DSLR – Shooting in hi & lo lights

[Richard Harrington]

Click podcasts tab and look at DSLR show.

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: From Still to Motion, Video Made on a Mac, Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Studio On the Spot and Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques

[Sohrab Sandhu]

Don

Getting good exposure on a DSLR can be very tricky. What you see on that tiny LCD is not the true reprsentation of what you are recording. This is what i would recommend.

1. Keep your ISO fixed at 200 in the begining.

2. Open your aperture to expose the shot.

3. Hit the info button twice on your camera and you will get a Histogram on your LCD. This feature is a life saver. It will give you a true representation of your shot’s exposure.

4. If however, your shot is still underexposed, you can go higher with ISO but at about 1600 you will see lot of noise. So be vigilant about this.

5. If your shot is still underexposed (perhaps time to buy a fast lens) you can they play with shutter speed but be very careful because this can cause rolling shutter. So if you are doing any pans or zooms, stay away from this trick.

I would suggest you do lots of test shooting before you try these on a paid gig.

All the best!

Sohrab

2.66 GHz 8-core, ATI Radeon HD 4870,
FCS 3, AJA Kona Lhi

“The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth-century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But he has faith that it will happen.” — Carl Ally

[Sean Cramdon]

Thanks Richard, I will definitely check that out.

[Sean Cramdon]

Those are great tips, thank you.
Can you elaborate on what a “faster lens” will help with?

[Noah Kadner]

Which lenses are you currently using and with what sort of lighting gear if any? And in what sorts of shots are you finding the most trouble i.e. interior night, daylight exterior. Etc.

Noah

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[Sohrab Sandhu]

By faster lens i mean a lens with low F Stops.They allow a lot more light in to the camera sensor. For example a 50mm F1.4 is a fast lens. These faster lenses are a great asset if you are shooting in low light conditions.

2.66 GHz 8-core, ATI Radeon HD 4870,
FCS 3, AJA Kona Lhi

“The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth-century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But he has faith that it will happen.” — Carl Ally

[Sean Cramdon]

I am using a 18-200 with no lighting equipment.

I had some trouble finding a good set up for shooting in the sun at the beach – everything was looking very exposed. ISO was 200, shutter 1/50, 24p…I was just messing around with the aperture – dunno what is best for these bright conditions.

I also had trouble shooting a band at a pub the other night – it wasn’t very well lit so I raised the ISO and things were still kinda dark. I tried to lighten the shots with 3 way color corrector filter in FCP but things were pretty grainy.

Any tips would be amazing, thank you very much.

[Sean Cramdon]

Gotcha – fast = more light

Thank you very much!

[Sean Cramdon]

What sort of things do you sacrifice (if any) by having a faster lens?

[Pete Burger]

[Don Scrams] “I had some trouble finding a good set up for shooting in the sun at the beach – everything was looking very exposed.”

For shooting in bright conditions, it’s common to use ND-filters. Maybe get a fader ND, which can be adjusted to the light conditions. Another big advantage of ND filters: you can use any aperture you like, and so have exactly the DOF you want, because you control the light with the ND.