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Advice for Shooting DSLR Video When the Scene Has No Natural Contrast?
I’m hoping someone out there might have a few ideas about getting a better image while shooting in snowy conditions.
Recently I’ve had two shoots from the same client that involved shooting outside, while it was snowing and the sky itself was maybe 10% brighter then the snow itself. Basically a completely overcast situation, 100% diffusion of what little sunlight was coming through. This is a corporate video, so on one hand it’s not like it needs to achieve a grand level of cinematography or anything, but still, I want to know I am capturing the best image possible.
The shots involve filming a large cylindrical brush that attaches to an arm of a backhoe digger and clears the snow off of shipping trucks. The footage is going to be used both for marketing and for an instructional video as to how it’s used. Any additional lighting or backdrops would be out of the question due to budget but also the weather conditions.
I used my Canon EOS 60D with a 18mm-135mm lens, ISO set to 400, Aperture at 5.6, most shots used a 30mm focal length, a few at 50mm. I had my polarizing filter on the lens, thinking it might help cut through some of the moisture in the air, or at least provide a little potential contrast, but I’m not sure it hurt, helped, or made no difference at all. I also have a fixed 50mm that takes some very nice images; maybe that would be better next time around even if it meant less flexibility on site?
I use Magic Lantern and shot flat to give me the most options in Premiere Pro or AFter Effects, but most of the time it’s impossible to see any difference between the snow being removed from the truck and the sky, regardless of how much finessing I use in post (I edit in Adobe RGB color space, set to 16 bit).
Anything I can do to help this situation while I’m capturing the shots? Any filters out there for this type of scenario, or some trick of the trade I have not heard of? Many thanks in advance for advice from the collective wisdom out there!
Doug Bowker
Motion graphics, video and 3D Animation for the Medical and Technical World
http://www.dbowker3d.com -
3 Replies
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If you have firepower in your NLE workstation, you could load the video clips into PS, making the length into a smart object, then, cuts per content, brush moving back, then another moving forward and build layers with object outlines, similar to a still.
That way you could alter the sky apart from the other content, give another shade, hue etc.
Just a thought.
RM
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Hey thanks. That is a great out of the box way of looking at it- I think I may be able to apply it in After Effects as well. The good thing is, the brush is dark orange and the arm is dark yellow- both provide a high level of contrast to work with.
Still, one of the biggest problems is actually separating the snow as it’s blowing of the truck from the sky. But I’ll definitely look into your idea either way.
Doug Bowker
Motion graphics, video and 3D Animation for the Medical and Technical World
http://www.dbowker3d.com -
To quote/paraphrase Photoshop CS6 The Missing Manual, Chapter, Photoshop and Video, on page 790:
“while it seems logical that you could import a video clip as a Smart Object, you can’t…PS treats the clip as a still.
To open…as a new document, choose file-open, navigate to where clips live, open. PS creates a new group in the layers panel…
(Once that is done)…control click/right click near the layer’s name in the Layers panel. Choose ‘Convert to smart object’ you can also choose ‘Convert to smart filter’.
Great book, especially for someone migrating from CNX2 and NIK, for editable nuance.
Have fun,
Paisley sky would be nice 😉
Rob
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