Bright lights, big annoyance

[texvanwinkle]

I shot some practice footage in a church sanctuary this past week with my HVX200A using my LitePanels Micro. I dimmed the lights down to a level I've seen used at some wedding receptions, and then turned up my LitePanels to the point where my friend/assistant was well lit. The problem was that he couldn't look at the camera. Until I turn the Micro down to a point where it won't do me any good, it's apparently too bright to look at and/or distracting. I tried pointing it up some show it wasn't pointing directly at him, but then it either didn't light him well enough, or gave him a weird half-lit look. I even tried adding my gels--all of them--that came with the Micro to dim it down, and it was still too bright with it turned up enough to see him.

What's the trick? Just to ask to have the lights raised some, as I've seen some others suggest? I'm not real clear on how these Micros are supposed to help me at this point, despite the recommendation of the salesman and the guy who runs the city video department.

 

[puredrifting]

It all has to do with contrast ratios, not brightness. The LitePanels Micro is a really wimpy small source, it really only will seem noticeable to the "victims" if the overall ambient light level is low. Your only solution is request that the ambient light level be raised or throw camera in the trash and buy a Canon 5D MKII that can shoot in very dim light and make beautiful images. Not sure if you have seen Dan Chung's shots of Beijing at night with only available light from badly lit streets, amazingly impressive images.

I have seen a couple of wedding people shooting video with the 5D MKII and the resulting footage blew me away, great images with no supplemental lighting. The 5D MKII responds to light much more like your eye does, as opposed to the poor low light performance from the microscopic 1/3" imagers that the HVX200A uses. Something to consider if you really make money shooiting weddings. Your HVX200A rates at ISO 500 while the 5D MKII can shoot beautiful images at ISO 1600.

Dan