Still Struggling to Nail Focus Outdoors!!!

[Mark Watson]

My "laser" range finder is infrared, so no red dot. They come in varying operating ranges, and this one happens to be 5-700 meters. Handy and accurate.

Mark

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Mark

That would work!! Then again you could really mess with the photog at a wedding too and put a neat red dot on her dress or face!! I'll look around for an IR unit rather but will it work in sunlight?? I nearly changed my wireless systems to IR but apparently they won't work in sunshine ???

BTW David??? I managed to recover the softer footage really nicely using Sony Vegas's Convolution Kernel .. just duplicate a track and on the track above add the plugin and use the Sharpen preset ! Then use the Opacity slider to blend into the bottom track and soft becomes sharp with no noise either!(unlike the Sharpen Plugin) Dunno if your Linux edit software has something similar but it works pretty well if you have screwed up!!

Chris

[Dave Baker]

It looks like the Sobel filter will do it Chris. A quick try has given me optimism, but I need a bit more fiddle time to be sure. Thanks for the tip.

Dave

[Mark Watson]

I've had no trouble using it in bright sunlight. I got it so I could check the distance to the subject when shooting with a tilt-shift lens on a 7D. For that crop camera I was getting good results when about 90 feet away (good blur effect). The range finder has a sighting viewfinder with a cross-hair aim point and the laser is actually eye-safe, unlike a laser pointer I bought in Bangkok 2 years ago. If I aim it at a piece of paper for awhile, it will burn a hole in it. Not very practical as it drains the batteries too fast.

Mark

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

we also get crazy situations where half are in deep shade and half in bright sun ... figure that one out for correct exposure!!

Chris

Chris I have a few outdoor ceremonies booked this year (rare for the UK) so how do you handle exposing for that situation? For me I would be tempted to not let the guests in the sun blow out, and bring up shadow details in post which you can do somewhat in Premiere but does result in quite a noisy image, even with zero gain.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Pete

I'm talking here about the Australian sun that blinds you!! I had an April wedding here in deep shade for the guys and couple and bright sun for the girls... I had no option but to expose for the couple so the bridesmaids were totally blown out. This was a backlit situation and an overcrowded ceremony patio and my ONLY position was on a guys side with about a 60 degree angle from a straight on position ...it was the only place I could see the couple without shooting into the direct sun so at that angle the bridesmaids were in the sun. It's a rare occasion where the celebrant refused to compromise and was just stubborn!!

If we had just moved everyone back 10 metres they all would have been in the shade. She was a stubborn Scottish lady and simply told me "This is how I do it" She also did the entire ceremony standing almost on top of the couple and insisted on having them with their backs to the guests .. no-one saw their faces really except ...even the ring ceremony was hidden!!

If I can I get them all in the shade even if I have to "double stack" the groomsmen and bridesmaid so they fit into the shade ...I think if all else fails one needs to keep a really tight shot on the couple and then use lots of cutaways of the bridal party on second camera ... My view is if all else fails on exposure then your priority is the bride and groom.

Chris