DVX100b for food commercial advice!

F

firehawk

Veteran
Hi everyone,
First I want to apologize for my thread heading. As usual having to type from my phone and I tend to hit some wrong keys. There was supposed to be a "?" not an "!" on the title. I can't figure out how to change it.

Looking into shooting a local restaurant TV commercial with emphasis on food shots. Backlit slow-motion lemon squirts, hot steaming food, and butter dripping in the fire light.
I've never actually done one like this so I was hoping for some advice. What camera settings would be good for trying to shoot slow motion close food shots and just close food shots? I expect to have to do some color sweetening in post to make it look better.
And since it's going on local tv, I was wondering if 4x3 would be better to maintain more resolution. However they may want an HD version in which case I would upres with magic bullet instant HD.
As far as lights.. I've got some lowel tungsten lights, (750watt totas,, 250 watt pro light with barn doors, 500 watt omni light w barn doors, and rifa500 with diffuser, plus umbrellas) as well as some alzo digital HMIs, ~600 watt with diffusers.
As always I appreciate the help on this great board, and I wish you all a wonderful holiday season.
 
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I've been experimenting with 24p shooting food over thanksgiving at various shutter speeds. What white balance do you recommend? Some say higher Kelvin like daylight for a cooler look. But on colorful foods that seems to me like it would make the colors pop less.
 
Doing slow mo with the DVX is pretty rough. You lose a ton of the already limited resolution due to deinterlacing. And for food-porn shots, you generally want fantastic sharpness and often some limited DOF to make the food pop.

I'd beg, borrow or steal a DSLR or something like an HMC150 for doing food. Doing 720p slowmo - even with a DSLR - will beat the heck out of the DVX. Shoot with enough light to use 120 or higher shutter speed and use timewarp or twixtor if you want to go even slower.

And uprezzing to hi def just won't look as crisp and glossy as actually shooting 1080 or 720. Shoot the spot 16x9, and frame it so you can do a 4:3 crop if needed.

For color balance, "whatever looks best". I've done a lot of commercial still work with food, and lighting choices are just one part of the shot design. But often I'd choose a really crisp daylight color, maybe fairly directional soft light - and often a pure white or very warm back/rim light, from a fresnel or a metal grid. the hard light makes things like moisture and oils really shine - a glossy lobster shell, droplets on fruit, etc. look more "wet", moist and appetizing with some hard light - as does sugar on pastry, scales on fish, etc.
 
Thank you, Michael.
I reviewed my test footage and while the DVX is still a good SD camera and can often upres to pretty descent HD footage I am in agreement that its not such a good choice for this project. I thank you for your tips and advice. Very good information presented there.
 
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