First time filming at night

RZcrew

RZcrew

Member
never filmed at night with my t3i until i made this. what are the best settings to use at night to get the best result? also what could i have done to make this better? thanks!

 
not a bad little edit. to make the edit a little better use a tripod for some of those shots or something to stabilize a little better so its not quite as shaky. for best settings it all depends. if you just want to let in the most light. try and keep the ISO as low as possible just to keep the picture noise down. but shoot at a high resolution like 1080/24p and a shutter with 1/48 or (1/50). then keep the aperature open all the way (but this makes it more difficult for focus because shallower depth of field but will let in the most light) then check your exposure and adjust the iso until you get a decent image. depending on the source of light, you might be able to get away with somethin like 2500 but the higher you go, the "noisier" the picture gets. the one trade off
 
You will actually get more noise if you under expose because your using a low iso. If your using a t3i you can get away with around 1250 iso, anything over that and noise is awful. Proper exposure is key for keeping noise. As for shutter speed, i really dont ever film skiing but i keep mine at 1/48 ALWAYS. I like the motion blur, then again i don't film skiing.
 
same here. i haven't filmed skiing yet but i filmed longboarding at 60fps with a 1/250 shutter once. the slow motion came out pretty crisp with a fairly natural motion blur. id try and use that for skiing if i had an nd filter or just stop down to like f11 or 13 ish
 
Definitley get an ND, prob the best investment once you have at least one nice lens. I find anything past f8 just loses that DSLR/cinematic/shallow dof look we all love so much. It was the only reason i went with a dslr, I just can't stand the camcorder look. Even if dslrs are lacking in MANY areas.
 
i agree. both have their pros and cons but a dslr fit my style for what i need one for. and if i really needed a camcorder, i could check out an hvx at our school for free so im covered now! just need some more toys for the dslr (like nice lenses)
 
not a dumb question really but to describe it, it works the same for video as it does for photos.

if you take a photo at a slow shutter speed, you are capturing one frame for a lot longer than if you were to shoot with a higher shutter speed. if you shot a photo at a shutter of 1/15 of a second of somebody running with a still camera, they would be blurry because in the amount of time the shutter was open, the subject has moved a great deal. with a fast shutter speed of something like 1/2000 of a second, that same person running would be perfectly still in the picture with no motion blur because they wouldn't move very far in the amount of time that the shutter was open.

when you take this concept to video, the frame rate of the video is the rate at how many times per second the shutter actuations will take place. so at 30fps second, the shutter will open and close 30 times in 1 second. shutter speed describes how fast that shutter opens and closes basically. with a lower shutter speed, like the 1/15, you will get very blurry, but smooth, video because all of the frames are almost blending together, whereas a shutter of 1/2000 will produce an almost choppy but very crisp looking picture. the key is to find the best balance between these for whatever your shooting. fast moving sports can use a higher shutter speed where something like a love scene can use a normal shutter speed which is usually double the frame rate.

idk if any of this will make much sense cuz its kind of all over the place. but hope it answers your question. best way to think of it is like if you were to turn your head with your eyes open and blink tem closed twice. then turn your head again at the same speed and blink as many times as you can, thats a way to compare it. slow shutter vs fast
 
dub post cuz i messed that last bit up. turn your head at the same speed both times but one time with your eyes open turn your head and blink them closed 3 times. then the next time start with them closed and keep them closed while turning your head but blink them open 3 times. that would be slow shutter speed vs fast shutter speed at the same frame rate.
 
true.

but a couple things:

when filming with a DSLR, your shutter speed can't be lower than your frame rate. if you're shooting at 30 fps, you're not going to be able to shoot with a lower shutter speed than that because it wouldn't be able to take enough frames (ie if each frame takes 1/15 of a second to shoot, it won't be able to shoot 30 frames in one second). i think with normal video cameras you can somehow do this, but i don't really understand how it works.

also, most normal motion is frozen at much lower shutter speeds than 1/2000. i'd say your footage starts getting noticeably more crisp at 1/250, and even more so at 1/500.
 
yes this too. it can become mathematically impossible at a certain point. i was just using 1/15 as an example of slow. technically 1/30 at 30fps is a slow shutter speed for video. its really best OP to stay double the frame rate at least. then how fast you go depends on how you want your video to look
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top