How to correctly expose everytime?

S

seven.b

Well-known member
Hey guys, coming from my HMC with zebras and a waveform monitor in camera, I'm having a hard time fathoming how I will achieve proper exposure on most if not all my shots. How are you planning on doing it? I know magic lantern will help with this if it's ported for the 7D, but what about until then?

Thanks.
 
Also the onboard screen is not accurate but gives you some idea. I think it's called practice. :)

Noah
 
NoahK said:
Also the onboard screen is not accurate but gives you some idea. I think it's called practice. :)

Noah
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so you're saying that practice can get you a properly exposed image everytime by using an onboard screen that is inaccurate?
 
A technical approach:

Put an 18% gray card in front of your camera (fill the frame) and adjust your aperture until the built in light meter needle hits 0.

It isn't always that easy, depending on what you're trying to expose. But it's an okay place to start.

I sometimes find myself underexposing by -1/3 or -1/2 of a stop. It's a good call 50% of the time.
 
seven.b said:
so you're saying that practice can get you a properly exposed image everytime by using an onboard screen that is inaccurate?
Click to expand...

I wasn't intending to link those two so much as overall practice with the camera- any camera- will yield better images. And yes you'll figure out how the onboard screen correlates to your final images- that helps to. :Drogar-Smoke(DBG):

Noah
 
A light meter works every time. And i think histograms are better than zebras despite having shot a lot of eng stuff and know how to use them.
 
It took a while for me to judge exposure on the D90 and get it correct. You have to pay attention to highlights and shadow areas in each scene and in sunlight/daylight it's usually good practice to underexpose a bit. ND filters will help you and in bright sunlight they are essential.

When you learn the way it look on the LCD and afterwards in your edit suite you know how to set it up.
 
The 7d has a histogram to check levels...you can use that before you press record.

I have bought a marshall lcd70p ..it has hdmi and a feature called false colour which shows different ire levels as different colours...oh and peaking for focus and 1 to 1 pixel view.......if i get it wrong with that im gonna sell everything and take up something else.
 
If you are shooting run&gun event type, there is no time for gray card, so I'm thinking I will try to adjust the camera lcd brightness as close as I could to my editing monitor and practice makes perfect, also use the histogram if I have time.:)
 
Thanks guys. It's good to know there are a few options that sound like I could use for what I shoot. I'm going to be shooting a ski film this winter so it's definitely going to be run and gun. The histogram might not be a bad idea and the same goes for a light meter. Is the gray card necessary with a light meter or just stongly advised?

Thanks for the help so far guys.
 
PSA1 said:
If you are shooting run&gun event type, there is no time for gray card, so I'm thinking I will try to adjust the camera lcd brightness as close as I could to my editing monitor and practice makes perfect, also use the histogram if I have time.:)
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LCD is too bright. Finding that balance of LCD brightness and final image, along with watching for highlights on the LCD will take a little practice/adjustment (of course having a good place to accurately proof the image, i.e. prod monitor w/color adjustments helps).
 
Understanding how light meters work, from your handheld spotmeter to you camera center weighted incident meter is a very good way to learn to expose.

From my tests, with contrast all the way down, the 5D can hold 4 stops over and 4 under, roughly. Using a spotmeter and knowing your sensor's boundaries (considering your tolerance for noise), works better than any waveform or histogram.

Anyway, it's a good question, because what I have learned shooting with the 5D is that when using H264 cameras, you better hit your exposures every time.
 
Total newb to this. I'm reading several places where folks talk about underexposing when shooting. Can someone tell me why this is? Thanks.
 
denzlite said:
Total newb to this. I'm reading several places where folks talk about underexposing when shooting. Can someone tell me why this is? Thanks.
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because if the footage is a little underexposed, you can compensate for it in post-production. but if the footage is accidentally over exposed, then you can't bring it down to acceptable levels easily in post-production. basically like burning a film (exposing).
 
Sweet. Thanks. Been playing with the Color Correction filters in Premiere. Yes, if you have too bright, then you're screwed.
 
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