Help me! get better images in low light shots

[rob-dean]

Howdy

I hope this is okay in this section anyway.

I am shooting a video in a about 3 weeks and the location is quite a dark bar, a few neon coloured lights and a few medium strength down lights.

Basically I want to get as clean an image as possible and was hoping to avoid the amount of noise in the mid tones on the screenshots provided. (I realise there is a hell of a lot of noise all over it but I could live with the highlights and the blacks as they are unless anyone can help me in that area too!)

I am using an SGpro with a 1.7 50mm Asahi Pentax Lens (its good glass) but both the lens and the DVX have to be wide open to get enough light so obviously thats not great.

The same set-up was used on these screen grabs and the camera was set to 25P DVX 'as standard' scene settings and there was no gain used. (which is hard to believe looking at the shots)

I don't want to be as disappointed with this other stuff especially as in bright sunlight the DVX with the SG is pretty stunning + I have seen way btter low light stuff than this before.

Sorry for rambling on but if anyone can give me a hand in terms of a decent scene setting list or general advice that would be great. ( I do have some redheads but they aren't great and the bars house lights are non existent so blasting it with light and stopping down isn't really an option)

If anyone can help that would be great

cheers

Rob

 

[Barry_Green]

ADD LIGHT.

Look at your exposures in a histogram, that last photo has barely anything registering above the bottom 20%. With an exposure all crammed down in the bottom of the range like that, you're going to get nothing but noise. Noise lives and breeds down in the dark area. You want to be exposing properly at all times. Flag light off the background, but get enough light on your subject.

Dark scenes aren't lit darkly overall, they're lit to proper exposure for the subject -- the rest of the surrounding area will be dark, yes, but if the subject's too dark you're just going to get lousy grainy noisy muddy ugly footage. So don't do that -- get enough light to get a decent exposure, and watch all your other problems just vanish.

 

[rob-dean]

Thanks Barry, I kind of knew that was going to be the answer but it will be difficult getting decent gear. I know you shouldn't cut corners but when moneys tight and you don't have access to stuff you always look for the path of least resistance (well I do anyway!)

Oh well I guess I need to organize some lights and all the other paraphernalia that goes with them.

But just out of curiosity does anyone have a decent low light scene set-up they are willing to share? one that they find gives good results with not a lot of lighting gear, just trying to get a bit of a head start.

Cheers

Rob

 

[Barry_Green]

If there's not enough light for adequate exposure, changing scene files won't help. Just like if there's not enough gas in the car, painting it a different color won't get it to go any further. Or if you don't have enough cash, you're not buying the new cadillac. You can tell the dealer to strip off the pinstripes and tell him to keep the floor mats, but the fact of the matter is $800 isn't gonna buy you the cadillac you want. And little trickles of light aren't going to get you the exposure you need.

You gotta have what you need.

Now, with that said, for low light you can set the shutter speed to 1/24, open the iris to maximum, get rid of the 35mm adapter, put the lens as wide-angle as you can get it, consider using high gamma, and raise the master pedestal up a few notches.

That'll help a little. But it's a little like putting a band-aid on open-heart surgery.

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Add Light

(Yeah, what he said.)

Rob

There's no getting around it. It is what it is. You need light especially with the loss using the SGpro.


You mention 'Medium Strength' (Whatever that means?) lights exist in the bar; are you in a position to replace the bulbs while shooting ?

Still

Use the exsiting fixtures for master / establishing shots if you must, but cheat outside the frame with at least some compact floros or incandescents.

 

[William_Robinette]

I think its funny people (not just you Rob, this isn't a dig) drop $1,000 on a 35mm set up and think absolutely nothing of grip or lighting gear.

$1000 in lighting gear on a naked DVX would look spankin.

 

[rob-dean]

Thanks fellas, yeah I know I need lights I am just in the middle of trying to save cash for a move to London so can't really afford the spends, but I will get some lights somehow. Ha Ha 'medium Strength' yeah terrible description I know, basically I think they were probably about 100w Max (small halogens) but when we went for a look around using the camera with the rig on (fully opened on both as mentioned before) they gave a harsh light especially when stood directly beneath them as the ceiling is very low prob 8ft. In case you can't guess I am not a camera person I just have some equipment which I let other people use when shooting anything. Although I did a film production degree it was not my specialism and we mainly shot on 16mm so most of the people I know have lit for film so they are still on their own learning curve when lighting video.

Thanks for the heads up on the settings I will give them a go when we do some full on tests in the next few days.

 

[rob-dean]

Probably about $875 so not quite as bad as $1000 but I know exactly what you mean, when I bought it though I had access to lights that weren't mine and then that dried up so I was left in limbo, I have hired stuff from LEE in Bolton (I am in the UK) before but it was expensive, even though they cut us a deal.

I may have to go back to them though because its not just a case of the lights its Scrims / gels / Flags stands etc as well as I have non of them

Annoying thing is I most recently bought some sound gear and now we're doing a music video so don't need the sound stuff so I could have bought lights!

Rob