Best shooting technique for manual exposure control

[VideoMaker]

I'm still gettng used to my HMC150 and would appreciate your insights on manual exposure/focus control with this cam.

First some assumptions:
1. Handheld
2. Event videography, constantly changing scenes, little or no camera motion within scenes
3. White balance set manually and remains constant
4. Typically shot using 720p24

In my first few shoots I shot manual but attempted to use the Iris button to get a quick approximate exposure for each scene, and the Push Auto to get a quick focus. But I find these two buttons too difficult to repeatedly locate during the heat of the shoot.

So, with my limited experience I am now leaning toward something like this:
1. Use thumb wheel for manual exposure control.
2. Use lens ring for focus control
3. Turn on wfm, evf detail, and zebra 90%.
4. View subject (and zebras) through evf.
5. View wfm in lcd as needed.

I know there is a lot of personal preference involved here, but I would appreciate hearing what you do when shooting manual with the HMC150, especially if different from what I am thinking.

 

[SPrimeau]

Are you using the zoom in, use focus assist, focus, the zoom out method? This is the best way when you can. You can also simply use the focus assist button while shooting if you need it.

The zebra, you can set is as you wish, me I use 70% to monitor the skin level and 100 for the highlights.

 

[ullanta]

I'm currently shooting an opera and personally running two cameras manually. I have two focus iris zoom controllers both attached to the main camera tripod. I spent a lot of time in rehearsals determining approximate exposure settings for each scene and focus distances to each part of the stage. Also how wide the wide shot camera needs to be for each scene. This iz a three hour show so I have a clearly written list to remember all this. The zebras are the only useful exposure tool in this case. I leave them set at 100% since my main goal is avoiding ugly blowouts while keeping everything as bright as possible in this mostly night-set show with huge lattitude

 

[VideoMaker]

Are you using the Manfrotto iris zoom controllers? I have one on my tripod and am pleased with it except for one thing - if you toggle between manual and automatic iris control, the manual setting returns to the controller's manual setting. I wish there was a way to mimic what the on-cam auto iris does, which lets you set a new manual setting by pressing and releasing the auto iris button. That works well for quickly moving from one scene to another.

I'm currently shooting an opera and personally running two cameras manually. I have two focus iris zoom controllers both attached to the main camera tripod. I spent a lot of time in rehearsals determining approximate exposure settings for each scene and focus distances to each part of the stage. Also how wide the wide shot camera needs to be for each scene. This iz a three hour show so I have a clearly written list to remember all this. The zebras are the only useful exposure tool in this case. I leave them set at 100% since my main goal is avoiding ugly blowouts while keeping everything as bright as possible in this mostly night-set show with huge lattitude

 

[VideoMaker]

I have used the zoom in/focus/zoom out focus assist method and it works well for those shots that give me enough time.

I have been playing more with technique this morning and for handheld shoots of quickly changing scenes this seems it might work well:

1. Ring set to focus, EVF DTL on, Focus Assist on, Zebras 90% on, LCD closed and no WFM (puts focus assist in EVF)

2. Left index finger on focus ring, left thumb on iris wheel

3. Viewing through EVF, position camera and quickly adjust focus and iris without having to reposition left hand.

I think it would be a nice improvement if the HMC150 provided the option of tiled windows on the LCD for the scene, WFM and focus assist.

Are you using the zoom in, use focus assist, focus, the zoom out method? This is the best way when you can. You can also simply use the focus assist button while shooting if you need it.

The zebra, you can set is as you wish, me I use 70% to monitor the skin level and 100 for the highlights.

 

[ullanta]

Are you using the Manfrotto iris zoom controllers? I have one on my tripod and am pleased with it except for one thing - if you toggle between manual and automatic iris control, the manual setting returns to the controller's manual setting. I wish there was a way to mimic what the on-cam auto iris does, which lets you set a new manual setting by pressing and releasing the auto iris button. That works well for quickly moving from one scene to another.

I wouldn't want that -

1) Pretty much ANY auto-iris is useless for theatrical lighting. Better to get the setting you want than have a few seconds of uncertainty.

2) With the Manfrotto controller, you can mark Iris points, or remember them by feel; if you break the fixed relationship between physical iris controller position and physical iris opening as you describe, you lose this ability.

3) If you have the manual iris set to a "safety" setting, in some situations, when using auto-exposure, you can use the auto-iris switch to quickly get into a safe mode.

I should specify: I can't use zoom-focus-adjust etc; I'm doing 90-minute-long takes with complex lighting changes and lots of motion, and each second of footage has to be useful. A few seconds of out-of-focus material during the 90 minutes, or of too dark or blown out scenes, would be a big problem. The 90 minutes must be shown continuously.

 

[booggerg2]

remember that the focus assist graph does not work well 100% of the time and you shouldn't blindly refer to that for all shooting scenarios. For scenes with little contrast, the focus assist graph won't help too much

 

[Bucknfl]

I usually put the camera in auto iris just to get in a range and then go to manual to refine where I want the exposure. Skintones, zebras, and whatever is the most important element in the scene helps determine exposure but there is no one answer. I have watched engineers set shots perfectly to wave forms and the image looks like crap because the people are underexposed due to bright backgrounds and contrasty conditions. There is just as much art as their is science to getting good exposure.

 

[VideoMaker]

This is how I prefer to set exposure also, but in handheld I find it difficult to easily find the tiny auto iris button, and on the tripod with my Manfrotto remote iris/focus control I can't do the auto exposure.

I feel real comfortable setting exposure and focus given enough time - it is just those situations where you need to reset for rapidly changing scenes where I yearn for a better technique.

I usually put the camera in auto iris just to get in a range and then go to manual to refine where I want the exposure. Skintones, zebras, and whatever is the most important element in the scene helps determine exposure but there is no one answer. I have watched engineers set shots perfectly to wave forms and the image looks like crap because the people are underexposed due to bright backgrounds and contrasty conditions. There is just as much art as their is science to getting good exposure.

 

[ullanta]

Don't be offended - there was certainly a period when this applied to me... but I think you're just a little scared! Adjusting the iris is actually pretty easy to do smoothly, and it's pretty quick to develop skills that work better than the auto-iris. In my work, at least, the auto-iris is almost NEVER correct, and the frequent changes in aperture in complex scenes resulting from its activity and my corrections to it were awful. Panning across a scene with the iris fluttering as different objects/people came into view or out! Ugh! You as the operator know when the camera is moving, when a scene is supposed to be dark, what things should be clear despite spotlighting, etc.... you can do much better, pretty easily.

Remember that, even in manual, the camera smooths out iris changes; and if you just have a smooth hand and moderate speed dial rotations, it's hard to go wrong, and very forgiving even if you do.

 

[VideoMaker]

No offense taken. Let me offer a clarification though about what I am seeking. I'm not looking for a way to adjust exposure across a pan or dolly move. Rather, I am looking for a quick and comfortable way to adjust to each new shot. Consider as an example a wedding reception being shot handheld and/or with a monopod. I may have 50 different shots, with some representing a significantly different exposure that has to be established very quickly. In my first such shoot with the HMC150 I used the auto iris button to establish the exposure for each shot. Note that I was not putting the cam into auto exposure mode, just using auto iris button to establish the manual exposure setting. I was pleased with the exposure I got but often found it difficult to find the button - I would poke around and sometimes have to pull the camera away from my face and visually locate that tiny button. I would do the same with the auto focus button. The problem with this is it just took too long to establish focus and exposure. So now I am planning to try my aforementioned technique of thumb on the iris speed dial and forefinger on the focus ring - but if someone has found something that works better, I'm all ears.

Don't be offended - there was certainly a period when this applied to me... but I think you're just a little scared! Adjusting the iris is actually pretty easy to do smoothly, and it's pretty quick to develop skills that work better than the auto-iris. In my work, at least, the auto-iris is almost NEVER correct, and the frequent changes in aperture in complex scenes resulting from its activity and my corrections to it were awful. Panning across a scene with the iris fluttering as different objects/people came into view or out! Ugh! You as the operator know when the camera is moving, when a scene is supposed to be dark, what things should be clear despite spotlighting, etc.... you can do much better, pretty easily.

Remember that, even in manual, the camera smooths out iris changes; and if you just have a smooth hand and moderate speed dial rotations, it's hard to go wrong, and very forgiving even if you do.

 

[ullanta]

No offense taken. Let me offer a clarification though about what I am seeking. I'm not looking for a way to adjust exposure across a pan or dolly move. Rather, I am looking for a quick and comfortable way to adjust to each new shot.

Right - just to be clear, I'm not talking about that either... I'm talking about adjusting exposure in a 90-minute long continuous shot with drastic lighting changes and a lot of camera motion, where in the end every second of the shot must be usable... no downtime to try the autoiris, then adjust. I just want to say that I found after initial trepidation that it's pretty quick to learn to just to the manual iris adjustment and bypass the auto setting completely, which gives a better result since the autoexposure is (in my situation) always pretty much wrong. Focus is much harder... you don't have quite as clear an indication of which way (too far or too close) you need to adjust; but with exposure you know what to do, and quickly develop the necessary hand-eye coordination skills to get it done.