a couple of questions on exposure and focus

1. headtrip
   Member

   

   i just got a new sony fx1000 and i'm learning how to use it so this may be a stupid question.

   a band a friend of mine is in, wanted me to come and record them last night. the lighting was horrible, they had some led spot lights and 1 led "floodlight" that was set to a purple-ish color. the spotlights varied in color (white, purple, red, blue, green). i never could get the exposure right. if it was good on the spotlight area you couldn't see the drummer, and if you could see the drummer the spolight area was a little bright. the lead singer would actually glow on certain colors.how do you set exposure in those conditions?

   just for clarification the led lights had red, green, and blue leds in them and could change color based on which ones were on or off.

   about focus. i noticed a couple of times during the show, actually in review of the tape,  that the camera lost focus even though it is set to manual, or atleast appeared to. it only happened it seems when the color of the led lights were a bright red, so would that be a combination of overexposure and bright red light?

   those who shoot sports, especially football, do you set your focus on a certain point ahead of time and then leave it or do you constantly adjust focus for what and where you are shooting?

    

   Posted 3 years ago #

2. Johnboy
   Member

   

   you need to have the exposure and focus set on manual. the picture may look like it lost focus (i suspect it was just low light, blue colors).  low shutter speeds to keep that iris open, but just enough to not blow-out the whites.  you can only do so much in those situations plus if I remember correctly, that camera had a low lux rating of 1.5 which is good but still a challenge in dark 'nightclub' envirionments.  Red is a very hot color and will "bleed".  As far as focus, it all depends on how your shooting.  If you are shooting wide at a football game, then you would zoom in as far as you can to the area you are shooting, focus and zoom it out.  If you are on field level shooting, the you will be adjusting focus all the time.

   John

   Posted 3 years ago #

3. headtrip
   Member

   

   thanks.

   i did have the exposure and focus on manual. i think i did ok on the focus, but the exposure i just couldn't get right.

   Get the Video Widget

   that is one of the songs from that night, you can see what i mean about the lighting and blurring.

   Posted 3 years ago #

4. composite1
   Moderator

   

   Head,

   The way you deal with shooting in clubs is to white balance off of the white spot (if they have one.) If not, then you have to WB off of the house lights just to establish white. Same steps with exposure and focus. Ideally, you want to get there when band is doing sound checks before the show so you can get all of this stuff worked out.  Your main camera you put in a set place on a tripod and get your focus worked out, then don't move the tripod or change the focus settings. If you can't leave the cam on sticks until the show starts, write down the distance and apeture so you can reset them when you put it back on the 'pod. When you're wide or medium and full red, blue or green light comes on it's going to look blurry because the CCD's in your camera are over stimulated (too... much of... one color! can't hold... for long!) Just open the apeture enough to get a good exposure for the white spot and the rest will take care of itself.

   From what I saw, you did just fine though I could see you were 'wiggin' when the red light came on trying to get it into focus. Also, especially with a single camera shoot with a close setup like that, your shots are; wide establishing shot at the start of the set, then it's medium shots and close ups on the band members. When someone is singing or soloing, stay on them until the chorus or emphasis changes to someone else.

   H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
   Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
   http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

   Posted 3 years ago #

5. headtrip
   Member

   

    they had no house lights, stage lights were on the whole time. i wb off the bass players shirt (did it whith the stage lights on white), but trying to set exposure when the lights kept changing wasn't fun. that camera is actually 3 cmos, would that make any difference?

    

   thanks for the tips. i have no experience at shooting bands, all my experience is with sports.

   Posted 3 years ago #

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