I filmed all day for....nothing

R

Raynalyn

Member
Yes I am a newb.....I spent the entire day filming a video. I used a jvc monitor hooked to my DVX it looked fine in the monitor but when I firewired into my NLE.... way too dark. I put my monitor to flat settings and don't understand. I was filming in lowlight but that was the feeling I was going for. I was wanting to have my talent lit only black all around for a video effect smoke rising etc. I didn't want the grain of the gain so I left it at low and I shot in 24p. I was lighting with (2)tungsten work lights and a 200 watt bulb for back light is that insufficent? Or is my NLE(Adobe Premier Pro 1.5) not showing me the true footage. Do I need a wysiwyg monitor or something. I am really frustrated. Any suggestions would be much appreciated :crybaby:
 
No problem, do some post gain by pushing up the midtones. You can then lower the blacks. It will be noisy, but you will get an image you can see.
 
I suggest posting a screengrab so we can take a look. I couldn't say whether is was properly exposed or not without knowing the camera aperture/shutter, wattage of light and distance to the subject
 
Thanks all for the replies. Yes I am able to brighten in post but horrible grain. No I did not do colorbars. How would I do that, just pull up the colorbars from the DVX menu and then adjust my monitor? I didn't even whitebalance because the light was so low got ng message on screen. I would be totally embarassed to post a screen grab, but I thought when shooting 24p I should maintain a 1/48 shutter. Is that right?
 
Raynalyn - you need to:

1. Learn to use your zebras and other metering capabilities of your camera

2. Learn to use your exposure controls

3. Monitor through something other than the computer screen - it doesn't give you accurate color/lattitude/gamma

4. Whenever possible, monitor while shooting (or setting up shots) through something other than the camera's LCD

Once you get a basic understanding of these, you'll be on the path to getting good exposure! have fun!
 
when you say it now looks bad in your NLE...do you mean it looks bad on your computer monitor? Because if that's the case you Computer monitor may not be calibrated properly either...
 
always always always calibrate your reference monitor to proper SPMTE color bars before using it on a shoot. A bad monitor means good footage looks bad and you compensate, thus making your good footage look bad on tape/card.

Another thing to remember. If you are shooting a 'dark' scene, shoot it with proper exposure/contrast, but darken it in post. This gives you a whole lot more control over your shot. If you shoot it dark, its stuck that way and will probably look bad.
 
Remember, a lot of "dark" scenes in films are not actually that dark. They are pumping a ton of light into a space and controlling it very carefully.
 
Raynalyn said:
Thanks all for the replies. Yes I am able to brighten in post but horrible grain. No I did not do colorbars. How would I do that, just pull up the colorbars from the DVX menu and then adjust my monitor? I didn't even whitebalance because the light was so low got ng message on screen. I would be totally embarassed to post a screen grab, but I thought when shooting 24p I should maintain a 1/48 shutter. Is that right?
Click to expand...

I guess it will always be a mystery then.
 
Hey everyone thanks for all of your feedback. I figured it out!!! I had the shutter set to 1/1000 I don't know how it happened. I assumed that the scene saves saved the shuter settings, was I wrong? Anyway I put it to 1/48 and it was great! Could one of you tell me how to calibrate my monitor. Does that mean I just bring up the color bars and adjust it to my eye or is there a standard of some kind. William could you elaborate on your last post alot of light just controlled? I watched the DVX film the shed and it looked dark but are you saying it wasn't? How did they light such a small room?
 
You changed the shutter speed on your camera and all your ruined footage was fixed?

What model of DVX do you have?
 
Did you use a light meter? You should buy one and learn to use it. It is more valuable to know how to use it than your camera.
 
I am sorry if my post was misleading. I had to reshoot after I readjusted the shutter speed and it looked much better. Arson could you recommend a light meter. I have just been trying to use the zebra lines in the dvx.
 
A monitor is highly suggested... any monitor that you can use as a reliable reference.

If you can't use a monitor then you gotta' do your best with the camera... just remember... you light for the camera, not for your eyes!

The first thing you do is set up the camera and then begin setting up lights while watching what the camera is seeing.
 
The Sekonic L-758 Cine is a commonly appreciated one around here.

People from a video background will generally use monitors / scopes to verify exposure. People from a film background prefer light meters. One thing about it though, some of those monitors are in the $4000 and up range so its a serious investment next to a light meter like the L-758 Cine which can be had for around $500 or so. I believe MattinSTL has a Panasonic monitor (as I recall from another post) and those are extremely expensive.

Its all in what you're comfortable with really but both methods obviously yield great results when you have mastered them.
 
Well, the very good news is that you could use a Sony standard def. production monitor, which are always and increasingly available on the seconds market, with the DVX for your on-set monitoring. These are great because they'll give you underscan, 16:9 and blue-only functionality. The Trinitrons were the production standard for SD, so you can buy with confidence at bargain prices.

Run the SMPTE color bars (with pluge) to that monitor and calibrate it using methods described here on DVXUser. Then your "what you see is what you get" lighting method will be a lot closer to WYSIWYG.

e
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top