Steve Crow
Forum Replies Created
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Okay, here’s another thread to look at, similar to yours,
One person found that if they held the AE lock button down it solved the problem, another person commented that the problem is that the electricity rate sometime varies so while it is supposed to be a steady 50HZ it may actually be slightly higher or lower – I’m thinking that’s what happened to you.
What a pain in the ass
Steve
Steve Crow
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No you’re right, it shouldn’t have happened at least in terms of electricity rates being an issue. Did it look like the rolling bars as seen in the sample video posted in the article?
Steve Crow
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Here is an article that will explain it all for you:
https://urbanvideo.ca/avoid-video-flicker
Steve Crow
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I believe the Panasonic Lumix DMC‑GH2 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds will be your best bet at a budget of $500. Panasonic has unlimited recording time (up to the capacity of the card that is) and if you want English menus then you have to buy an American version online on a site like Amazon or B&H.
Steve Crow
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You might check out the Canon 6D, it’s the Canon “entry level” full frame sensor camera body.
Steve
Steve Crow
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Yes, I think the histogram is going to be your new best friend. The F-stop is just one of several camera settings that give you the exposure (the other two main ones being shutter speed and ISO of course.)
The other aspect to consider is your color grading. In post you can do a lot to match the exposure between different clips if the lighting is similar
Steve Crow
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I think you should consider a monopod. Having a fairly steady shot, particularly if you relatively far away from the performer on stage, is going to make focusing accurately much much easier for you.
Steve Crow
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Hmmm that’s strange that you are not getting the same thing in the hallway (unless they have different overhead lighting there as compared to your first location by the window)
It just occurred to me that you also say the artificial lighting is yellow-ish, I wonder if they are yellow sodium lamps but I only am aware of those being used for street lighting. Of course I guess it could also be the shade or covering of the light bulbs that is colored.
Maybe you can post a sample clip but if it looks like bands or bars of discoloration moving down the frame and then starting over at the top again it sure sounds like the fluorescent lighting issue which comes up often here in this forum. About 2-3 years ago I posted a bunch of information I found on this issue here on this forum.
You might also trying checking out Vimeo or YouTube and looking for examples of fluorescent lighting “bars” or “banding” and see if it looks like what you are getting.
I also wonder if in your color grading you push the mids and highlights a bit more towards magenta if that would counteract the yellow coloring and then seeing if or how that impacts the banding you are seeing.
Are you white balancing your camera before filming? I’m not thinking of this as the cause of the banding, only the yellow-ish cast you described.
Steve Crow
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No I think it has to do with the fluorescent lighting used by the hotel and it’s refresh frequency interacting with your shutter speed. It’s strange that this is happening by the window with natural light but to confirm my conclusion try shooting a clip in just a normal hallway in the hotel that is not getting natural light – the banding should be much worse
Steve Crow
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Doriana,
Basically if you are at an aperture of 2.8 or wider (1, 1.4, 1.8, 2, 2.8) you will get that blurred background or shallow depth of field.
Here’s a thing to keep in mind though – the blurred areas look like that because they are out of focus of course. That means you really have to get your focus right on your subject AND if they move you have to refocus because a shallow depth of field is just another way of saying shallow focus. How “deep” your focus is determined by factors like how far away your subject is, the lens aperture and by what your lens focal length is – 24mm, 70mm or somewhere in between for instance.
At very wide open apertures, the smaller numbers, the depth of field may be an inch or even less, meaning if you focus on the performer’s eyes, their nose may be out of focus. So if they move too much towards or away from you, your shot could be ruined. So you may find that shooting performers on stage who are always moving with a shallow depth of field is just too hard – in that case set your aperture to a high number (or more closed down in the language of photography.) Setting your aperture at 8 is usually more than safe enough to get everything in focus.
There are paper and online calculators and even apps for your phone that will tell you what your depth of field will be after you input your camera’s settings.
Steve Crow