Preventing blowouts on the T2i?

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dtjohns1

Well-known member
I havent received my T2i yet but from all the footage ive seen so far (especially outside footage or footage near windows) has suffered from severe blowouts in the sky and places producing a lot of light. Is this standard with this camera or is there something I can do in order to keep nice blue skies and information outside of windows while still keeping subjects exposed properly?
 
Having not used one I can't say for sure, but by the way you ask the question I'd say that it's similar to any camera. It comes down to lighting, lenses, composition, etc.

And as with most of film making there are many solutions. Put some ND over your windows. Adjust lighting of your subjects. And so on.
 
There's no magic setting for what you're after, you just need to apply some tricks. Try using a flatter gamma curve like this one:

http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/20...-style-with-cine-gamma-s-curve-free-download/

Also, try underexposing just a little as well. You'll add noise to the darker areas if you bring them up in post at the cost of saving some of the highlights. You can also try blocking the windows with something semi-transparent. Or you could add more light onto the subjects inside. Lots of solutions but no magic setting on camera.
 
Take some immodium to prevent those nasty blowouts.

Or learn to light. No gamma curve can save a bad contrast ratio.
 
Taylor Rudd said:
No gamma curve can save a bad contrast ratio.
Click to expand...

The picture styles curve is applied to the data when its still RAW on the camera. The highlights haven't been totally lost yet. Sure its not as good as shooting RAW and tweaking in post but its all we got right now. DSLRs these days have almost 12 stops of DR which gets totally thrown out with the default in camera gamma correction. With a proper gamma curve, you can give yourself up to 2+ stops of headroom in the highlights. Thats something people shouldn't just ignore.
 
dtjohns1, there is a setting for minimizing that, it's called "highlight tone priority (HTP)". You can try using it; most folks who are quite experienced would avoid it because it makes the shadows grainier, but if you're just starting out and don't know the camera well, HTP lowers the sensitivity by a stop to help prevent blowouts. It boosts the darker range up to compensate (and that's where the grain comes from).
 
There is also a trick I learned from Kholi.

Before shooting your scene, take a still and flip to playback. Turn info on and look at the histograms that way you can tell if its clipping.

Despite knowing that, during the pace of the shoot I always forget.
 
Another simple solution that many seem to forget is to put on a polarizing filer or at the least an ND filer on your lens. This is a tried and true way of shooting with DSLR cameras. Remember that this is a photo camera that can shoot stunning video. So treat it like you would any regular DSLR camera.

I think that people get to used to their video cameras having built in ND filters.
 
Putting a ND filter on in this case won't really do it. You are just cutting down the exposure evenly over the whole picture. Exposure wise, you could as well just stop down the lens. If you can, bring the light level in the room up, or lower the amount of light coming in through the windows...
 
cordvision said:
Putting a ND filter on in this case won't really do it. You are just cutting down the exposure evenly over the whole picture. Exposure wise, you could as well just stop down the lens. If you can, bring the light level in the room up, or lower the amount of light coming in through the windows...
Click to expand...

Exactly. Adjust the lighting indoors. Or line your windows with some ND (assuming this isn't a run and gun situation). Or both.

This isn't a camera specific issue. It's a DP issue.
 
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