Rick Wise
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No, Gary, I meant disrespect. We can disagree, respectfully.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
I am glad to see this thread is getting back to the point of the original question. In my view, disrespect has no place on this forum – or anywhere else, for that matter.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
In general, I’ve found it wisest to upgrade every other version, for any software, not just Vegas. The real problem, I think, is that Sony never successfully marketed to a large audience. They never made significant inroads on Final Cut Pro, Avid, or Premiere. It’s likely that as a result they ended up with a small group of dedicated users and are giving up the ghost. There is still a tiny possibility they will turn Catalyst into something pros want to use, a very uphill battle. From your description of the new Final Cut Pro X, I think my move would be there were I to switch to something “newer and better.”
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Thank you, John, for those thoughtful comments. And for the news that Final Cut Pro X has finally morphed into an NLE that editors would want to use. Sony led the way for a long time (e.g. ability to put different types of clips on the same time line without needing to render any of them) but now it looks like FCP has taken a significant lead. I guess the screams of pro editors around the globe actually were heard at Apple. A jolly good thing, that. Too bad there aren’t enough of us Vegas users to push harder on Sony. Still, maybe…. For my current needs, Vegas 12 works just fine.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Leave Sony? Maybe not today, but tomorrow? It’s weird there is no one comparing editing on Vegas vs. on Catalyst. From Sony’s blurb it sounds like Sony is going the way of Apple with a “simpler” editing software. All great ideas to get us to move to Adobe Premiere or Avid.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Tough one. With the lights constantly changing. Any way to go in early and have the guy running the lights show you the max he’ll do? In that case, set you zebras to 100 and adjust f/stop so that there’s a small quantity of zebras showing. Stick anybody out in the light to judge. In post you may need to ride the mid tones up or down to compensate if things get too dark and then bright again.
If you can’t do that, I’m at a loss. The worst solution would be to set the camera to “auto” because it will ramp exposure up and down with the light changes, always too slow and artistically wrong.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Figure out or find out in the specs what the effective, native ISO is for your camera. To figure it out, set up a Kodak gray card in soft, even light. Zoom in on the lens so that the card fills the frame. Set the camera to “auto” and read to what f/stop it adjusts. Is there a setting for variable shutter speed? If no, assume it’s 2 times the frame rate. If you can adjust shutter (I think you can) then manually set it to twice the frame rate. Let’s say the reading is f/5.6.
Now place the meter in the same light as the gray card. Set the shutter speed to 48 if you are shooting at 24 fps, or 60 if you are shooting at 30 fps. Begin with ISO 400. Now take a reading. If the f/stop turns out to be f/5.6 you have found your native ISO for this camera. If the f/stop is f/8, re-set the ISO to 200, and you’ll get 5.6. Etc. Note: ISO changes in 1/3 of a stop increments and it is likely you will need to make smaller than whole f/stop adjustments.
You may find your camera has a different ISO for daylight vs. for tungsten lights, so repeat the experiment in each situation to determine native ISO.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Anything over 100 will be clipped — no detail. For landscape shooting I’d use the zebras set to 100. If the barn is then too dark, you can fudge a bit, depending on the camera. A lot of DSLRs will turn that sky to magenta if significantly overexposed. So if you have one of those, protect the highlights. In post you can usually pull up the midtones (in this case the barn.)
Shooting Caucasian people I like to set the Zebras to 70, and adjust exposure until there is just a hint of zebra on the bridge of the nose and/or a small part of the forehead. Doing so should get you correct exposure, but only for Caucasians. Black skin varies enormously in darkness/lightness.
But there may be times when you want the face to be darker than “correctly” exposed, as in “moonlight.” Or, if the actor is mostly in the dark, but there’s a hot side light on part of his face, that side should be at least a stop hotter than “normal.”
In filmmaking, there are no forumulas beyond the “inverse square law” and “west Virginia.”
The best method: get an incident light meter and learn how to use it. Like the Sekonic L-308DC for around $250. It’s a bit tricky setting up correctly but after that a pretty neat little pocket meter. (For shooting HD, you’d set the mode of the meter to…. HD. Etc.) After you’ve mastered that meter, get a Pentax digital spot meter on eBay and learn how to use it with the Zone system. When you’ve mastered both meters, you are beginning to control your exposures well beyond basic “correct” lighting and f/stops. Sounds too daunting? Maybe you local community college has some courses in photography. You can adapt that information to shooting video with a bit of ingenuity. Maybe it also has film classes as well, but my guess is you’ll get better information about the many possibilities of exposure from the still-class. Unless you’ve got a really savy instructor of “film.”
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
If you like them, and they are cheap, grab them. You can price them later. Me, I have no idea but they look like they could be worth something to the right customer. Or maybe in your own house…..
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Looks like Amazon sells the daylight version of those bulbs for around $62 with shipping. A CRI of only 84. But you can probably manually white balance to them and make them work well the way Todd did. Cheap China Balls are a treasure. You can also get 250 watt tungsten bulbs for them. Those get hot, so be sure to use the large size balls.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com