Unusual setup for Speeches

[David Schuurman]

I carry a menorah in my camera bag specifically for circumstances like this where its a candlelit event. just set up my menorah beside the podium and BAM! you have light without ruining the ambiance! (TIC)

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Claire Buckley

Just adding (as I have a couple of minutes waiting for a render).

I tell all my wedding clients that I record reflected light - if there is no reflected light then I can't record it.

This way if they want ambience (no lights and dancing with candles) then I give my most pessimistic viewpoint. Imagine their delight when the DVDs show it better than I descibed it would be.

It's about expectation - tell them "no problem" and they'll expect perfection. Tell them you have your doubts but you'll go for it (for them), and when they see the results were better than they imaged then you're a "genius".

Ooo... the renders done.

:)

Claire, this is what I was trying to say, but I left out the part about being pessemistic then delivering something better than they expect. You need to make the bride aware of the obstacles, but that doesn't then absolve you of resposiability - I'll still go to whatever lengths possible to get a usable image without disrupting the proceesings. Sometimes that means using the 10w light and getting as close as possible, other times it means making sure the reading lamp on the lecturn is switched on, as this can sometimes give enough reflected light off the paper to light up a face, sometimes it means lowering the shutterspeed below what is normally considered acceptable.

Chris, in your situation I think you didn't have many other options. I'm not at all saying you should have recorded darkness in order to not distract the speaker - only that if you make the bride fully aware of your requirements and expectations, then you leave the decision to them. So tell them that if there is not enough ambient light, you will need to pull out a light which might be distracting to the speaker. That way if the situation arised, you can make the decision to setup the lights and be 100% confident with your decision, as the bride is aware of the consequences of the lighting (or lack of) she has chosen.

[Greg Fiske]

"Oh well I would have really liked to see how the DSLR guys would have shot this without any lighting"

1/30th shutter speed, 3200 iso, zeiss 50mm 1.4. Bad frame grabs below, but you get the idea. Don't know how much the moon helped with these, but dslr's are getting to the point where they can see in the dark. One shot is just a candle and the other christmas lights (plus whatever ambient from the moon).


http://fiskephotography.smugmug.com/...QGKMVW9-X2.jpg

http://fiskephotography.smugmug.com/...W2PKZw4-X2.jpg

[John Wiley]

Greg, was that the 5DmkII or one of the APS-C DSLR's?

[Corey Graham]

Originally Posted by Greg Fiske

1/30th shutter speed, 3200 iso, zeiss 50mm 1.4. Bad frame grabs below, but you get the idea. Don't know how much the moon helped with these, but dslr's are getting to the point where they can see in the dark. One shot is just a candle and the other christmas lights (plus whatever ambient from the moon).

Wow! I would have expected a lot more noise at ISO 3200. How do you reckon that was achieved?

[Greg Fiske]

5d Mark II. To be fair, the lady in the background has light on her, so I think I probably got lucky with the moonlight. If you over expose a little the noise really drops. I find that 1/50 vs 1/30 is usually the threshold to reduce noise from a dark environment. I also like Magic Bullet Denoiser 1.0 vs. Neat Video mainly cause you can control the level of noise reduction to an image. The previous images used neat video, but they tend to get a plasticy feel. I guess I could layer the clips and use an opacity slider, but I now use magic bullet denoiser and it has the slider built into the effect. I get much better results.

[Mary Crowley]

Ha ha Chris,

feel free to make a fuss. It's one of those things that we'd all prefer it to happen to others and then read about it on here rather than actually have to endure it ourselves!

[Chris Harding]

Hi Mary

The end result was actually very nice!! Total ambience especially the dancing was very contrasty with the black night in the background but I have just delivered the video and the bride is delighted!!! A couple of the speakers blinked a bit as their eyes adjusted from almost total dark to reasonable light but it certainly didn't affect their performance!!

One thing about rigging a softbox is that you can at least be independent from the house lights. Then, of course you get the brilliant venues that dim the ambient lighting and turn on their own lectern lighting setup!! What joy...just place the main camera and shoot!!

I have our traditional end-of-season rest period for a few weeks now as Western Australia drops into wet and icy weather!! I need the break!!! You, of course are heading straight into full Summer over there!!

Chris

[Ray Pegram]

..last Saturday (4th June) I had something similar thou not as bad as your situation Chris.. down lights widely spaced with dimmers turned down resembling dimly lit exit signs in a theatre. I actually used an on-board LED light turned down and aimed it 45 degrees at the white ceiling. I also ran my gain (very very unusual for me running gain). This gave me a an acceptable image...

Seems this may be something I raise with B&G's in the future.