Using your Zebras

[Ronster]

Hey all,

So I recently started to try and use my zebras while shooting. I'm use to just looking at my monitor and trying to get the best image I can but lately I have been in outdoors day situations doing more documentary stuff. I really don't have time to sit infront of a monitor and I need to make decisions fast.

I was wondering if anyone had some pointers to basic shooting with zebras and what they recommend setting their zebras to?

Here is what I did on a recent shoot with my hvx 200 and it seemed to work really well:

I would zoom in do my autoexposure on someones face. My auto iris is set to -2

that would usually get me in the right ball park if not right on.

I would put my zebras to 80 percent and make sure I had no zebras on their face. I would actually open up till I saw zebras and then take it down about a 1/2 a stop to a stop.

I also would just throw on the 100 zebras to see the scene and make sure nothing really was nuclear aside form white in the frames and skies.

but I found that worked really well. Wondering if this was a good way to do it or if there is a better way.

I think the main thing I found for myself is if I turned on zebras at 80 percent and there were some zebra stripes on peoples faces i would turn it down so they were gone an go maybe another half stop for good measure.

Does that mean maybe i should set my zebras to 85 and have a bit of zebras on the highlights and that should also put me in the right ball park?

I just found shooting at 80 zebras and finding where the zebras would come in on the exposure and then taking it down a 1/2 a stop to a stop yielded very solid results.

I'm just not sure if there is a way easier way to work with zebras?

thoughts please

Ronster

[mcvideo]

I follow this same process as well. Did not know you can change the zebra default from 80 to 85 etc.

[David Jimerson]

80/100 isn't uncommon, but most prefer 70 on caucasian skin tones; lower a bit for darker skin. You'd set your exposure so that you've just started to see zebras appear at 70 (you want the brightest parts of the skin to be at about 70, with the rest 60-70). 80 is a little hot; if you monitor so that you make all the zebra lines disappear, you don't actually know how far you're undershooting 80 IRE, so you may be too low. With zebras at 70, and flecks of zebras just starting to appear in the bright spots, you know you're in the right area.

Don't use auto exposure; it kind of makes the zebras useless. :) The whole point of monitoring your exposure is so that you can respond to the lighting conditions that you're monitoring and make sure you've got exactly what you want.

[Ronster]

80/100 isn't uncommon, but most prefer 70 on caucasian skin tones; lower a bit for darker skin. You'd set your exposure so that you've just started to see zebras appear at 70 (you want the brightest parts of the skin to be at about 70, with the rest 60-70). 80 is a little hot; if you monitor so that you make all the zebra lines disappear, you don't actually know how far you're undershooting 80 IRE, so you may be too low. With zebras at 70, and flecks of zebras just starting to appear in the bright spots, you know you're in the right area.

Don't use auto exposure; it kind of makes the zebras useless. :) The whole point of monitoring your exposure is so that you can respond to the lighting conditions that you're monitoring and make sure you've got exactly what you want.

Wow this actually makes sense...I just took my camera and shifted between 70 and 80 and it seems that at say 70 I would shoot at an f 5.6 and I would barely see zebras on a face if I went to 80 I would go to a 4.8 and barely see zebras. So there is a 1/2 a stop difference and the 70 makes it slighly more underexposed which is what I was going for on my shoot at 80. I would close it down a 1/2 a stop to a stop below seeing the zebras which would have put me right at around 70 Ire.

I never understood zebras before this. I didn't understand what it all meant.


now you said this:

"but most prefer 70 on caucasian skin tones; lower a bit for darker skin"

When you say lower a bit do you mean on darker skin go to 80 or go to 60?

thanks so much

Ron

[Ronster]

I follow this same process as well. Did not know you can change the zebra default from 80 to 85 etc.

go to display setup in your camera the top one is "zebra detect 1" you can shift it to whatever you want

most people I believe do "zebra detect 1" at 70, 75, 80

and "zebra detect 2" at 100

but please someone else chime in here I am not absolutely sure on this

Ronster

[DGW]

go to display setup in your camera the top one is "zebra detect 1" you can shift it to whatever you want

most people I believe do "zebra detect 1" at 70, 75, 80

and "zebra detect 2" at 100

but please someone else chime in here I am not absolutely sure on this

Ronster


I use Zebra 1 at 70 and Zebra 2 at 100.