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Need help filming a sunrise
I hope I’m in the right forum. Anyways, I need to shoot a sunrise with a JVC GY-DV 500 and I am kind of banking on getting it right on the first try. This film will be sped up in editing so a 2 hour sunrise will take about 10-15 seconds. So I have 2 questions;
1) I’m assuming that if I leave it on auto the tape will come out bad. So I’m thinking that I will put it on filter 3 (This cam only has 3) with the iris about 3/4 of the way open-ish? (don’t know the f-stop off the top of my head) The Iris is what I’m most confused on. And if I white balance while the sun is down and don’t re-white, it should come up orange, right? (Orange is ok)
2) For editing purposes, do I need to film 2 straight hours or can I go 1 minute recording, 1 minutes paused?
Any advice would be appreciated
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5 Replies
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Two hours is a lot of sunrise. The sun will travel a considerable arc in that time, and you’ll have to be zoomed out to catch it all. Fifteen minutes ought to do it, if you pick the right fifteen minutes.
Pointing the camera could be difficult…do you know just where the sun is going to come up? “In the east” covers a quarter of the horizon.
Setting exposure could be difficult, as the light levels will be changing a LOT. You could come out a day early, and see what exposure you need for the brightest part of the shot…then use that setting when you shoot the real thing. Or you could take an exposure reading two hours before sunset, and use that.
Which brings up an idea: Why not shoot the sunSET instead, and reverse it in post? This has advantages…you know where the sun is. You can decide exactly when to start shooting. You’ll know what exposure to use. You don’t have to get up before dawn. Unless the eastern horizon has some feature that must be in the shot, I’d recommend this approach.
In any case, use ND2 and set white balance to 5600K.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Two hours is a lot of sunrise. The sun will travel a considerable arc in that time, and you’ll have to be zoomed out to catch it all. Fifteen minutes ought to do it, if you pick the right fifteen minutes.
Pointing the camera could be difficult…do you know just where the sun is going to come up? “In the east” covers a quarter of the horizon.
Setting exposure could be difficult, as the light levels will be changing a LOT. You could come out a day early, and see what exposure you need for the brightest part of the shot…then use that setting when you shoot the real thing. Or you could take an exposure reading two hours before sunset, and use that.
Which brings up an idea: Why not shoot the sunSET instead, and reverse it in post? This has advantages…you know where the sun is. You can decide exactly when to start shooting. You’ll know what exposure to use. You don’t have to get up before dawn. Unless the eastern horizon has some feature that must be in the shot, I’d recommend this approach.
In any case, use ND2 and set white balance to 5600K.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
if you do not need it to be of a specific notable location, I would look into stock footage. Footage of a generic beach mountain valley or city can easily be found and if the place is notable enough then you my be able to find stock footage of the exact place you want.
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Thanks for the help guys.
I did go out a day early and fool around a little to find where I needed to be. Unfortunately I could not shoot the sunset or use stock footage because I needed the scoreboard of the local team in the shot. I do not have my notes of the settings I used, but it turned out ok. Not perfect, but it will certainly work and I learned a lot about my camera. Thanks again for the help.
Travis
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Great!
Hey, didja see the Green Flash?
Regards,
Doug Graham
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