Steamboat Springs, CO at 10,500 ft

[thabo]

Shot this in Feb at Storm Peak Lab at the top of the Ski Resort. Great view!!
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[BobDiaz]

Very interesting, I watched the whole thing.

I did notice that at 2:37 in the video the auto exposure switched over for the outside exposure, resulting in the inside items being too dark. You zoomed in to get a better exposure, but there's an easier way.

If you get into a potential back-light situation, press the iris wheel for auto exposure, zoom into the area you want exposed correctly, and press the iris wheel again to switch to manual exposure. This trick will lock the exposure at the correct setting for the inside items and prevents it from being fooled by bright windows. Once the shot is finished, be sure to switch back to auto exposure.

I strongly suggest you set the zebras to 105% and make sure the zebras are turned on. That way if you get an overexposure condition, you'll see lots of zebra strips in the image. This is only shown in the viewfinder and is NOT recorded.


I also noticed that you did the shoot hand held. You may want to consider getting a tripod and a mono-pod. The tripod will really help steady things and for places where you can set-up a tripod, a mono-pod will help with shots on the run.


You picked a great subject to cover...


Bob Diaz

[Bic Parker]

Great video. This is the kind of stuff I really like, especially with the interviews, cutaways, etc... You did a good job of editing the footage together and letting the interviews narrate and carry the piece.

As an alternative to the monopod, I would seriously consider getting a steadicam or glidecam (I'm using a Glidecam 2000, now). I am doing a lot of similar pieces (such as the astronomy campus video in this forum) and I have found that a good steadicam unit is worth its weight in gold, especially on the outdoor interviews and activity shots. If you look at the astronomy campus video, most of the shots, except for the indoor interviews, the nighttime IR shots, and a couple of others, were all hand held using the Glidecam.

I am still getting used to the Glidecam and letting it set up before I start a shot, but it clearly makes an enormous difference to the shot quality. It also gives a lot more range and flexibility as to the types of hand held shots I can do.

[thabo]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys. I actually had to lug the camera up the mountainside in a backpack (well, we got to use the ski lifts) so I didn't have room for a lot of kit! This was a one man / pro bono shoot but I'll be better prepared next time!

Bob: yeah the whole exposure thing.... I noticed this afterwards too, this was my first real shoot with my new camera so I had the thing on auto :( . it does tend to change quite abruptly, perhaps a cloud crossed the sun or something but I should of obviously never been in auto mode! I also buggered up the second to last interview; I switched into focus assist mode and forgot to switch back - now I know that when the screen is outlined in blue you're in focus assist / zoomed in mode.

Bic: I'd love to get a steady cam / Glidecam, but tis not in the budget right now. I actually have a home made one but I didn't use it, I think I even had it in my backpack.