Help with crappy Gh2 footage

Try to get some nice steady long shots, balance it on a wall if you have to. Or get a gorilla pod.

Every GH2 video out there is shallow focus close-ups. Yes, DSLRs do that well, but you won't learn anything about cinematography if you are letting the technology dictate what you shoot.
 
brymandavis said:
@Jim Simon - The most popular lenses people are using to get great footage don't have OIS (Voigtlander, SLR Magic, Tokina 11-16). I think we've all seen the trailer for Musgo...which the guy shot using old Nikon lenses and a cheap cowboy studio shoulder rig. So I guess my question more specifically is how to get more stable footage without using OIS lenses (the panasonic OIS lenses look very video-y and not filmic) or having to use static tripod shots. I've seen people doing it with this camera and non-OIS lenses all over vimeo....so I know it's possible.
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Based on my aesthetics, I tend to not like many of the examples using various lenses 'wide open'. For any given lens I would prefer that they be stopped down at least 2 stops from wide open. So, on a 1.4 lens that would be about 2.8, which for me is 'fast enough'. Few still lenses are up to the quality to shoot at wide open or nearly so.

From your initial list of settings, I believe you are turning off camera 'sharping', which is a good thing. However, that does not mean that by the final finished output, you do not use 'sharpening'. What 'sharpening' really is for human vision, is 'increasing contrast at image edges'. This gives the viewer the perception that the image is 'sharp', but it is only because of the increased contrast, the camera-sensor-lens form the basis of the camera can resolve, and of course focusing the lens, etc will contribute for better or worse. How much 'sharpening' is required is highly dependent on the typical viewer image distance, so there can not be a '1 value fits all' approach.

Digital images without edge sharpening have a certain sort of 'milky/hazy' look, and the use of the 'unsharp mask' as a final output filter will minimize or eliminate that.

As I said before the sample images are very under exposed, and that adds to the perception of 'soft'. In reality they are 'dark' and 'low contrast', so that figures into the above discussion about how humans perceive 'sharp'. The problem with 'sharpening' dark 'low contrast' images is that you increase the 'contrast' on noise... and so, the image appears noisy.

What many people will do is shoot with the image 'lighter' then 'darken' in the NLE by the use of curves or similar to give more contrast, but also get the 'dark' mood they are looking for in the shot.

With low end cameras, and most, if no all DSLR's are, there is only so much one can do manipulating the image in post production. Any major shifting of the values will result in obvious processing artifacts. Smooth gradients give rise to 'banding'. Shadows and dark image give rise to 'noisy' images, etc... And of course, if the image is 'too bright' data is lost because the sensor is saturated, and the values are just plain 'blank white'.

From what I've seen others do, and from my own shooting and experiments, the dynamic range of the GH-1 seems to be about 5-6 stops. Some may claim 7 or the like, but realistically it is in that range. If the brightest element in a scene is slighly lighter than 'middle' grey, one can perhaps 'boost' the contrast to place that value 1 stop more, that is 'light grey'... One can tweak curves, remove color cast (another thing from the 'underexposed' outdoor shots... significant 'bluish' cast...), but again there is only so much before it is obvious.

Some may think of these as 'limitations'... well they are... but if you learn to shoot within those limitations... you can shoot on anything, and understand why 'better solutions' cost big bux...

For example, there was a shoot out recently put on by Zacuto. For the shoot out the GH-2 did very well because the lighting was adjusted for the camera. The lens that was used was a Fujinon lens that has a B&H list price of about $80K... as far as I know, no frequent poster to the GH section here uses a $80K lens typically on their GH-1/2. Most use under $2K still 35mm lenses, and as such there are many flaws that one would expect the Fujinon to 'not have'...

I'd expect the $80K Fujinon to be used 'wide open'. I'd expect the $80K Fujinon to be 'not breath', maintain focus as the lens was zoomed. I'd expect the $80K Fujinon to have better 'rectilinear' imaging. All of these 'defects' are seen more or less in the under $2K still lenses...
 
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j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Shadows and dark image give rise to 'noisy' images
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I think that depends on your frame of reference. Coming from film or RAW, sure I can see that. But I'm coming into the GH2 from the DVX100, and I can push the GH2 images a LOT more that I could have before, without the noise getting to objectionable levels. The amount of shadow detail this baby preserves is astonishing to me.
 
brymandavis said:
Thanks for the reply Zombified and StMad,
Yes, it was shaky because I was freezing and even though I had it on a monopod....i couldn't stop from shaking the monopod. Zombified, you say to put it on a tripod...does that mean that the gh2 doesn't do well if it's not locked down? Are you able to get stable footage from it if it was on a shoulder rig? You guys have any advice (or anyone else for that matter) on how to get more stable footage shots without locking the camera down?
You are right, it's under exposed as well....and here is why. I had the lens open as wide as it would go...and I didn't want to move the ISO above 640 because anything above that and I start to see that stupid horizontal line on the screen. I was hoping to shoot it and then see if I could lighten it in post knowing that it was underexposed. Also, is there something I'm doing wrong with my workflow? I transcoded the original files to ProRes using 5DtoRGB, then imported as proxy media into FCPX. I then exported from FCPX into Vimeo. Is there something else I should be doing to get better quality?
Thank you all for helping me out. I know i'm not very good at this yet but I'm reading everything and shooting and trying to get better. I really appreciate everyone giving advice instead of treating me like an idiot because i don't know completely what i'm doing yet. I'm trying...and I really do appreciate the help.
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Some say you can get good footage and do without trpods but i cant,of all the 50 or so cams and cameras i have owned the GH2 and all full DSLRs need a tripod most imo,using lumix lenses i get no problems with focus,i always get the exosure and shutter i want before hitting the button.
 
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