Natural Lighting for DVX200

Cinephile

Cinephile

Member
Planning to shoot a small film on a DVX200 and I want to use almost all natural lighting (little to none light set ups) especially at night in a low lit environments, so my question is; what is the best SCENE FILE SETTINGS for natural lighting? I really like the look of "A Day of Life" short that was used on the DVX200 website and I think that's the look I may be going for; does anyone know the SCENE FILE SETTINGS used for that short? I don't want do any post production color correcting due to time constraints. Thanks again DVXUSER community for taking the time to read my post!
 
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Unless your "at night with low lit environments" shoot is all illuminated with exactly the same type light source I can't imagine not having to do color correction in post. If you have a candle here, an incandescent lamp there, a street light coming in the window...you will have to color correct. Might the AWB in the camera be acceptable? Maybe, but I doubt it.
 
Pretty sure they used vlog and color corrected the shots from that short film. There's no easy button. The closest you can get straight out of camera would be using cine-like gamma curves, reducing saturation and manually increasing the knee. Still have to WB every setup. Maybe create your own scene file setting that approximates the look you want baked-in.
 
Are you sure the short "A Day of Life" used all natural lighting on the indoor scenes? Will you use reflectors? Also the DVX200 is not know to be the best low light camera. It is not an A7. I suggest you use light on the night scenes and reflectors on the day scenes. Hollywood uses lights on their night scenes in a way that it does not appear to have lighting. You can do the same and get a thousand times better results. You cannot rely on the scene files of the camera to produce quality results in night scenes without manipulating the light in some way. The scene files are used to get a different color effect or result, but under properly exposed circumstances. Bottom line, use reflectors and lights, unless the natural light is acceptable. Also, you may have to do some color correction in post.

Here is a link to someone who used Barry Green's scene files for landscape and portrait shots: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...w-Motion-OIS-and-Macro-Focus)-PS-Thanks-Barry! There are also other threads discussing DVX 200 scene files.
 
Yes Design Media Consultants, I agree, "A Day of Life" most likely didn't use natural lighting and most likely used a lot of color correction in post, but if i can get the same color reproduction IN CAMERA in the DVX200 by using a set of SCENE FILE SETTING, it would save me a lot of time. I always liked the 16mm SCENE FILE SETTING in the DVX100 that Barry Green (Thank you Barry) suggested way back when, which i got incredible footage during low light settings (maybe anyone has been using a 35mm equivalent?). It does sound like i'm asking for a magic setting, or maybe a "magic bullet" lol, but any and all hints and suggestions will be helpful! Once again, this community is incredible, thank you!

And just to clarify, on the DVX200, the ISO and GAIN are the exact same thing, right?
 
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ISO and gain both describe the sensitivity of a camera sensor to light. It might be more correct to say gain and BASE ISO are the same. DVX200's base (or, native) ISO is 500, which would read as 0db gain. A stop of exposure is measured every time you double or halv your ISO or raise or lower your gain by 6db. Therefore, ISO 250 and -6db would be identical, as would +12db be equal to ISO 2000. It is important to know this, as well as to note that the higher your gain, the image gets noisier and more contrasty. ISO 2000 is the highest I will go for image quality reasons, though Neat Video is a great tool to have in the "just in case" folder. I prefer to shoot narrative fiction work at ISO 250. Also, "ISO" doesn't mean "light sensitivity rating" and "gain" is a more accurate way to describe light sensitivity of a digital camera. But, I'm old school and film is still the bar. :D
 
Without knowing in detail what you are attempting to accomplish, it is hard to give detailed info. Yes gain and ISO are almost the same thing (terminology, etc). But if you are shooting at night, be aware that your camera loves light. Like a race car loves high quality fuel to run at peak performance, your camera loves light and needs it to give you the highest quality. In reference to ISO, will you be shooting in HD or 4K - it will make a difference. Will you be shooting 24P? Generally speaking, you can get acceptable results at about 1500 to 2000 maybe 4000 ISO - but that is subjective and depends on your acceptable quality levels. But do not push into the high ISO area by using Super Gain. You may consider using the HIGH SENS setting to reduce noise. Cameras like the GH4 can utilize faster lenses and speed boosters for low light - the DVX can't. You need to take your camera out and start taking some test shots to see what it can do, etc.. Do not rely on the LED for exposure, use the waveform monitor. Edit the video and see if you can obtain the results you desire using all natural light. I also suggest the free book, by Barry Green, "A Guide to the DVX200 Camera." Looking forward to seeing your film and wish you the best.
 
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