VX 2000- shooting snow
 

Hi. Can someone who has the Sony VX2000 please give me some technical advice. I have to shoot a figure dressed in black in a field of snow. The whole frame is therefore white, filled with a snow-covered slope. I've concluded that I have to use manual settings to prevent the camera from rendering the snow as grey.

Here's what I was planning to do: Set White Balance to Daylight. Set Auto Lock switch to the middle position. Press Exposure button and adjust aperture, opening up the lens so I have enough light to make the snow white. Is this correct? What about shutter speed? Is it possible to then check my shutter speed to make sure it's not too slow? If I leave the Auto Lock switch in the middle, will the camera automatically adjust exposure if the light changes? I tried shooting with the Auto Lock in the locked position, but the picture was too dark.

Thanks a lot for your assistance.

Lisa K.

VX 2000-Shooting Snow
 

Hi. Can someone who has the Sony VX2000 please give me some technical advice. I have to shoot a figure dressed in black in a field of snow. The whole frame is therefore white, filled with a snow-covered slope. I've concluded that I have to use manual settings to prevent the camera from rendering the snow as grey.

Here's what I was planning to do: Set White Balance to Daylight. Set Auto Lock switch to the middle position. Press Exposure button and adjust aperture, opening up the lens so I have enough light to make the snow white. Is this correct? What about shutter speed? Is it possible to then check my shutter speed to make sure it's not too slow? If I leave the Auto Lock switch in the middle, will the camera automatically adjust exposure if the light changes? I tried shooting with the Auto Lock in the locked position, but the picture was too dark.

Thanks a lot for your assistance.

Lisa K.

You may want to use your ND filter, as I am assuming the shoot is during the day, and there is therefore going to be a lot of light bouncing off that snow into your camera.

I assume the face of the person is important to you and that is the element in the picture you HAVE to make certain is exposed correctly.

To do that, use your Zebra pattern set to 70% and, approaching the exposure from too dark, allow the Zebra pattern to just show on the highlights of the person's face.

The rest of the scene will just have to fall where it may. I'd guess the snow will be too white and the black suit will be pretty much a featureless blob unless the sun is hitting it head-on.

Whatever you do, don't shoot the person backlit.

If the camera is locked down, you can take a properly exposed shot of the environment without the person and then in post, you can lumikey the correctly exposed background into the final image.

On the VX2000, if you want to set the exposure manually, you have to set the shutter speed first. Anything from 1/60 or faster will be good enough, unless you are shooting some action such as skiing (which would need a faster shutter). Then push the iris button and adjust the dial to get the exposure you want. Use the viewfinder or the LCD panel as a guide, with the zebra set to 100%. Adjust the iris until the zebras are just disappearing from the brightest parts of the snow (or to whatever setting you are happy with - I'm assuming that you don't want to show detail in the black figure).

If you decide halfway through that you want to change the shutter speed, you have to deselect the iris button and then adjust the shutter. Then select iris again, etc.

Richard

I agree with everything Richard says, but I'm not keen on upping the shutter speed for high speed action shots - I'd much rather add ND filtration and keep to the default 1/50th sec (PAL). You can go faster of course, but you'll get the stuttery look so prevalent in Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Also if you come to a section that you want to slo-mo, the higher shutter speeds mean you'll lose a lot of smoothness.

tom.

I shot an ice fishing video last year that was overexposed in parts until I removed glare from the snow & ice with a circular polarizing filter/UV combo. Made a big difference. You may want to give that a shot (along w/ other advice mentioned previously).
--Edward Croteau
Red Quill Productions