Similar post « Videomaker Community Forums

mrwinkey
Member

HI Guys,

sorry to posta very similar post to my last, but i am a little confused.

I am shooting a Bodybuilding contest on Sunday and know from other videos of these contests that i have seen that there is a huge problem with getting the exposure right.

This is due to the Subject having very bright lights shon directly onto them, while the background is noramlly a Black Curtain. As you have to leave a bit of room to capture the sudden unexpeted movement of the subject, the majority of the frame is Dark, so the Cams exposure is set for this.

Now i know that i can use the Exposure compensation and drop it by a couple of stops, but this will still allow the cams meter to change when the shot changes. If i am in tight on one contestant then i am sure this will be fine, but when i go wide to get the full lin-up (which can be up to 10 people) the exposure will be wrong.

So what do i do about this? Even if i set the exposure manually, it will have to change for every width of shot, and i am not skilled enough to do this nor have enough time between shots.

Can someone advise me on the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance,

Jay

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

You may be a little confused in the way auto-exposure works, compared to manual exposure...

Auto exposure (whether you use your "spotlight" setting or not) has your camera acting like a computer and deciding how to expose the shot.

With manual exposure, once it is set, it does not matter a bit, how much dark background you'll have. So long as your subject stays in the light that you set your exposure for, you'll be fine.

Make friends with your camera's manual exposure controls. Practice at home. Setup a similiar situation with a lit subject in front of a dark background and practice, practice, practice!

Let us know how the shoot went, Jay.

Posted 6 years ago #
mrwinkey
Member

Ey up mate,

I must have not made myself clear.

I am talking about using the exposure compensation setting on the cam while having it set to auto.

The reason i am doing this and not using Auto is that the Subject will move around a lot, moving from directly in the lights to completely out of them, so i wont be quick enough to reset the exposure to compensate for this.

If it was just a static shot this would be no problem, but its not. As well as the Subject moving in and out of lighting, i will have to go from a tight shot to super wide when all competitors come onto stage. Again I wont have to time to mess with the settings.

I understand that if i was used to the settings i could probably alter them on the fly, but i dont have time to get used to the setting to this degree as the shoot is this Sunday.

Cheers,

Jay

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Ahh..in that case you have two posibilities. One requires a second camera, the other, Super Glue.

You could shoot with two cams, one set for the spotlight, the other for outside the spot.

Solution #2 - smear the glue in the center of where the spotlight hits the stage.

Posted 6 years ago #
mrwinkey
Member

Ha ha,

i love the glue idea. We will set marks on the floor where they are meant to stand, but they love to move around the stage and take no notice of marks.

As for the second cam, Simply, i dont have one.

So looks like im on Auto then with a little AE alteration.

Cheers,

Jay

Posted 6 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Some cams have user-configurable buttons. If yours does, you could have it remember the "out of spotlight" setting and change with just one single button click.

Posted 6 years ago #
mrwinkey
Member

Ey up mate,

thats is so freaky, i have actually been reading the manual today to see how to manually set the white balance and i noticed that i could store different setups to different custom buttons.

I am not toally sure how to get the Exposure settings stored as it just mentioned the picture (colour, brightness, sharpness ect) but i intend to have a look into it.

cheers,

Jay

Posted 6 years ago #