, more creative control.

I think there are some guys on this forum with rudimentary skills that are looking for advise from us veterans and getting confused by what they read because forum posts offer snippets of the big picture. Rule number one of any forum is do not believe everything you read. Especially if it is from me!!!

Steve

[Noa Put]

do not believe everything you read. Especially if it is from me!!!

You should add that as a signature :)

I have no issue using the "auto" benefits on my camera's, in some occasions they can get better results and faster then when I would do it manually, then I"m only talking about my small sensor handicams which have front to back sharpness when I shoot wide open, they are almost idiot proof and when you are working under high time pressure and need to get a shot right in a blink of an eye the automode will get it right 90% of the time but can bite you real hard the other 10% and that percentage rises much higher with larger sensor camera's combined with fast lenses

My experience is that you should learn to control your camera manually so you will have full control on what you plan to achieve, I have read enough posts from people asking why their color, exposure, focus etc is off and that's because they often let their camera decide on those settings and then wonder why it's not right.

If you dial it all in yourself you will learn it's you that decides how the outcome will be and you will learn what effects the combination of shutter, nd's, iso and focus have on the actual image and you will understand better what you need to do to get it right. Once you know the ins and outs of your camera you can decide better under which conditions you can let it go on it's own and when it goes wrong, you will understand why.

[Chris Harding]

I'm on manual focus 100% of the time cos that's what happens with manual lenses. Yes, I use the AE to give me a ball park exposure and at least if things are moving fast, I am close to what I want! If something is going on at a wedding and I fiddle around with exposure I could quite easily miss it. If it's a slow moving event like speeches I will start in AE and then tweak the expose using zebras and either the manual iris ring on the adapter or the EV wheel. If the bride suddenly yells "Quick, quick, film this" I would rather have the footage even if exposure isn't perfect than miss it cos I was getting the exposure perfect. On Realty and Commercial shoots I have plenty of time so I can make sure everything looks good!!