Question about footage.

H

harmonica44

I've shot a scene for a short film I'm making and have a question. I could not tell this on the camera at the time, but there are a lot of red dots on the screen. Perhaps cause of the lighting or something. I tried to keep the ISO, shutter, and aperture at the settings often advised on here so not sure if that was the problem. I will upload some footage to show as soon as I can, there has been some problems uploading to youtube I need to figure out. Is it fixable in post, cause I am shooting my next scene in a few days and want to know what I'm up against.
 
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You can go as wide as the aperture allows. It makes a more shallow DOF the more open it is though. I used a f/1.2 L Canon 85mm and at wide open there would be an eye in focus and the other eye out.

Sometimes that can be a good thing, but usually not.

The art of cinematography is finding the right angle/movement/aperture/shutter speed/ISO. What's correct here isn't there.

With your kit lens, while still a little softer wide open you shouldn't have any problems going all the way open.
 
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Okay thanks. So I might not be able to have a much of a depth of field, cause I need enough light, and if I had to choose, I'm guessing light is more important. I am going to test with some more lights. I got a few florescents, that should light up a scene good, but is there any type of scenes, where flourescents would provide the wrong look?

Also it seems that lighting bright enough to fit the T2i's standards can cause the actors faces to be too white. The more I put the lights off to the side, the less goes into the camera. Any way to avoid this? I see if I can get any practice in after I buy more lights, before the next shoot date which is soon though.
 
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Yeah but that results in things being too white on faces. But I could try to balance it out by making the lights more off the to the side though, instead of being near the camera, if that helps.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Yeah but that results in things being too white on faces. But I could try to balance it out by making the lights more off the to the side though, instead of being near the camera, if that helps.
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I don't think you want to be lighting head-on. The way you adjust the brightness is by moving the lights closer or further away from the talent. You can also use dimmers, but that can change your color temps and is a no-no for florescents I believe.

No offense, but it sounds like you need some study on lighting and how to use your camera. You should have your exposure perfect before you shoot anything, always. Time to hit the books or interwebs. You'll be much more comfortable and happier with the results, promise.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Yeah but that results in things being too white on faces. But I could try to balance it out by making the lights more off the to the side though, instead of being near the camera, if that helps.
Click to expand...

And if their faces are overexposed then you need to either adjust your exposure or move the lights further away, as CamVader said.

There is no "correct" exposure for any shot - you generally want to keep your shutter at 180° (or 1/50) and your ISO at 800 or below (on a DSLR), but that still leaves a lot of leeway. Sometimes it looks best to underexpose the subject and expose for the background, other times it looks best to have more light on the subject than the background, but knowing what to do is a skill that takes time and practice like anything else.

Like CamVader, I'd recommend you study some basic lessons in lighting. I'd recommend reading all of the lessons at Lowel EDU, which will give you a thorough if fairly basic understanding of lighting in theory and practice. The tutorials by polcan99 on YouTube might be a good place to go next; they're slightly more complex but the end product looks pretty decent.

When you've done that, play around with your own lights and then come back and ask questions and we'll do our best to help. What may take a wall of text to explain in writing can often be equally well understood after five minutes of practical experience.
 
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Even better, chilipie. I was to lazy to go find links. That was a much more informative post. If you're like me, h44, the best way to learns is a combination of study and hands-on - usually at the same time. It's easier for me to try not to digest a ton in one sitting without letting my hands, eyes, and brain do things that get the desired results. Some of the best lessons are learned by mistake while you're experimenting.
 
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For sure. Thanks for the info people. Since we're on the subject I am trying to light a scene at night for a night scene outdoors, coming up in the shoot. No matter how many lights I use I cannot get enough for night. So I was thinking maybe, I can just film at dusk, when there is still light and shadow around. Then color the sky black in post. Is this possible, and will it pass? Or what's a method that will?
 
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harmonica44 said:
For sure. Thanks for the info people. Since we're on the subject I am trying to light a scene at night for a night scene outdoors, coming up in the shoot. No matter how many lights I use I cannot get enough for night. So I was thinking maybe, I can just film at dusk, when there is still light and shadow around. Then color the sky black in post. Is this possible, and will it pass? Or what's a method that will?
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You have an F1.8 on that T2i and shouldn't need tons of light to get something half decent. I still think you're having "user error" problems. Set the ISO at 800 and open up the f-stop to 1.8 or 2 and see what happens.
 
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Maybe I am having user error problems cause I've been looking for that F1.8 as pointed out before. The F stop only goes as low as 5 or 3.5, depending on the lighting, but will not go lower, or at least I haven't found out how to make it go lower. The manual also seems to say nothing about lowering it that far specifically.
 
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Make sure you are in manual mode all times when learning how to use the camera and you have the f1.8 18-55mm kit lens, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrUilSnKwGI

I Googled "T2i change f stop" and this was on the first page if you catch my drift. ;)
 
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CamVader said:
Make sure you are in manual mode all times when learning how to use the camera and you have the f1.8 18-55mm kit lens, right?
Click to expand...

That kit lens is f/3.5-5.6, but I thought harmonica had said he'd bought the 50mm f/1.8 as well.

I think you're trying to run before you can walk here, harmonica - lighting night exteriors realistically is difficult, particularly with limited resources - and you haven't got your head round the camera yet. See if you can understand this Beginner's Introduction to Exposure (it's geared towards still photography, but the same principles still apply). As CamVader says, there are lots of easy to find basic tutorials on how to use your camera and I'm sure you could learn much more quickly from them than from us guessing at what you've done.
 
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Oops! My apologies to all. That explains having difficulty getting below f3. :) I should have looked it up like I was suggesting.

The 50mm will get some results more likely. In any case, I don't know about anyone else, but test shots are where it's at. Take notes on what you're doing using the built in mic so you have reference to changes in settings you made in the field. As you already know, things look different when you get home. Shoot every day and vary the subject just to see what happens. This will pay dividends, but you have to get more proactive. Good luck!
 
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Oh okay so I need that smaller 50mm lens to get F1.8. I got a few days before the night shooing scene, so I'll see if I can get one ASAP. I'll try it on in the store and see if the aperture goes that far open, but is there any catches to working it properly before I try it out in the store? It just works the same way, right? If I said I bought the 50mm lens before, my apologies, I must have got confused as to which lens you meant or something.

I've been doing some reading and some articles have said to use halogen lights to light night scenes. But will those give me enough light, even set at an aperture of 1.8? I will try but hope I didn't blow money on halogen nights, when they weren't bright enough.
 
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