Manual video exposure

funkmaster

funkmaster

Member
first of all, using a t3i with kit lens and a glidecam, mostly doing followcams and shots in the park.

i've had my camera for a few months now and so far i've been shooting video in auto mode. this has produced some pretty passable shots along with some pretty good shots. however, i was starting to get a little annoyed at how hit or miss auto can be, as sometimes it some pretty weird settings. so i decided to try shooting in manual mode today. i metered every few runs and adjusted the aperture to suit, leaving the shutter speed locked in at 125 (shooting at 60 fps)(aperture was typically getting pretty high, f/12-16). i had set the iso to auto in hopes that this would adjust to changing conditions if it needed to. also note that every time i metered, iso was at 100.

anyways, this setup definitely didn't work out for me too great. some of the footage turned out ok, but a lot of it was really blown out and over-exposed. i feel like the problem was that when the shot got brighter at all, there was no way for the camera to compensate for it, since the iso was already rock bottom, and shutter speed and aperture were locked in. in hindsight, i feel like it might have worked better if i had originally metered with the iso at 200 or 400 so that there could be some adjustablilty in both directions without going to too high of an iso and getting a lot of noise.

anyways, how do you guys set your exposure when doing followcams in the park? do you use auto? manual? if so how do you achieve the correct exposure when doing follow cams or panning shots? thanks for reading
 
Either adjust your shutter speed or stop your lens down to f22.

If you dont wanna do either of those, id suggest buying an ND filter.
 
Shoot with a higher shutter speed dude! You'll get a way sharper image. If you're shooting 60fps go for about 250-500, this'll cause just enough motion blur to keep it smooth, but you'll be able to make out some details. If you go too high (>500) the image will start to appear pretty jumpy.

People like to shoot at double the frame rate for the 'filmic' look. However, movies shot on film are a long way off filming skiing, so all the rules from filming films don't really apply. That said, if you're shooting lifestyle shots it wouldn't hurt to drop down to 120/60f, 60/30f, or 47/24f. That last one is only possible on canons with magic lantern installed. If you edit in premiere it doesn't have a problem with using clips in different formats, I don't know about the others.

 
word! it seemed everywhere i was reading really advocated using double your frame rate for shutter speed. most of those sources did seem pretty "filmic" though haha. i'll give this a try! that makes more sense to me, i was having to pick some really small apertures. i like the idea of being able to shoot on a bit wider of an aperture. thought about an ND filter too, but i have gotten some really nice shots in very bright weather in the past with just my kit lens on auto, so i feel like it is more a just a problem with my technique.

still though, getting back down to the root of the problem, how do you get that on the go adjustability as you make your way down the run? moving around on the hill with a glidecam inherently pans a lot and therefore hits a lot of different lighting areas on the way down. for example, if i pan from across the hill to down the hill, i start with dark trees in the background and end with brighter open sky in the background. how do you allow the camera to account for this without letting your image get blown out when you look at the sky or under exposed when you are pointed at the trees?

keep in mind, although a lot of my shots yesterday were blown out, some parts were well exposed. like i said, i did meter and get things set for a sample of what i thought i would be looking at at the top of every couple runs

anyways, is there a practical way to manually expose video for changing conditions like a followcam? should i pursue this? should i just return to shooting in auto?

thanks for the helpful responses so far!
 
Plan your shots.

Don't just try and follow the skier hotlapping unless you're trying to capture that flow between features (B-dog and Maks Gorham edits come to mind here, and even then it's two or three hits rather than a whole line), break it down and shoot each feature individually. You'll be able to expose correctly and you'll be able to compose each shot more creatively. If you just follow hot laps every single shot will be a follow cam shot from behind, you want more variety.
 
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