Low Light Shooting

M

mraaron895

Well-known member
Hello everyone. I mainly use my XH-A1 for wedding videos. During the reception, as many might know, lights are dimmed and not alot of light is available. I have been trying to play around with my shutter speed, gain, and presets. I have yet to find a preset i like for low light shooting. I realize that more lighting would be the best solution to my problem, but that is not always possible.

My question to all is this: For mostly handheld shooting in low light situations, what are the settings to prefer to set your camera to? Presets? Shutter? Frame rate?

Thank you in advance for any responses.

-Aaron
 
Shutter should go no lower than 1/30 in either 30F or 60i, while you can go down to 1/24 in 24F. I do this all the time at weddings. In 24F mode the preferable shutter speed is 1/48 but sometimes you have to go for a proper exposure over the coveted "film look".

Another thing is you can go up to 12db of gain. It is not jarringly noticeable but some grain will be present. I also use the +3 and +6 gain settings a lot at receptions, even with an on-camera light. There is just no way around it. When using gain you might think that there is too much when viewing the LCD and the peaking function exaggerates it. Try it out at home and then view on a TV to see if it will be acceptable for your projects. Just be aware that if you do use the higher gain functions you will not have as much flexibility in terms of leveling and color correcting the footage because the gain will possibly be amplified by any post tweaking.

You can also set your gamma and matrix settings to Cine1 or Cine2, which should get you a little more detail in the darks than Normal gamma/matrix will. There is also a black stretch setting that might help. I would experiment with these at home to see what will work for you.

Do you use any additional lighting at receptions or only available light? The reason I ask is that I used to shoot with a DVX which is better in low light than the A1's and even with that, most receptions are just too dark to shoot without an on-camera light.
 
handheld,

Well.. shooting at 24f, i would try to keep the shutter at 1/48th, 1/24th has a ton of motion blur, especially if you're going the handheld route.

I would also use one of the two presets I and someday have created. Which gives some of the best skin tones and latitude available to the camera under lower lit conditions

I would also avoid going any higher than +3db gain, otherwise the noise becomes quite bothersome.

Here they are:

panavision 2 ( for lower light )

Panavision2

GAM 1
KNE L
BLK P
PED -4
SET -7
SHP 3
HDF M
DHV 0
COR 0
NR1 0
NR2 0
CMX 1
CGN 10
CPH 0
RGN 31
GGN 32
BGN 33


PANAFILM

GAM N
KNE L
BLK P
PED -9
SET -9
SHP 9
HDF L
DHV 9
COR 9
NR1 0
NR2 0
CMX 1
CGN 25
CPH 0
RGN 48
GGN 49
BGN 50
( even lower light )
 
Thank you for the helpful information. I do not have an on-camera light. I feel that it might be a little to intrusive. Therefore i can only use what available light there is. Thank you for the presets Papa. I was trying to find those in the presets thread. So far i have been shooting in 60i. I have not been brave enough to mess with 30 or 24f especailly since i do alot of hand held shooting.

-Aaron
 
PaPa said:
handheld,

Well.. shooting at 24f, i would try to keep the shutter at 1/48th, 1/24th has a ton of motion blur, especially if you're going the handheld route.

I would also avoid going any higher than +3db gain, otherwise the noise becomes quite bothersome.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you do have to have a pretty steady hand when shooting handheld and 1/24 or 1/30 shutter, but it can be done.

As for the gain, I didn't mean to say you should always just pump up the gain willy nilly. For wedding receptions though, sometimes it is an acceptable compromise. I don't mind a little grain from the gain though, others might be more sensitive to it though, and +3 or +6 is where the limit usually is for me. I've used +12 here and there but I try to use it as a last resort and definitely not on intros, toasts, first dances, garter and bouquet, you know the important stuff. For the misc. dancing though you can probably get away with some +12 gain though.
 
Never go to a reception EVER without additional light. Even when I used the coveted Sony VX2100 I used a light. Your clients are expecting you to get a decently exposed image, intrusive or not. Keep your clients interests above everything. There are ways to use it without blinding people.
Bill
 
Bill Grant said:
Never go to a reception EVER without additional light. Even when I used the coveted Sony VX2100 I used a light. Your clients are expecting you to get a decently exposed image, intrusive or not. Keep your clients interests above everything. There are ways to use it without blinding people.
Bill
Click to expand...

Bill is so right. When clients explain to me that they want "complete unobtrusiveness" and "no lights", after I mentally roll my eyes I explain to them in layman's terms that I can use the higher gain settings but that the footage will exhibit some grain. I then tell them that if they want clear footage of their reception that they will need to allow me to use a light. Nine times out of ten they accept the reality of the situation and say that they'd rather have clean and clear footage.

Even if the bride and groom say no lights, it is a good idea to always have one with you.
 
Are there any suggestions for on camera lighting? Wouldnt the footage look akward with a dark background and straight directional light? Or can that "spotlight look" be cleaned up with barn doors, a diffuser, and dimmer switch? Any examples of on camera light footage?

Thanks,

Aaron
 
mraaron895 said:
Are there any suggestions for on camera lighting? Wouldnt the footage look akward with a dark background and straight directional light? Or can that "spotlight look" be cleaned up with barn doors, a diffuser, and dimmer switch? Any examples of on camera light footage?

Thanks,

Aaron
Click to expand...

Well, you can get lights that have a dimmer so that depending on the distance between you and your subject you can control the intensity of the light shinning on them. Yes, barns doors and diffusers can help as well.

Personally, I find that for first dances that it is nicer to have a darker background causing the bride and groom to become the center of attention, sort of like how shallow depth of field works but in this case it is with lighting. A background that is too busy can be very distracting. The key is to not stand too close, which you wouldn't want to be right next to them or in their face anyways. Normally I place my tripod at or a few feet back from the edge of the dance floor. Most bride's and groom's will be in the center of the dance floor. This way I don't become too obtrusive yet I am spreading light on them and the background, however, the background will be a little darker because not as much light will is reaching it.

As for the "spotlight look" as long as your light is not too narrow of a beam and you are back far enough then there shouldn't be any problems. Of course you can always add a second light. I do this sometimes. Usually I will position it so that it acts as a backlight / hair light while my on-camera light is the main light source. This second light also works well for the garter and bouquet toss since this time you do want to see the crowd gathered behind the bride when she throws the bouquet and the groom when he tosses the garter to his buddies.

Something that you might want to try is getting more intense and controllable light for the early stuff (intros, toasts, 1st dances, etc.) and a smaller lightweight light for moving around later on. The reason for this is that later in the reception you might need to go handheld or will want to move into the crowd on the dance floor. A large and cumbersome light is not a good idea here. A small on-camera light is usually all that is needed.

I don't know if it helps much but below are links to the on-camera lights that I use for weddings.

ON-CAMERA LIGHTS

You can get better pro lights than the Smith Victor stuff, something I plan on doing this year, however, this light has served me well and I plan on holding on to it. It also has a daylight balancing filter which is good to have just in case.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/246886-REG/Smith_Victor_401140_SV_840_AC_DC_On_Camera.html

For the more run-n-gun hand held stuff I use this Sony light. I had a bunch of old Sony batteries from an old handycam that were the same type for this light so it made sense to get this. It also has two intensity settings as well. I like it. It is cheap, lightweight, and has been very reliable.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/162282-REG/Sony_HVL20DW2_HVL_20DW2_20_watt_Video_Light.html

STANDARD VIDEO/FILM LIGHTING EQUIPMENT

I have a Lowell kit as well as some cheaper photography flood lights that accept all different kinds of light bulbs. These types of lights sometimes come in handy for a second light or if I need to record any on-camera greetings from the bridal party or guests.

Check B&H for Lowell kits. They have a ton of them.

For safety reasons, another thing to keep in mind is that the amount of extra lighting you can use at a reception may depend on whether you are shooting alone or if you bring an assistant along. One on-camera light is pretty much universally acceptable, but if you plan on using more lights you should check with the bride and groom because too much extra lighting can be overly obtrusive. Also, depending on what the DJ has for a lighting setup you may not need as much light as you thought. If the DJ or band has a kick ass lighting setup don't forget to get a few shots of the stage and dancing crowd with just their lights on them for ambiance. A variety of shots is great to have when editing. You don't always have to be blasting the guests with light.

Also, make sure that you tape down the cords so that no one trips over them. I shot a wedding where someone tripped over a camera case that was completely out of the way (underneath the back row pews at the church), but they were for some reason trying to walk there. They didn't do anything but one of the guests was talking about how they could sue for that. Insurance is a good idea so that you can protect yourself and your equipment.
 
Thank you for the awesome advice. I'm still learning the basics of videography and am thankful for such wise and considerate responses.
 
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