AC130: AC130 lowlight footage of Jazz Ensemble performing in a nightclub

[LanceOregon]

Went with a +6 gain and DRS turned on and set to 1, so that I could get an aperture that would keep the entire stage in focus. Not sure how smart that was to do, but at least I could just manually set the focus and not worry about it through the entire performance. Was that being lazy? Or is that a sound strategy in your opinion?

I also lifted the shadows in post a fair amount. Did I over do it, or does this look OK to you? Shot in 1080/30p, exported to 720/24p for uploading.

The music they played was a brand new work that was well over an hour long! I've never seen a group play something that long. The composer and band leader just wanted a few excerpts from the performance, in order to give people a taste of what it was like.

 

[Mike Beckett]

Lance,

Nice video (and music too!). I think it looks fine, and great for low lighting conditions.

I've just taken delivery of a brand new AC130A, after having a Sony NX70 and a Panny HMC40 before that. After worrying that I would need to start using lighting, I was amazed at the performance in reasonably low light up to 12dB gain with the 130. In the toss-up between this and the JVC HM600, I think I chose well, and the difference in cash paid for a lot of accessories.

 

[Greg Smith]

Kinda too bad about that spectator's head directly in front of the camera. But photographically it looks really good for the challenging lighting situation. I don't think presetting the focus as you did was cheating at all! You use the tools you have to make your job as easy as possible and concentrate on the final look and sound. That's just smart production work.

Yes, I could agree with dropping the lift in the shadows back down just a couple of IRE units or so. The look isn't bad as is, but I think deeper shadows would more accurately represent the way places like this actually look to a live viewer. Other than that, no complaints here. I'm considering a 160A myself and this helps a great deal in showing me what it's capable of.

- Greg

 

[paulears]

I agree - a nice look. Considering the nasty wall colours, it worked pretty well.

 

[LanceOregon]

Kinda too bad about that spectator's head directly in front of the camera. But photographically it looks really good for the challenging lighting situation. I don't think presetting the focus as you did was cheating at all! You use the tools you have to make your job as easy as possible and concentrate on the final look and sound. That's just smart production work.

Thanks for confirming my reasoning for doing that. I did not want to just have a static group shot. I wanted to be able to take advantage of the zoom on the camcorder to get some close-up's of the performers. I think that it makes the music more intimate if you can have some close views of the musicians playing their instruments, and capture the expressions on their faces. And no matter how talented one is at manually focusing by hand, or how good your autofocus system is, you are always going to have some transition in focus, if you are dealing with an open iris. And that just looks so distracting to me. And since I was using a 1/3 inch sensor camcorder that offers great depth of field, I figured, well, heck, why not take simply advantage of that inherent feature, and just keep the entire stage in focus the whole time?

Yes, I could agree with dropping the lift in the shadows back down just a couple of IRE units or so. The look isn't bad as is, but I think deeper shadows would more accurately represent the way places like this actually look to a live viewer. Other than that, no complaints here. I'm considering a 160A myself and this helps a great deal in showing me what it's capable of.

Yes, that was what I was thinking too, after the fact. I have a personal preference for brighter lighting. But being a little less aggressive would have probably resulted in a more accurate representation of what the lighting looked like to the naked eye, as you suggest. The Shadow/Highlight Effect in Adobe Premiere Pro is so easy to use, and works so very well, that it would be very hard to not use it in low lighting like this. I set the Shadow Effect to 13. In hindsight I probably should have experimented more with different settings, before settling on one.

Although if one does have to error, it is probably better to have a scene slightly too bright, than to have it too dark.

 

[LanceOregon]

One additional note: In order to minimize noise from the audience, I took my AUDIO-TECHNICA STEREO SHOTGUN MICROPHONE off of my AC130, and placed it on a stand in front of the stage. You should be able to easily spot it in the video. I ran a 25 ft cable out to it to connect it to my camcorder.

Fortunately, the audience was very well behaved and respectful. The band leader had mentioned at the start that we were recording, and had asked them to turn off their cell phones, and to please avoid any loud noises. The venue is strictly a Jazz Music nightclub, and people really were there to listen to the music. It was such a much better experience than I have had at some other venues that include a bar and often have a bunch of boisterous people in the audience.