Possible to shoot headlights on road with GH1?

S

Soldier

Well-known member
I'm trying to make this shot:

vlcsnap-2011-04-17-19h54m27s150.jpg

I'm using a reasonably fast lens, a Nikkor 24mm f/2, and a GH1. Of course I get the dreaded FPN. If I really need this shot to be clean (it's for a festival film) is there another way of getting this? shoot at dusk then bring it down in post? I'd hire a 5D but I live in a small town and the nearest hire place is about a 6 hour round trip. A friend has a 60D. Would this be capable of getting a clean shot?
 
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On moving footage I get rid of most of the FPN with the standard Remove Noise plug-in in After Effects. Neat Video is even better. So try whatever noise reduction you have available and see how it works for that particular shot.
 
Soldier,

I did this test on the way home tonight from my girlfriend's house.


This was shot using the AUTO settings that are covered in the thread mentioned above. I shot it using an unhacked GH1 with a Smooth picture setting. Everything at 0. White Balance at 3200k with 6 clicks to blue and 1 click down to magenta. Sorry about the focus, but I was driving with one hand and filming with the other.

Hope this helps with your short. I think with a little more setup, it would have looked pretty good.

Tony
 
I think getting a faster lens would also help.... and maybe driving with the high beams on too.
 
You could put some brighter headlights in the car...really bright bulbs aren't tooooo expensive...$20? Each?
 
tcarretti said:
Soldier,

I did this test on the way home tonight from my girlfriend's house.


This was shot using the AUTO settings that are covered in the thread mentioned above. I shot it using an unhacked GH1 with a Smooth picture setting. Everything at 0. White Balance at 3200k with 6 clicks to blue and 1 click down to magenta. Sorry about the focus, but I was driving with one hand and filming with the other.

Hope this helps with your short. I think with a little more setup, it would have looked pretty good.

Tony
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Your footage looks loads cleaner than mine. I'm shooting on a country road without any streetlights, so that could be a reason. I have tried the 'magic' settings from the other post and although it reduces the vertical FPN, it just gives me high iso video, so very noisy (more thatched than vertical FPN)
 
Ben_B said:
You could put some brighter headlights in the car...really bright bulbs aren't tooooo expensive...$20? Each?
Click to expand...

I tried fixing a 2k blonde to the front of the car. Even then I had problems. I don't know if it has anything to do with the area of the frame that is pitch black, but when My camera exposure meter says 3 stops under, I'm pretty much screwed.

Also I did try the shutter of 30. Handheld it is pretty smeary, but fixed it's a significant improvement - not good enough to project though.
 
Soldier said:
I'm trying to make this shot:

View attachment 33088

I'm using a reasonably fast lens, a Nikkor 24mm f/2, and a GH1. Of course I get the dreaded FPN. If I really need this shot to be clean (it's for a festival film) is there another way of getting this? shoot at dusk then bring it down in post? I'd hire a 5D but I live in a small town and the nearest hire place is about a 6 hour round trip. A friend has a 60D. Would this be capable of getting a clean shot?
Click to expand...

yeah id give it a shot in post using some footage shot at dusk, should be able to replicate the grab you posted.
 
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