Do you use gain?

[filmguy123]

How often do you use gain to help brighten things up when shooting? I have been shooting some low-light night shots and have been using 0db gain and just trying to use lighting to get a good composition. However, I was wondering - is using a little ok in these situations? Or for a professional look should it be avoided at all costs?

[dolph2000]

It depends on what you shoot I think. There are no rules for it just taste. I use +6 often, but for news gathering where image quality is less important then the story, but also in documantary but here I crush the blacks a little so the noise becomes less and the bright parts stay relatively bright.
But offcourse it is a bit of a topic since the HVX could be grainier in some situations than other camera in its genre.

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Yes, you should avoid gain as much as possible. It is a certain fact that gain will add digital noise to the image. The more gain, the more noise; so use only what you have to. If it is contributing to a certain look you want, feel free to crank it up, although I suggest just adding the effect in post and keeping the picture as clean as possible.

I use +6 on occasions when I have to shoot with the M2 in low light scenes, I try to avoid +12db like the plague, but in the end, what is worse? Not having the shot or having noticable noise?

[BenB]

NEVER, EVER, EVER, NEVER, EVER!!!!!! It should be ripped from every camera made!

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

NEVER, EVER, EVER, NEVER, EVER!!!!!! It should be ripped from every camera made!
but what is worse: gain or not getting the shot?

[Barry_Green]

Gain is like zoom or autofocus or auto-iris or anything else: use it when appropriate, never rely on it to save you when you're just being lazy. If you have the time and the skill, you'll get INFINITELY better results by not using gain, and by properly lighting your shot.

But if there's simply nothing else you can do, and you have to get the shot (maybe a reality/news type of situation, or surveillance or something) then gain may allow you to get the shot, whereas with no gain you'd get nothing...

[DavidBeier]

Thus far, I've only used it once when shooting inside a church at +6 gain.

It's really best to avoid because of the noise it adds. +6 isn't too bad though and all the noise apparently added by using it disapeared when I shrunk it down to an SD DVD.

[McLeish]

If your doing a doc, gain might be necessary. When your doing something fictional, wait twenty minutes and go run to the hardware store.

[Eljoninjo]

no gain no pain!

[Barry_Green]

No gain, no grain!

[mrWr0ng]

I shot a concert last week, they used next to zero lights on the back and I had to bump the gain to +9 just to get the shot. But in this case, the guy's paying me to start shooting when the band is playing and I had no say in the lights, so you work with what you have. Had I not had gain, I would have just had to go home.

[heavyG]

If I have to use it to get the shot... well ok, but if I can change the lighting then Gain is never used.
I have to admit that using it while doc shooting is sometimes unavoidable.

[dereksam]

Re-Gain with HVX200.
I have made tests using up 12 DB and find that with manual gain there seems to be more noise than when I go to AGC, I can`t understand this at all, does anyone have any ideas?
Dereksam - London UK

[filmstox]

In general I would agree with everything posted here, but I can say that for a look, I like the noise that comes from +6 with the blacks crushed. I just finished shooting a music video for Chris Cornell where I needed to have my HVX footage intercut with the A Unit shooting 7205 (250D) for skip bleach. We wanted as much grain and contrast as possible. We had plenty of light, the choice to gain up was strictly to get the added texture and contrast. It's a creative choice, and a bit risky but everyone so far has loved the look. Here are a couple of stills, I can't post any footage until the record label and production company approve it.

These stills are straight from the camera, no color correction or adjustment has been made other than scaling the stills down in photoshop...http://www.edgecentric.com/blog/ChrisCornell.png


http://www.edgecentric.com/blog/firebreather.png

[Eljoninjo]

No gain, no grain!
You said it man!

And David, i really dig the detail of the fire. Would love to se that cc and moving!

[pmpworks]

Filmstox, nice looking stills... I really like the look. Audioslave... lucky you!

[troypod]

the only time i use gain is to get a specific effect, (even then i generally get a noise effect in post) but i don't use gain to get more light. if i need more light, i get more lights in the equation.

[DCSensui]

I just shot my vacation in Japan with the HVX.

I was shooting 1080p30. If I needed more sensitivity, I used the 1/30 shutter first. Then started to add gain.

In situations like that, you get what you can with whatever you got.

But in a dramatic production, I would take the time to do it right.

In the situation i was in during the tour, it was tough enough just trying to get back to the bus on time!!! :-)

[monkeyking]

Dean,
Last Sat. I saw a busload of Japanese tourists getting off in Times Square, one of them was using an HVX and his wife was lugging the tripod and case behind him. It's good to have an assistant.

chris/wash. dc

[DCSensui]

Dean,
Last Sat. I saw a busload of Japanese tourists getting off in Times Square, one of them was using an HVX and his wife was lugging the tripod and case behind him. It's good to have an assistant.

chris/wash. dc
Haha!

Now I know what the Japanese tourists here in Hawaii feel like!!

Even with the manpower to hoist sticks, there wasn't enough time to set up.

Funny thing, though: People were occasionally stopping to ask what I was doing or shooting for, thinking I was local. I had to explain to them, as best I could with what little I knew of the language, that I wasn't one of them. I was third generation Japanese American visiting from Hawaii. Sorry! No understand!

[TedRR]

Silly American tourists with their cameras! :D

[wgzn]

there are times when you have to, and it actually adds to the look. like shooting a live music act in a dark venue where you CANT add lights.

[filmstox]

You said it man!

And David, i really dig the detail of the fire. Would love to se that cc and moving!
The combination of 45 degree shutter, 60 fps, and a boatload of light (4 shiney boards and a 6x6 microwave in midday sun) gave us the exposure to hold the sky and bring the fire down to dragon red instead of blowing out. And yes, in motion it is really cool. Hopefully it ill make the final cut of the video.



Filmstox, nice looking stills... I really like the look. Audioslave... lucky you! Thanks. Chris is pursuing his solo career now so no more Audioslave but it was very cool to watch him perform. Oddly enough, in a complete coincidence I shot him a couple of days after this for Yahoo Live Sets as well and he performed a bunch of Sound Garden tracks and a couple of songs from Audioslave as well as his new stuff. It was a great show. He even did a cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean.

[-zach-]

a couple of songs from Audioslave as well as his new stuff

"Be Yourself" is a personal favorite.

[rgbuser]

One way to get the most out of low-light conditions without calling up gain is to open up the shutter angle - though of course that's not too good if you're filming a lot of movement. Personally, for some looks I like the grain of high gain and if that's the effect I want I'll dial it in at capture - why give myrself extra work in post?
Thank you, all, for a great forum.
Tom

[TimurCivan]

I use gain when i am shooting for B&W. Drop the Coring to -2, chroma to -7, MP -15, CinegammaD...... +9db Gain. then in post B&W..... it looks like pushed Tri-X 400. ITs organic and pretty.