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Nightclub lighting help!

O

OllieMiller

Hi guys, this is my first post on the forums so please excuse my noobishness (is that even a word?).

I am filming a 3-4 minute long, promotional video, for a nightclub that I work for and so far have no experience of filming in these conditions of extreme light change. I was asked to do it as I am a journalism student with filmmaking experience in the past.

I am just looking for some tips on how to best approach exposure as I have everything else (shot list, music etc.) already in the bag. I will be shooting on a Sony V1 camera, probably onto tape.

Thanks guys!

OM.
 
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I assume you will be shooting at 24 frames per second, at a 1/50th shutter speed most likely, right?

If so then you will have to expose quite high. I have done a couple of birthday party shootings in nightclubs so far, but try to make it look as good as can be. If I shoot at 24fps at 1/50, I usually have to set the ISO to 1600, and the aperture to f2.5 or lower maybe even. This causes a lot of shallow depth of field, and does not give you a lot of range to keep people's faces in focus. But if you are not doing a lot of close ups, then it will not be so bad.

You can play with the different color temperature settings as well, to see what temperature, all the colored lights will look the best at as well. I prefer a lower temperature around 32OO kelvin as sometimes, higher temperatures give you more noise, when it comes to deep colored lights. But this could depend on the color of the light as well, but I know that warmer lights, cause noise at cooler temperatures, if the difference is big.

You may want to turn the contrast all the way down in the camera, as this will give you more range, in low light, and not make the dark parts as dark, but a no contrast look might make your footage a bit dull looking, so it's a trade off. You will have to decide what's better for your self and do some tests.

Hope this helps, as I am learning as well!
 
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Although H44 tries to help, he doesn't know the Sony V1 has no Iso settings, but uses gain instead.
Adding gain will always add noise to the image, but it could be the only way to get an image with that camera.
Try to keep it low. +3 dB still looks acceptable.
Expose for the bright lights, so it looks a bit like it looks for real: dark with bright lights.

Shoot in 1080P, otherwise it will look crappy on internet due to interlacing lines.

Since you work there: do a test first to see how the footage turns out.
I'd stay away for automatic settings for shutter, iris and gain, but maybe shooting with all settings manual isn't something you are used to?
 
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OllieMiller said:
filming in these conditions of extreme light change.
Click to expand...

Unless you're filming while the nightclub is actually open to the public, there's no reason why you can't simply adjust the interior lighting to something more suitable for your camera's sensor. Heck, even if the nightclub is open for business, you could probably get away with adjusting interior lights upwards for a while.

Is the camera your only piece of gear, btw? No light kit, or budget for rental of some?
 
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