Why does my dvx100b footage always look too dark

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danhaney1118

Member
My footage always looks a bit dark if i'm not shooting in perfect sunny conditions. I shoot a lot of skateboarding outdoors. My auto exposure is always too slow. I used to have a VX2000, although i hate that camera, it had great auto exposure. When I use it on the DVX its always a few seconds behind with the auto exposing. I guess I should just shoot everything overexposed. dont have an exact question except for why does that always happen?
 
Definitely don't shoot everything overexposed. Digital video does not handle overexposure well at all.

When you get to the skatepark, you should be able to set the correct exposure manually once, to your liking, and just leave it locked at that exposure. Unless the clouds roll in, the exposure shouldn't have to change.
 
Check the A.Iris and the ATW settings in the menu and make sure they are on. I had dark images with the dvx100a and somehow one of those had been switched off. Also, check the A. Iris Level. One time I was expirementing with the setting, saved it back to the preset, and forgot to reset it. The image was always biased underexposed. A third thing to check, if you haven't done it in a while, is to set the black balance (ABB). These are some of the less obvious settings that can cause darker than expected images.
 
andy_starbuck said:
Check the A.Iris and the ATW settings in the menu and make sure they are on. I had dark images with the dvx100a and somehow one of those had been switched off. Also, check the A. Iris Level. One time I was expirementing with the setting, saved it back to the preset, and forgot to reset it. The image was always biased underexposed. A third thing to check, if you haven't done it in a while, is to set the black balance (ABB). These are some of the less obvious settings that can cause darker than expected images.
Click to expand...

yeah my ATW was swithched to OFF. however, there is no option to turn it ON. just ACH, BCH, and PRE. what are those. and should i set the ABB outside, or is it safe to do it indoors.
 
Tip I learned for exposure that works nicely to get you into the ballpark of exposure on the DVX

First... the usual rules apply to get the proper exposure outdoors.

IE if the sun is behind your subject you will have a profile or a blown out sky.

Use the sun to light your subjects properly. Use Grip Silk or bounce cards to even things out.

Use ND's if and when you need to.

Pola's as well can be a lifesaver as will as they'll give you 2 stops and control glare on leaves, brick, sky glass etc.


Here's the tip.

Set your zebras to

1st one on %80
and
Second one on %90

While on Zebra %80 manually adjust the iris so that their are no or barely no zebras on the skin. You can still have a bit of zebras in the sky at this point don't worry about it.

Now switch to %90 zebras. There should be no zebras or close to none. Dial the iris down if you need to but now you should have a good exposure with no blown out highlights.

I hope that helps.

And don't be afraid to run a bunch of tests and see what works for what you like to see in your footage.

What I mean by that is... I've noticed certian types of Color Correction (Especially Magic Bullet) need to be almost overexposed to look right to me while others need to be right on the mark or slightly underexposed.

Also shooting different skin tones at the same time can be problematic and might require some testing to find a happy medium for the best finished product.
 
Okay. You probably want the ATW set to OFF so that you can manually set the white balance for the color of available light in the environment. This makes the color stable so that can color correct in post. When ATW is turned on with one of the other settings it continuously changes color balance like a consumer video camera -- so the color would always be slightly changing.

When you set the ABB, the camera shuts down the iris completely and then takes a reference for "black". I think you can set it in any environment and it makes no difference. The only thing that seems to happen is that if the camera has sat a long time or if you made some radical changes (or if it has never been set before) the reference for black can be off.

A.Iris is on page 72 of the "b" manual and it is under AUTO SW in the menus. A. Iris Level is on page 69 of the "b" manual and is in your SCENE FILE in the menus.
 
- dvx footage shot in low contrasst light situations (tipycally indoors with random lighting) looks dark and low contrast when shot in cinelike mode. this happens especially when watching it on a computer screen. on a tv you-ll get more contrast and highlights. cinelike_d and cinelike_v will offer you more dynamic gamma (=more light and contrast)
- auto exposure IS slower in higher end cams. this prevents the exposure from 'bouncing' too hard in some circumstances. choosing the right exposure in a hard lighting environment is one of the key abilities of a cameraperson

:)Andrea
 
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