Is it worth helping to make a feature if it's intended for youtube only?

K I made a video without the camera being shaky. As you can see I do not have much of a depth of field range at F8, unless I am focusing it wrong or something.

http://youtu.be/ha4ZS9g8jPI


Good.

You forgot to answer the other questions : what camera and what focal length ?

(just so you know, there is no camera/lens in the world that will allow you to have focus on something very close to the lens at the same time than something very far... there is a balance that needs to be found for the "how close can you get").
 
H44, you say you know a lot.
I'd say you ask and read a lot, but you have no idea how to implement it.
Actually, your mind seems to be very rigid, focussing on rules that must be obeyed. And when someeone suggests some alternative, you think these new 'rules' are 'the rules'.
And sometimes you don't really seem to read close enough...

When I was 11 I read a book about karate.
It didn't make me an experienced expert, it didn't make me a seasoned black belt champion.
No, I just read a book...

(Instead of doing karate I played soccer, btw...)

About the DOF test:
moving from 15 feet to 0 feet from the lens will never focus.
Try this at 30ft - 15ft or 45ft - 30ft.

LOL @ Red Robot:
in one thread you go from: "some people in here are rude to H44" to almost frustatedly giving the advice most of us are giving him for over 2,5 years...

I even gave him 3 short script ideas to make something. He doesn't see it and keeps struggeling with grading H.264 footage and wondering why it can't look like Transformers :P

I told H44 before: you can train for the Olympics all your life, but if you don't go out there and win some matches first, you'll never get there.
Make short stuff: it's the fast way to learn, to get a portfolio and to get people interested in your next project.
 
I did not said that every single person on the forum is rude to H44 , what I meant was that there are a lot of very harsh comments against him when what I can see from his non stopping questions is that he is obsessed with filmmaking and very passionate about it . Which is a good thing .

What you guys and me also said was that he is not going anywhere with these tests and nonsense questions sometimes and that's where I'll agree .
 
You forgot to answer the other questions : what camera and what focal length ?

(just so you know, there is no camera/lens in the world that will allow you to have focus on something very close to the lens at the same time than something very far... there is a balance that needs to be found for the "how close can you get").

+ 1

Read the in brackets bit too and understand it H4.

And for your test shot H4 what did you initially focus on? Did you focus?

I did provide this to you... You should use it...

Depth of field calculator
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

It will tell you what will be in focus based on your camera, lens focal length, f-stop, distance to talent.

And I'll re-highlight this:

(just so you know, there is no camera/lens in the world that will allow you to have focus on something very close to the lens at the same time than something very far... there is a balance that needs to be found for the "how close can you get").

For my feature. I had the talent walk 20 feet to the door. I shot at f8. I started with them in focus. They stayed in focus for 10+ feet. At the door they were slightly out of focus, opened the door then walked back towards the camera (coming fully in focus again). I was fine with that. I could have pulled focus but did not. I could have cut, re-positioned the camera and done a mid-shot or close-up near the door (all in focus). You get the idea.

Obviously if you shoot at f2.8 you would have a shallow depth of field and the talent would go out of focus very very quickly. Much faster than at f8.

Again, use this:

Depth of field calculator
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

And don't think shooting at f16 or f22 is the answer. Depending on your lens, when you shot at f11 or higher you can get diffraction. For details see:

http://www.wikihow.com/Choose-a-Lens-Aperture-(F-Stop)

It depends on your lens. Also the sharpness at f8 will likely be better than at f16 or f22. Again, depends on the lens (though nearly all will be less sharp at f22).

This guy does great lens reviews. He tells you were the sweet spots (ie f-stop range) for many lens are. I try to keep my shooting within that sweet spot. For my main lens it is f4 to f8.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

...type your lens name into his Search facility

Get out there. Get filming. Your first feature will not be Hollywood standard - you need filming experience. Not more Q&A threads here.
 
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Obviously if you shoot at f2.8 you would have a shallow depth of field and the talent would go out of focus very very quickly. Much faster than at f8.

This is wrong. Even at f2.8, you can get infinite focus if you focus beyond the hyperfocal (which is at 17.7ft for a 17mm lens on APS-C).

That is to say, at f2.8, on a 17 mm lens on APS-C, a subject at 9 feet from camera and another one at 18 and another one at 30 are all three in focus.

But a subject at 7 feet from camera will never ever be in focus at the same time than another one at 30.
 
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honestly, you guys... why do you bother, you give answers, you give exact technical details, you could even show the guy whats what, he still will give you dumbass answers.

just give up and give your answers to someone who actually listens, who has talent, who is going somewhere and doesnt frustrate you.

infact even better... start making some films!
 
honestly, you guys... why do you bother, you give answers, you give exact technical details, you could even show the guy whats what, he still will give you dumbass answers.

just give up and give your answers to someone who actually listens, who has talent, who is going somewhere and doesnt frustrate you.

infact even better... start making some films!

The people who are sharing advice are definitely keeping active in filmmaking, so there's no need to mention that. Otherwise, I agree with you -- the advice is falling on deaf ears.
 
I usually don't even bother clicking on H44 threads but once in a while, I just can't help it.

Plus the whole "someone is wrong on the Internet" thing...
 
honestly, you guys... why do you bother, you give answers, you give exact technical details, you could even show the guy whats what, he still will give you dumbass answers.!

i come into these threads for the lulz.. i particularly enjoyed red robots transition from naive helper to frustrated veteran lol

am i the only one who wonders how old h44 is and what is his day job?
anyway i've yet to make anything, so I have no room to talk.. at least for another week or two :)
 
Sorry I forgot to mention the lens in the first video. It's a 50mm at f8. I focused on the coffee pot originally, than the snelf, more in the foreground, then back to the coffee pot.

Here's a video f16 with a 50mm. I know what aperture diffraction is but I thought maybe it's an acceptable trade off, since anyone wanting to shoot really really deep focus on a DSLR would have to go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIVGNzWST4

And here's a video with an 18mm lens at f8. I typically don't like wide lenses cause of risk of barrel distortion, if actors walk too close, but they are good for small locations, so I will use one. In this video it looks like I (that's me), may be in focus the whole time, unless I go out a little but it doesn't look like. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIVGNzWST4
 
This is wrong. Even at f2.8, you can get infinite focus if you focus beyond the hyperfocal (which is at 17.7ft for a 17mm lens on APS-C).

That is to say, at f2.8, on a 17 mm lens on APS-C, a subject at 9 feet from camera and another one at 18 and another one at 30 are all three in focus.

But a subject at 7 feet from camera will never ever be in focus at the same time than another one at 30.

Fair point. Thanks. :)

And 8salacious9 ... wise words. H44 I'm out of this thread. You have enough info now x 10. I'm not going to get involved in a further Q&A on it. You need to learn when to stop asking questions - you have more than enough info to sort this yourself now. Please value our time too. Have fun filming.
 
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Looking at those videos I'd suggest you don't actually know what you're trying to test.

Brilliant thread though!! From "Youtube Features" to "is this in Focus" in only 4 pages :)
 
Sorry I forgot to mention the lens in the first video. It's a 50mm at f8. I focused on the coffee pot originally, than the snelf, more in the foreground, then back to the coffee pot.

Here's a video f16 with a 50mm. I know what aperture diffraction is but I thought maybe it's an acceptable trade off, since anyone wanting to shoot really really deep focus on a DSLR would have to go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIVGNzWST4

And here's a video with an 18mm lens at f8. I typically don't like wide lenses cause of risk of barrel distortion, if actors walk too close, but they are good for small locations, so I will use one. In this video it looks like I (that's me), may be in focus the whole time, unless I go out a little but it doesn't look like. What do you think?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIVGNzWST4

I think you linked the same video twice.
Furthermore, at your YT videos page it looks like you've only uploaded one video. http://www.youtube.com/user/harmonica44/videos
 
Sorry I forgot to mention the lens in the first video. It's a 50mm at f8. I focused on the coffee pot originally, than the snelf, more in the foreground, then back to the coffee pot.

Here's a video f16 with a 50mm. I know what aperture diffraction is but I thought maybe it's an acceptable trade off, since anyone wanting to shoot really really deep focus on a DSLR would have to go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIVGNzWST4

And here's a video with an 18mm lens at f8. I typically don't like wide lenses cause of risk of barrel distortion, if actors walk too close, but they are good for small locations, so I will use one. In this video it looks like I (that's me), may be in focus the whole time, unless I go out a little but it doesn't look like. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIVGNzWST4


Deep focus and long lenses don't work well together. There are no noticeable problems at 18mm, you can deal with it by working on the composition.
 
Okay thanks. Sorry for sending the same link twice before. Here's the other one I meant to send:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FkombJZAXM

It looks to me like I am in focus when I am in the front and the back, unless I am wrong?

Well I can deep focus with wide lenses for master shots, but their are specific shots I will need longer lenses for. It was said on here, that a lot of no budgeters who cannot find a good focus puller use autofocus, and that's what my friend who wants to make his feature wants to use. I would have to get a DSLR that has an autofocus option. I tried one in the store, but the autofocus seems slow on tracking people.
 
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