Brightness Handling. How do you setup your DSLR / Brightness?

[hendosan]

I trust my own eyes a lot more than I trust the camera's ability to expose properly. Using a flat picture style + eyeballing exposure with your histogram provides better results, IMO.

 

[Alex H.]

Wel I'm using a 7D and I think it's a good beginning to test diferent time of the day and maybe also try the cinestyle Picture Style. I also will use Filters that maybe help with the Brigtness.

Filters won't necessarily help with "brightness" as much as they'll help even out or manage exposure. Solid ND helps to knock exposure down so that a wider aperture (or slower shutter speed, especially in still photography) can be used. Grad ND helps knock down a part of the frame that is so bright that the other part of the frame cannot be properly exposed.

Is there something like a 180 degrees rule for the sun :=) ?

Are you talking about the 180° shutter rule? That's most applicable when shooting in sunlight. This rule stipulates that the shutter should be, effectively, twice the frame rate. If shooting in 30p, that's 1/60. If shooting in 24p, that's 1/48. The catch is that the 7D does not have a 1/48 option, so 1/50 is the closest setting and will work just fine. If you're in PAL territory, and shooting 25p, it's 1/50 and that's a good place to stay.

It's under artificial light sources that the 180° shutter rule can cause problems with rolling shutter CMOS imagers due to the pulsation in lights caused by the electrical system. In NTSC countries, the electrical syste is a 60Hz system, and in PAL countries it's a 50Hz system. The frame rate should be matched to the system (1/60 and 1/50, respectively). It's much worse under florescent and HMI than it is under tungsten, and a recent post from Barry Green reported that dimmable LEDs are even worse and cannot be corrected.

Your best bet is to park your shutter at 1/60 (1/50 in PAL territory) and leave it there. I shoot 1/60 indoors and out and have never been dissatisfied with my results.

 

[Alex H.]

Hey everyone!

There is a feature on Canon DSLR's that is very useful for lighting situations. It's called Highlight Tone Priority. I'd suggest you take a look at it and try out various combinations of Highlight Tone Priority mixed with exposure compensation and Auto Lighting Optimizer.

HTP is okay, but it does sacrifice detail in the shadows. That's the one thing that people are often trying to preserve, or even enhance. Also, there is no combination of HTP and ALO, as ALO is disabled in HTP mode (even the video says so).

Most importantly, none of this is going to compensate for bad lighting.