help with low-light shooting...

C

camarade

Active member
okay, so i bought the CANON EF 50/1.4 USM. shooting scheduled in september, it's a location without electricity and few windows on the building, so really hoping it won't be overcast that day...

anyway. i looked at lower f-stops aswell (like 1.2), cheapest i found was nikon 600-700 usd wich is way out of budget :undecided So i will be shooting this entire indoor scene with the 50mm 1.4. using 550D as camera, what is maximum iso level one can be able to clean up in post? 800? or can i even go 1600?

a bit worried, but yeah... this is what i got... and i guess better iso noise than underexposed video line noise, righty?
 
For "REAL" work, meaning something I'd submit to festivals, I wouldn't shoot the T2i past 400, and I'd work DAMN hard to keep it to 200. I'd shoot 800 if it was just for me, or something going to the web. And even if you were able to shoot wide open at ISO 800, You'd have nearly nothing in focus unless you were so far back, you'd be doing establishing shots.

I hope you guys left budget for a generator. You're going to need it.
 
I shot my last short with the T2i and most of it was @ ISO 200 if I recall. Never above 400, that's for sure. Just used practical lighting and in some cases it was DARK. Especially in the hallways. Footage turned out great though.

If you want to see the results just let me know.

Mike
 
I shoot 800-1600 iso all the time and never had a problem with footage. One thing you can do is bring a generator or something like a power inverter for your car so you can run some cables and get some lighting in there.


I have found that 1000 watt light source + an on camera led light can work wonders in night time scenes.
 
i have a (slightly related) question...

could you get away with 400+ ISO if it's in b&w (b&w in post, or in camera)? if so, how much ISO?
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Here's a link to the movie.
http://www.morecowbellpictures.com/Movies/Hostile_Destination_Cast.mov

Cheers,

MAH
Click to expand...


Great short Micheal. Lately I've been addicted to anamorphic shoots. Was your done with a true anamorphic lens or did you just crop your footage in post?

I have a few shoots lined up but none of them would make any sense to be anamorphic so i have yet to spend the money on it.


Back to the original topic. (sorry for the thread jacking)

I have shot production work up to iso800 with limited success. None of this work is for festivals but all for direct to dvd work or the web. A little work in post and its useable but not great. I would suggest looking into some cheap LED lights

i use one of these and one far more expensive Light Panel Micro. The cheapo ebay one is just as good of quality as the more expensive light panel.

http://shop.ebay.com/easysupply/m.h...ksid=p3911.m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=0&bkBtn=

I would say a couple of these bad boys and a huge amount of batteries and give it a go.
 
Derkoi said:
I wasn't aware festivals were so picky, but then again I've never entered one. Are we talking Sundance level?
Click to expand...

Sundance? I'm not dropping $5M to shoot a film!

Many of the festivals are not that picky, but you do want to put your best foot forward so to speak. Given that we have a rather well respected film school in town, our film festival plays in some fairly large, and fairly nice venues. At our public screening we had a 46ft screen and about 150 people. It was packed for the actual festival!

Here's a link to where we debuted: http://movies.fsu.edu/cinema.html


When you're playing those kinds of venues, and you're on a screen where other's are displaying stuff shot on RED, 35mm, etc., you don't want your stuff to look like crap.
 
treynolds said:
Great short Micheal. Lately I've been addicted to anamorphic shoots. Was your done with a true anamorphic lens or did you just crop your footage in post?

I have a few shoots lined up but none of them would make any sense to be anamorphic so i have yet to spend the money on it.
Click to expand...

Thanks. No anamorphic lenses. I wish. :)
Just cropped in post.

Glad you liked it.

MAH
 
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