I have peoples comments on how DSLRs should set around certain areas, to have the best looking picture. Such as the shutter at 50, the ISO at 800, etc. Those work well for indoors, but provide too much light for outside, in the sun. If it's a bright day, what settings would be best to shoot with, while having the best picture, with no possible grain, or anything that can result from certain settings? It seems that having the shutter at 3200 works good, but not sure what's best. Thanks.
Question about using a DSLR outdoors.
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
Okay thanks. When you say double the frame rate, double it compared to what? And my aperture does not seem to written in Fs. Just 1.4 or one point something but no F4, I have found.
Shooting outside, with daylight, if you want to follow the 180-shutter rule (which is probably a very good idea), you should keep the shutter speed at 1/50 or 1/60.
From there, I would adjust aperture next, to get the depth of field that you want. Higher f-stop means wider depth of field.
You'll balance f-stop and ISO to get the exposure that you desire. Usually, outside, in the sunlight, you can have it somewhere between 100-400, depending on the brightness and your aperture.
From there, I would adjust aperture next, to get the depth of field that you want. Higher f-stop means wider depth of field.
You'll balance f-stop and ISO to get the exposure that you desire. Usually, outside, in the sunlight, you can have it somewhere between 100-400, depending on the brightness and your aperture.
Ah, yes, Phil brought up a good point, with ND filters. Essentially, what they do is darken the image, allowing you to open up your aperture farther (lower f-stop). It's possible that you might be working with primes, which tend to have low apertures, and so then you would be required to slap on an ND filter, or two.
But if memory serves me correctly, you're working with the stock lens? If so, that one has an adjustable aperture, and it doesn't go very low. On the stock lens, I can't imagine you'd need an ND filter.
Also, just my opinion, but since you're just starting out, it might be a good idea to keep as wide a depth of field as possible (f8 - f12 will be relatively deep). Everyone has gone crazy over the shallow depths of field that DSLR allows. But you know what? As a camera operator, it's rather difficult to control, and since you're learning so much, I think it's best to save the super shallow depth of field for later (or, maybe just for specific shots).
But if memory serves me correctly, you're working with the stock lens? If so, that one has an adjustable aperture, and it doesn't go very low. On the stock lens, I can't imagine you'd need an ND filter.
Also, just my opinion, but since you're just starting out, it might be a good idea to keep as wide a depth of field as possible (f8 - f12 will be relatively deep). Everyone has gone crazy over the shallow depths of field that DSLR allows. But you know what? As a camera operator, it's rather difficult to control, and since you're learning so much, I think it's best to save the super shallow depth of field for later (or, maybe just for specific shots).
Okay thanks. My ISO goes up 6400, my aperture goes up to 29, and my shutter goes up to 4000, if that matters. My aperture does not go any lower than 4.5 though as far as I can tell.
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Yeah, those are all rather extreme numbers that you would only use if you were doing something "experimental". Those high numbers are in there for the photographer, not so much for the filmmaker.
The higher the ISO, the grainier the picture. Personally, I feel comfortable going as high as 1600, but you can see a little bit of graininess even at that setting. Most people, I think, wouldn't recommend going any higher than 800.
Shutter speed, as we've discussed, is linked to the 180-shutter rule. In a nutshell, your audience has grown accustomed to a certain amount of motion-blur. If you don't want your audience to think your video is weird, because it has no motion-blur, it is advisable to keep it at 1/50 or 1/60. Even 1/100 has a noticeable difference (footage looks "choppy").
I can't imagine ever using an aperture as high as f29. Cuz that would require a lot of light, or setting your ISO way too high. In my experience, f12 is about as high as you can go, and still get a properly exposed picture (and often, that's too high).
I did a quick shoot for someone that was literally "hey we have 20 minutes and a Camera, let's do this." it was outdoors in the bright sun and I had to run at ISO 100 and f/20 and 100 shutter speed. Not ideal, but it was BRIGHT.
@harmonica: reread the answers. No one can give you specific numbers for every situation because they aren't there, they're telling you how to figure the numbers out.
For shooting outdoors in bright sunlight
1. Set the shutter to 1/50
2. Set the ISO to 100 (as low as it gets).
3. Set the Aperture to what looks good with above settings. You may need it pretty closed. Remember, it's a fraction: f/x where f=light available and x=how much you're cutting it down. so the smaller X is the more light hits the sensor. If it's bright, you may have to close it a lot. The higher X the deeper the depth of field which the reason people use DSLR's is to get a shallow depth of field. That's where an ND filter comes in. Think of it as sun glasses for the sensor. With an ND filter cutting 8 stops you can Open aperture 8 stops and have the same image.
@harmonica: reread the answers. No one can give you specific numbers for every situation because they aren't there, they're telling you how to figure the numbers out.
For shooting outdoors in bright sunlight
1. Set the shutter to 1/50
2. Set the ISO to 100 (as low as it gets).
3. Set the Aperture to what looks good with above settings. You may need it pretty closed. Remember, it's a fraction: f/x where f=light available and x=how much you're cutting it down. so the smaller X is the more light hits the sensor. If it's bright, you may have to close it a lot. The higher X the deeper the depth of field which the reason people use DSLR's is to get a shallow depth of field. That's where an ND filter comes in. Think of it as sun glasses for the sensor. With an ND filter cutting 8 stops you can Open aperture 8 stops and have the same image.
Well, there are a couple of basic rules to follow all the time, no matter in what light you are shooting!
So, I think you are not to comfortable with some of the settings!
The basic things are:
ISO
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
The Lower the ISO, the darker the image will be!
The higher the ISO, the brighter the Image will be, BUT your image will be noisy (Quality will drop, due to sensitivity of sensor being higher and artefacts will show!)
Aperture!
Aperture, well, imagine that you have a ring inside your lens, which you can open up and close down!
If you go to a lower number, referred to as your F-Stop, you will get more light into the lens, because the ring opens up! If you go to a high number (E.g. F22), your Ring will close and thus, you will get less light on the sensor, so your image is darker!
The other thing is, that you will have a shallower Depth-of-Field, at a low F-Stop (Less of the image in Focus), as compared to a high F-Stop (nearly everything in Focus)
Shutter speed
In video mode, this is, how often the camera will read lines on your sensor. The camera reads the picture (Video) from the sensor, from the top to bottom, and you can adjust the speed, it does this with! It can either do it "Slowly" like 1/40th of a second or fast in about 1/2000th of a second. If you shoot normal video, you want to keep the shutter at about 1/50th or 1/60th, because it looks much more natural to the eye! If you shoot slowmotion though for instance, you want to have a higher shutter speed, because you want to capture all the information in the picture!
A higher shutter speed, will make every single picture (I say picture, because a video consists of pictures) in your video completely sharp and makes it unnatural to your eye! A lower shutter speed gives your video some motion blur, which looks much more realistic and cinematic!
NOW, as you can imagine, everything is much faster with a high shutter speed, and there is not to much time to light the image! So, this means, your image will be brighter, with a low shutter speed, than a high shutter speed!
Then, there are a couple of basic rules to follow!
1. You shoot in a specific Frame Rate and image size! Let's say, you shoot in 1920x1080 24p. That means, your camera reads 24 pictures in a resolution of 1920x1080 a second!
There is a rule, which says, that you should always use double the shutter speed of your frame rate!
That means, that if you shoot at 24fps, you want to ideally use a shutter speed of 1/48th. As there is no 1/48th, you just use the closest, 1/50th.
Same goes for every other frame rate..
30fps = 1/60th shutter
60fps = 1/120th shutter
ETC..
2. Use the lowest ISO possible, as this will give you the best quality Image.. Also, the lowest ISO, will be enough, to get a correct exposure on a sunny day! You will have plenty of light!!
3. You can adjust the Aperture, accordingly, to get a correct exposure! If you want to use a low aperture though (F-Stop), because you want to play with your focus, you have to get something like a ND Filter. Think of the ND Filter, like sunglasses for your eyes! Same thing! A lens is like your eye!
So, in the end, keep your ISO low.. If you don't want to change your aperture and shutter speed, you can go up with your ISO, but you will compromise Image quality! ISO up to 800 is generally fine! Higher than that gets really grainy!
In your original post, you stated, that a shutter speed of 3200 works good, but if you combine all the stuff I said in the post, you will find, that this will give you a very jerky image, and won't look good, as you have no kind of motion blur at all! Everything will be tack sharp!
Have fun experimenting with your camera!
So, I think you are not to comfortable with some of the settings!
The basic things are:
ISO
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
The Lower the ISO, the darker the image will be!
The higher the ISO, the brighter the Image will be, BUT your image will be noisy (Quality will drop, due to sensitivity of sensor being higher and artefacts will show!)
Aperture!
Aperture, well, imagine that you have a ring inside your lens, which you can open up and close down!
If you go to a lower number, referred to as your F-Stop, you will get more light into the lens, because the ring opens up! If you go to a high number (E.g. F22), your Ring will close and thus, you will get less light on the sensor, so your image is darker!
The other thing is, that you will have a shallower Depth-of-Field, at a low F-Stop (Less of the image in Focus), as compared to a high F-Stop (nearly everything in Focus)
Shutter speed
In video mode, this is, how often the camera will read lines on your sensor. The camera reads the picture (Video) from the sensor, from the top to bottom, and you can adjust the speed, it does this with! It can either do it "Slowly" like 1/40th of a second or fast in about 1/2000th of a second. If you shoot normal video, you want to keep the shutter at about 1/50th or 1/60th, because it looks much more natural to the eye! If you shoot slowmotion though for instance, you want to have a higher shutter speed, because you want to capture all the information in the picture!
A higher shutter speed, will make every single picture (I say picture, because a video consists of pictures) in your video completely sharp and makes it unnatural to your eye! A lower shutter speed gives your video some motion blur, which looks much more realistic and cinematic!
NOW, as you can imagine, everything is much faster with a high shutter speed, and there is not to much time to light the image! So, this means, your image will be brighter, with a low shutter speed, than a high shutter speed!
Then, there are a couple of basic rules to follow!
1. You shoot in a specific Frame Rate and image size! Let's say, you shoot in 1920x1080 24p. That means, your camera reads 24 pictures in a resolution of 1920x1080 a second!
There is a rule, which says, that you should always use double the shutter speed of your frame rate!
That means, that if you shoot at 24fps, you want to ideally use a shutter speed of 1/48th. As there is no 1/48th, you just use the closest, 1/50th.
Same goes for every other frame rate..
30fps = 1/60th shutter
60fps = 1/120th shutter
ETC..
2. Use the lowest ISO possible, as this will give you the best quality Image.. Also, the lowest ISO, will be enough, to get a correct exposure on a sunny day! You will have plenty of light!!
3. You can adjust the Aperture, accordingly, to get a correct exposure! If you want to use a low aperture though (F-Stop), because you want to play with your focus, you have to get something like a ND Filter. Think of the ND Filter, like sunglasses for your eyes! Same thing! A lens is like your eye!
So, in the end, keep your ISO low.. If you don't want to change your aperture and shutter speed, you can go up with your ISO, but you will compromise Image quality! ISO up to 800 is generally fine! Higher than that gets really grainy!
In your original post, you stated, that a shutter speed of 3200 works good, but if you combine all the stuff I said in the post, you will find, that this will give you a very jerky image, and won't look good, as you have no kind of motion blur at all! Everything will be tack sharp!
Have fun experimenting with your camera!
I don't know why but I never was able to wrap my mind around this until now. I mean, I knew that a higher f stop meant more light, but I never grasped why. Thanks for that, I can just know it now instead of having to remember
What everyone said
And once again, ND filters. You're going to them sooner or later when filming outdoors, unless ur willing to compromise ur shots.
And once again, ND filters. You're going to them sooner or later when filming outdoors, unless ur willing to compromise ur shots.
Okay thanks. I thought a DSLR doesn't need one, but I'll get one if it will help.
Then type "variable nd filter" into google and read abt it. Either that or you'll have to get several.
Okay thanks for the tip. I'll see if the camera shop has any. So any kind of filter that will hook onto the camera will be good?
@Dready - Sure haha. I remember that "aha" moment too.
@harmonica - photo filters come in sizes. With that stock lens you need a 58mm. A better/more budget friendly idea is to buy a 77mm filter though. A 77 costs more than a 58 but with the addition of a $2 step up ring you can use it on any lens in the future. If you go this route, be sure to pick up a 77mm lens cap too for $1. You want to protect it too.
As far as variable ND, I agree it's the way to go. The $125 Light Craft Workshop one is ok, it distorts the image though. The $300 Singh Ray doesn't, but it's $300. There's $20 ones on eBay... Haha, you get what you pay for! I bought some $5 ND filters (comparable to a $25-60 variable ND) and it's garbage. Makes the image pink and blurry.
@harmonica - photo filters come in sizes. With that stock lens you need a 58mm. A better/more budget friendly idea is to buy a 77mm filter though. A 77 costs more than a 58 but with the addition of a $2 step up ring you can use it on any lens in the future. If you go this route, be sure to pick up a 77mm lens cap too for $1. You want to protect it too.
As far as variable ND, I agree it's the way to go. The $125 Light Craft Workshop one is ok, it distorts the image though. The $300 Singh Ray doesn't, but it's $300. There's $20 ones on eBay... Haha, you get what you pay for! I bought some $5 ND filters (comparable to a $25-60 variable ND) and it's garbage. Makes the image pink and blurry.
Okay well I'll buy that more expensive one if comes with an extra ring that can be used on any, if that's what you mean.
I don't know why but I never was able to wrap my mind around this until now. I mean, I knew that a higher f stop meant more light, but I never grasped why. Thanks for that, I can just know it now instead of having to remember
f = focal length
D = diameter
f/d = F-stop.
200mm/50mm = 4
4/1 = Greater depth of field
(f/d)
35mm/25mm = 1.4
1.4/1= Shallow depth of field
This also explains why the images are darker in greater ratios, but I don't quite fully understand why. I don't understand the relationship between f/d, and how it effects images. Can someone explain this?
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Okay thanks. I bought a Cameron fader and filter, it's called. For a 58mm lense. If this is what I need for making pro looking picture with my canon T2i outdoors then I won't take it back, but if I bought the wrong thing in any way, let me know. Thanks.
What does it do besides make your picture look darker in the sunlight? Wouldn't you want brighter picture if it's sunny? Some movies look unusual dark with the sun out and I've always thought they looked fake.
What does it do besides make your picture look darker in the sunlight? Wouldn't you want brighter picture if it's sunny? Some movies look unusual dark with the sun out and I've always thought they looked fake.
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