Shooting in low-light conditions - HELP

1. Pierre Tessier
   Member

   

   I need to shoot in a reception room with no windows and low-light conditions. My Canon XF300 has a very good Gain feature that allows me to shoot pretty good video in dark conditions but I'm afraid of the image quality being affected by the noise it creates. So my question is: Am I better off using a light mounted on my video camera or should I use the Gain feature? The down side of the camera-mounted light is that it flattens the subjects and takes away the perspective. Thanks for you input!

   Posted 6 months ago #

2. EarlC
   Moderator

   

   Lights for sure. The UPSIDE being no grainy, colorless, sepia-tone footage, and some decent color in the final outcome. Light IS video! Period!

   Posted 6 months ago #

3. Don
   Member

   

   what Earl said, that is why I named my company "Light Expressions"..lol!

   but don't assume you need to have that light on camera.... light your subject with off camera lighting... if you can.... for best results!

   Posted 6 months ago #

4. Pierre Tessier
   Member

   

   Don wrote "light your subject with off camera lighting... if you can.... for best results!"

   That will be impossible. It's a reception and I'll be walking around with the camera. I will need to deal with a on-camera light.

   Follow this link for a sample of low-light shooting with the same camera. It looks pretty good! 

   Get the Video Player

   Posted 6 months ago #

5. Jaimie
   Member

   

   If you can, use two lights and have an assistant carry the second one to light the background a little put back the perspective.  Also, be sure you are using the lowest f-stop and slowest shutter speed (but not below 1/30 of a second)  you camera cam provide.  You may have to use manual settings to reach them.  Finally, be sure you don't shoot into any backlights as this will make the camera's auto exposure control (assuming you are on auto) reduce the exposure making everything dark 

   Posted 6 months ago #

6. MediaFish
   Member

   

   I have the baby brother XF100 and recently at a reception in New York we used it in low light and it preformed like a champ - very pleased with the results which were similar to the sample you provided.  We did some work in post and the client loved the results unfortunately it was a high profile client who has rejected my request to post a sample of the work we did for  them at the reception.

   Jeff
   Media Fish Productions

   Posted 6 months ago #

7. Don
   Member

   

   for those types of scenes, I resort to using a chinese lantern with video light on boom pole held by an assistant for a main light and an on camera light heavily diffused for a fill light and I start with an exposure that is set to not blow out the highlights from the candles etc.... but that is for my hdr hc1, not a low light performance camera... this allows me to keep my hdr sr12 rolling for the wide shots. now I also add in some available light footage off my d-slrs as well....

   Posted 6 months ago #

8. Pierre Tessier
   Member

   

   Thanks for the tips guys. Unfortunately, I won't have an assistant so I'll have to resort to a single on-camera light. But I'm also seriously considering not using a light and just boosting the Gain a few notches. I'll have to do some tests.

   Posted 6 months ago #

9. Charles Schultz
   Adobe Host

   

   You can use Majic Bullet De-noiser in After Effects and other programs to remove the grainy shots if you have to. http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-denoiser/

   Posted 6 months ago #

10. lomaymi
    Member

    

    For low light situations, in uncontrolled environments, I rely on my on camera light (Sony HVL-20DW2). Boosting the gain makes the video look noisy, but it still works in many situations. Of course there will be times when gain will not be able to see the image, so for this situations on camera lights are life saviors. Its not a waste of resources to have one just in case.

    The meaning of a movie are the characters, the life of the movie is the music, but the magic is in the editing.
    Luis O. Maymí
    Follow me on Twitter @lomaymi

    Posted 6 months ago #

11. WesBrodsky
    Member

    

     

    Has anyone thought of a system with two mirrors to move the beam of the camera-mounted light slightly off the axis of the camera lens? It might be bulky, and require counterbalancing; but might not be too bad if it is all mounted on a tripod.

    If you have to walk around with this kludge; perhaps combining it with a body-mounted image stabilization system would help.

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    Posted 6 months ago #

12. composite1
    Moderator

    

    Pierre,

    As a last ditch, you can try using small battery powered 'tap lights' or LED Tea Lights. For less than $20, you can get some extra light on the table to help light your subjects. You'll have to scout out how many tables will be present and do some tests to see how many lights you'll need per table to get a decent exposure level, yet not interfere with the guests. You'll have to white balance for your tea lights as well. Using this method will help you save battery life on your on-camera light as you use it primarily for stand-up interviews and to light presenters. Just a thought.

    Tea Lights

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

    Posted 6 months ago #

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