So I shot this music video in august:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GOUeB3dpng&feature=youtu.be
We had to pay for the location so we had exactly 8 hours on set including rigging and eating. This meant I had to be pretty fast, working between tripod, dolly and shouldermount.
So if you are like me and cant afford PL-lenses you probably run around without knowing what F or T-stop you have (if not fully open or closed) and you don't always have time for a proper grey-card or light-meter approach. Here´s a few tips on how I set the camera for a low budget shoot:
I recorded in ProRes to a hyperdeck from the monitor SDI-port, this will give you 720p when in S&Q mode (which the hyperdeck can record).
I expose for the highlights, and while its not the "correct" way of exposing Slog it works pretty well if you have a feeling for it. If you have the shadows in signal: don't let the sky go to IRE109 for example, try to have it at IRE90-95 or so: it will look better. In this case one of the areas had a big opening that was gonna be blown out so I exposed for good signal in the shadows and just let the opening and windows blow out, then bring it down to a darker look in post.
Noise: noise will not be bad in the Slog footage, but it can come when you grade. It usually looks good but if you can try to expose so that you don't have to push the shadows up too much. In a documentary setting I would not worry about this though, the camera is very clean and it does keep good colour in dim light. I use Neat Video with a carefully set profile for F3 Slog at ISO800, which only filters chroma noise. After that I add some grain.
I set shutter to 100/s, this will give a certain crisp feeling to motion in 24p but still maintain a decent blur, and it will give you a (almost) 180 degree in 60p. But most importantly, it will give you the same exposure when you swap between modes.
I used a 3D-LUT enabled monitor (SmallHD 502). When working fast in Slog, you can easily miss out on WB issues because of the unsaturated look of the log footage. Using a LUT on set will give you a good idea of where your colours are falling. In this case I recorded some material in 5600K while having both daylight and some 3200K panels mixing in, giving a very warm and golden look. I would not have felt safe with this without a LUT, and especially for this I used the same LUT as I was gonna use in post.
Working with gain: The F3 ISO changes when you enter S&Q mode, so that +0dB is ISO1100 instead of ISO800. Therefore I sometimes set the three steps on the knob at -3dB (which is ISO800 i S&Q), +0dB and +6dB (ISO 1600). But the small boost in sensitivity in S&Q usually does not make enough difference for it to be a problem, so in this case I just let the gain be at +0dB all the time.
This to watch out for: the F3 generally performs well and Im usually confident pointing it at something, but you should be careful with bright sources of light coming into the lens, the areas of contrast (someone standing in front of the light) in these cases can have a bit of aliasing. In this case I hade to add some gaussian blur in post for the first scenes, even though the big opening was not fully blown in the LOG image.
Batteries: I use this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Battery-Ada...agic-Camera-/151311914694?hash=item233ae496c6
and:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-Power-Ca...bdea2af&pid=100039&rk=4&rkt=4&sd=151311914694
For monitor and recorder. Im not sure how "pro" this is, but I can't afford any bigger or better solutions right now. You can get aroud 3-4 hours of both Hyperdeck and 502 monitor from one BP-U60 (I have 4 plus one BP-U30). Pretty nice to have just one type of battery.
Just a few notes, and I hope you enjoy the video
Also, please feel free to criticize
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GOUeB3dpng&feature=youtu.be
We had to pay for the location so we had exactly 8 hours on set including rigging and eating. This meant I had to be pretty fast, working between tripod, dolly and shouldermount.
So if you are like me and cant afford PL-lenses you probably run around without knowing what F or T-stop you have (if not fully open or closed) and you don't always have time for a proper grey-card or light-meter approach. Here´s a few tips on how I set the camera for a low budget shoot:
I recorded in ProRes to a hyperdeck from the monitor SDI-port, this will give you 720p when in S&Q mode (which the hyperdeck can record).
I expose for the highlights, and while its not the "correct" way of exposing Slog it works pretty well if you have a feeling for it. If you have the shadows in signal: don't let the sky go to IRE109 for example, try to have it at IRE90-95 or so: it will look better. In this case one of the areas had a big opening that was gonna be blown out so I exposed for good signal in the shadows and just let the opening and windows blow out, then bring it down to a darker look in post.
Noise: noise will not be bad in the Slog footage, but it can come when you grade. It usually looks good but if you can try to expose so that you don't have to push the shadows up too much. In a documentary setting I would not worry about this though, the camera is very clean and it does keep good colour in dim light. I use Neat Video with a carefully set profile for F3 Slog at ISO800, which only filters chroma noise. After that I add some grain.
I set shutter to 100/s, this will give a certain crisp feeling to motion in 24p but still maintain a decent blur, and it will give you a (almost) 180 degree in 60p. But most importantly, it will give you the same exposure when you swap between modes.
I used a 3D-LUT enabled monitor (SmallHD 502). When working fast in Slog, you can easily miss out on WB issues because of the unsaturated look of the log footage. Using a LUT on set will give you a good idea of where your colours are falling. In this case I recorded some material in 5600K while having both daylight and some 3200K panels mixing in, giving a very warm and golden look. I would not have felt safe with this without a LUT, and especially for this I used the same LUT as I was gonna use in post.
Working with gain: The F3 ISO changes when you enter S&Q mode, so that +0dB is ISO1100 instead of ISO800. Therefore I sometimes set the three steps on the knob at -3dB (which is ISO800 i S&Q), +0dB and +6dB (ISO 1600). But the small boost in sensitivity in S&Q usually does not make enough difference for it to be a problem, so in this case I just let the gain be at +0dB all the time.
This to watch out for: the F3 generally performs well and Im usually confident pointing it at something, but you should be careful with bright sources of light coming into the lens, the areas of contrast (someone standing in front of the light) in these cases can have a bit of aliasing. In this case I hade to add some gaussian blur in post for the first scenes, even though the big opening was not fully blown in the LOG image.
Batteries: I use this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Battery-Ada...agic-Camera-/151311914694?hash=item233ae496c6
and:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-Power-Ca...bdea2af&pid=100039&rk=4&rkt=4&sd=151311914694
For monitor and recorder. Im not sure how "pro" this is, but I can't afford any bigger or better solutions right now. You can get aroud 3-4 hours of both Hyperdeck and 502 monitor from one BP-U60 (I have 4 plus one BP-U30). Pretty nice to have just one type of battery.
Just a few notes, and I hope you enjoy the video
Also, please feel free to criticize
