GH4 night shooting lens info?

W

wwjd

Well-known member
bit of a camera noob here...

I know for night you want the fastest lenses... I have a 1.4 and 1.8, as well as 2.8 and a "lens turbo"... so my question is which seems better for night: wide open, like 1.4, or the SHARPEST setting for the lens glass like F4 or a little below? What does everyone else do shooting at night? I know sitting at 1.4 there is a little bit of haze, not as tack sharp as f4, but f4 is too dark. Just looking for general feedback.

Example: if I go F4, but have to set ISO to 1600, won't the excess noise kinda cancel the SHARP of F4 from the lens?

I know upping the ISO adds noise and grain, and I know I only get to pick 2 out of 3 in the triangle of: ISO / Shutter / aperture

And what WHITE BALANCE do you set for night? Specifically for GH4?

Thanks!
 
What kind of night shooting? City streets? Desolate farm? Do you have access to any movie lighting equipment? I have had good luck shooting at one stop down from wide open on all my lenses in order to get decent sharpness. So my f1.4 I shoot at f2. My f2 I shoot at f2.8 and so on.

Light for the slowest lens you need to use on your shoot. Let's say your slowest lens is an f2.8, and it's a wide angle lens you need for a wide shot. You will need to have enough light for that lens. If you set your exposure for your f1.4 lens and then you need to shoot at f2.8 on your wide lens, you will be underexposing your f 2.8 image by 2 stops. So you need to light for your slowest lens.

Depending on what type of shooting you are doing, having a few inexpensive lights rather than relying on available light will let you shoot at a lower ISO and give you more creative control of the look of your film.
 
if I go F4, but have to set ISO to 1600, won't the excess noise kinda cancel the SHARP of F4 from the lens?And what WHITE BALANCE do you set for night? Specifically for GH4?
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If you can shoot your scene at f/4 with 1600 ISO in my opinion you're well ahead of the game. I know some people complain about noise at that ISO, but I don't have a problem with it as it can be easily cleaned up with a touch of NEAT Video.The issue with wider apertures in general and especially with low light shooting is the ability to get accurate focusing, so greater care has to be taken there.As to white balancing, I always use the Kelvin scale and eyeball it, comparing the actual scene and what the GH4's EVF sees. I know some would scold me for this as being unprofessional, but for me it works. And any slight misjudgment I'll adjust in post.
 
Not sure if you're talking astro photography or not, but you need to be as wide open as possible at ISO 1600 to get 20 second exposures of the night sky. At 30 second exposures the stars all blur too much from the spinning of the earth.

Here's a sample I got from the summer solstice up in Wyoming. The timelapse is got was spectacular, but my auto white balance had the color all over the place. Even with shooting raw I wasn't able to correct it. Haven't had a chance to try one again with manual white balance to see how it works.

This shot was with an Olympus 17mm f/1.8 wide open and the GH4.

Cheers,
Pete
 

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excellent, excellent info, thanks guys! I should have mentioned: this will be outside at night, around a partially lit business building (i might be able to light it up more outside), and inside the building with mood lighting (not full lights on) for effect. I have 3x 1000 led lights and a couple big light boxes, and various little things.

and boy would I love to get into STARS videos someday soon.

any other advice, know knowing the lights potential and shooting situation?
 
With motion you can get by with less sharpness - open up as wide as you can.

Lighting is crucial, so you better practice, practice, and practice.
 
Also, assuming you are shooting in the United States where electricity is 60Hz, shooting at a 1/40th shutter speed is flicker-free and will give you another 2/3 stop of exposure over shooting at 1/60th. Motiion blur at 1/40th will still look filmic. You can also go to 1/30th for another 1/3 stop bump in exposure, but motion blur starts to get a little gooey.
 
If you intend to take night shots then GH4 has a dedicated night shot mode called iHandheld Night Shot.
"Pictures of the night scenery will be taken at a high burst speed and composed into a single picture. This mode is useful if you want to take stunning night shots with minimal jitter and noise without using a tripod."

Haven´t tried it myself yet, but thought OP would be interested to know it.
 
this will all be video mode. but I have read there is a STILLS mode in this camera... :D
 
Stills are a totally different thing though, being able to take exposures one at a time lets you play with shutter speeds and image stacking.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that even a small amount of additional lighting ( i.e. LEDs, battery powered tungsten, etc... ), can greatly improve the look of a low-light shoot.

Low-light <> No Lights
 
I've got some pretty bright lights - my first attempt at using lights, AND shooting at night is here:
I have the lights at around 30% because too bright made the background city all too dark. but this is way too "Studio" looking for me. I want it to look a little more natural. The spot where I shot the video is a very dark section of sidewalk right there, and my lights lit it up really well, and drew a crowd.
I dunno.... still trying to get the feel of the lens and booster at night. But I do enjoy the practice! .... and education from here.
 
wwjd said:
I've got some pretty bright lights - my first attempt at using lights, AND shooting at night is here:
Click to expand...

What lens and camera settings did you use for this shot ?

It looks like you need to bring up your "city" exposure by 1-2 stops and bring down your foreground lighting by 1-2 stops. (re: you're not that far from getting a more believable night-time look )
 
yes, I was too bright. I don't recall the settings on camera, fuzzy close ups was Canon 50mm f1.4 W/Lens Turbo, wider was Sigma 18-35 1.8.

so, jsut reducing my forground lights more might do it? I can probably up the ISO more than here - this was a staged location, but the next one will be outside a building with more natural lights and LESS birght lighting like this.
Thanks for the feedback.
 
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