Matching two cameras - exposure difference

[David McKnight]

I don't know whether this post should go in the VX-2000 forum, Vegas forum, or here. So I'll post here since it's a wedding shoot and apologies if it should be elsewhere.

I have ceremony footage from two cams, one up on the balcony (VX-2100) operated by my lovely and talented wife, and the other (VX-2000) on the floor up front operated by me.

Midday wedding, stained glass windows beaming sunlight in. I lowered the exposure manually based on the zebra level (due to the light coming in) - wife's cam, however, was in full auto mode. The footage from my camera looks "dull" for lack of a better word, and footage from her cam pops. The colors are much more vibrant. When I set the exposure I do it such that zebras are showing very minimally on the brightest areas (flames, bald heads, wedding gown, etc)

I had one redeeming shot, of the unity candle - in her footage, the flame looks like a white Christmas tree lightbulb, really blown out. The footage from my exposure-adjusted cam shows more detail and colors in the flame. But other than that, my footage doesn't look as good.

I will post a short 10 second sample this evening if requested - my questions are, did I do something wrong, or is her footage overexposed and we're just used to seeing that? I'm trying to learn more about my camera and use it correctly, and I want her to do the same - but if leaving it in auto mode produces better results, what's the point? Or did I dial the exposure down too much?

Last question, can the footage from my cam be helped out in Vegas? Is it considered underexposed?

thanks,
David

[Bob Costa]

Someone else will jump in that knows that camera better (I have a DVX), but in order to use zebras you have to know what kind of zebras they are. I keep mine set at 105% (or 100%), and for that the zebras should just fringe the highlights. But that only minimizes the blowouts, it tells you nothing about the rest of the picture.

With 85% zebras (which I use for a quick check or in contrasty situations) you need to see zebras on the important parts of your picture (usually the face). Using these you WANT to see zebras. Then let the highlights blow out if you have to, or do a small adjustment darker, but not much. The choices and compromises are greatly affected by what gamma settings I am using also. Some settings have more or less blowout protection (knee).

Using the two different settings together give you the best overall measure of the lighting issues.

I am slowly learning my camera too, so I use auto-mode quite a bit. As I get better, I will use more manual. I nearly always WB manually. Right now, I am challenged just remembering to turn it on and off correctly so I don't shoot my feet.

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by David McKnight

I don't know whether this post should go in the VX-2000 forum, Vegas forum, or here. So I'll post here since it's a wedding shoot and apologies if it should be elsewhere.

I have ceremony footage from two cams, one up on the balcony (VX-2100) operated by my lovely and talented wife, and the other (VX-2000) on the floor up front operated by me.

Midday wedding, stained glass windows beaming sunlight in. I lowered the exposure manually based on the zebra level (due to the light coming in) - wife's cam, however, was in full auto mode. The footage from my camera looks "dull" for lack of a better word, and footage from her cam pops. The colors are much more vibrant. When I set the exposure I do it such that zebras are showing very minimally on the brightest areas (flames, bald heads, wedding gown, etc)

I had one redeeming shot, of the unity candle - in her footage, the flame looks like a white Christmas tree lightbulb, really blown out. The footage from my exposure-adjusted cam shows more detail and colors in the flame. But other than that, my footage doesn't look as good.

I will post a short 10 second sample this evening if requested - my questions are, did I do something wrong, or is her footage overexposed and we're just used to seeing that? I'm trying to learn more about my camera and use it correctly, and I want her to do the same - but if leaving it in auto mode produces better results, what's the point? Or did I dial the exposure down too much?

Last question, can the footage from my cam be helped out in Vegas? Is it considered underexposed?

thanks,
David

I tend to noitice the same thing with my footage in the respect of it being a bit underexposed. I like it this way because it allow for more latitude in post.l Granted it doesn't save time or increase my efficiency but if I have a rather flat, slightly underexposed image I can make it look really good beings I can completly control what details I blow out or keep in highlight/shadow detail.

I've found the auto focus to be a bit on the bright side in regards to exposure. What you can do if turn on auto exposure, then toggle it off...check the iris setting it thought was correct and notch it down a stop or two. A videographer friend of mine does this all the time.

I feel part of the reason my exposures turn out a bit dim is because I use 100IRE zebras and I'm not very flexable when I start seeing pattern. I usually try to suppress the majority of zebras other than the areas like you mentioned (in highlights, reflections, ect). I think if I can be a little more liberal about letting some zebras go I can get a better exposure right out of the camera. However...my pet peeve is under and over exposed images. With overexposed images nudging a slight lead on my dislike scale...lol. Thus the reason I'm happy to mildy under expose my imagry to ENSURE I'll never have burnt highlights.

Now....matching 2 cams is a whole other story. One I really can't describe short of writing a novel. If you'd like post a full res screen grab (do a screen capture with video preview window set to "Best-Full") from each cam from the same exact moment. I'll open up the grabs in Vegas run the filters to match them to the best of my ability and send you the VEG file. You can look at the filters I used and may get a general idea of the path I took.

[David McKnight]

My zebras settings are based on 100, I forgot to mention that.

Glenn and others, I've posted a few second clip here -

http://mcknightvideo.com/download/te...Comparison.avi

It's not exactly what you asked for - still frame from the exact same moment - but if you'd prefer that I will have that up by the morning.

- David

[Dan Shallenberger]

Here's my opinion, and it's by no means an expert opinion, just some points I thought of when looking at the sample footage.

One reason the balcony footage 'pops' could be that she didn't have backlighting, and does have that colorful red carpeting with the lighter dressed bridesmaids. On your footage, with the backlighting from the windows, it looks like the people are underexposed. But, the correct exposure on the people would possibly have blown out the windows, maybe making it worse. I personally like your exposure because you can play with it and find a good exposure for the windows and people.

I have found using my PD170 that I tend to underexpose too, not wanting the zebras to go too far into my image. I have forced myself to let the zebra patterns (set at 100 most of the time) infiltrate more of my image and my footage looks better because of it. Now, I have also overexposed a couple of times, so I need to find that fine line and walk it. I like Glen's idea to underexpose a little bit, and work with it in post. It's more time in post, but you could possibly get a better image from it.

Just my thoughts!

Dan

[David McKnight]

Thanks Dan - hey Glenn, did you get an opportunity to look at the clip?

thanks,
DM

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by David McKnight

Thanks Dan - hey Glenn, did you get an opportunity to look at the clip?

thanks,
DM

Yeah- it looks to me your dealing with a bit of glare on the second shot (on the floor) due to the backlighting. It's, in turn, washing the image out a bit. You could try crushing the blacks a hair and poping the saturation subtly. It might make them look closer, however keep in mind the balcony shot is inevitably going to look like it has more pop beings you can see all the vibrant red carpeting due to it's framing.