Setting Up a Shot: Difference between revisions

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All of these settings can be set to 'AUTO'.  If you're in a rush then 'AUTO' will ''usually'' give okey results.
All of these settings can be set to 'AUTO'.  If you're in a rush then 'AUTO' will ''usually'' give okay results.
On the big black HD cameras, lightly press the 'menu' button on th screen, this will allow youto change the common settings.  If one of the settings has a yellow/orange bar next to it then it's been set to manual and you ought to check that it's been set appropriately.
On the big black HD cameras, lightly press the 'menu' button on the screen, this will allow you to change the common settings.  If one of the settings has a yellow/orange bar next to it then it's been set to manual and you ought to check that it's been set appropriately.




== Exposure ==
== Exposure ==


This determines how much light enters the camera.  It is done by controlling '<u>Shutter Speed</u>' and '<u>Iris</u>' (referred to as 'aperture' in still photography).
This determines how bright the image is.  It is done by controlling '<u>Shutter Speed</u>' and '<u>Iris</u>' (referred to as 'aperture' in still photography).


YSTV almost always uses a shutter speed of 50 per second.  Any slower and things appear to move indistinctly, any faster and you reduce the amount of light for no real advantage (in ''exceptionally'' bright light it may be necessary to make it faster). The shutter speed is not on the main menu, you have to enter the detailed menu to alter it.  Press the 'menu' button, then from there 'P.Menu'
Shutter speed / angle, is the amount of time that each frame of the footage is exposed to the light entering through the lens. As a speed, it measures the physical time in divisions of a second that the frame is exposed for. This will be familiar to those who have used stills cameras before.  


The iris is a physical barrior inside the camera which can be opened or closed (by internal motors) to limit the amount of light entering the camera, in the same way as the iris of an eye does. Closing or opening the iris doesn't have any (significant) effects on the image recorded by the camera.  (Having it more open will reduce the 'depth of field' of the camera, but this isn't something that needs to be known.)
As an angle, it actually describes a piece of vintage photography from the genesis of film making. The shutter for a motion picture camera was controlled by a number of spinning disks with wedge cutouts in them allowing light through to expose onto the film. The angle of these cutouts determined the effective shutter speed of the camera. On modern cameras of course, this is all digitally controlled and can be set to the nearest 15 degrees (from 15 to 360).
 
YSTV almost always uses a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second, or 180 degrees if using shutter angle. This is because it is usual to broadcast at 25fps (which YSTV also does) and the normal shutter speed for shooting is to shoot at a shutter speed of twice the frame rate. I.e. so that each frame of the footage is exposed for half of it's interval. This results (at 25fps) in a shutter speed of 1/50th or 180 degrees (which would expose the film frame for half of its time as it passed through he plane.
 
180 degrees (1/50th) is a good rule of thumb for ~80% of content. There are situations where changing the shutter speed to ~1/60th is advisable:
 
* You're filming something that moves ''really'' fast and want the footage to blur less. If the view is still light enough after increasing the speed, go for it.
* To stop on-screen monitors flickering, increase the shutter speed to 1/60th. (Computer video pretty much always draws at 60Hz.)  If the shutter speed is not on the main menu; you have to enter the detailed menu to alter it. See the camera operation documentation or see production or technical people. 
* Filming on a green screen, shooting at a faster shutter speed reduces motion blur and so make s the key cleaner and faster
 
Alternately, raising the shutter angle to ~300 or so works very well for a dream sequence or other artistic effects where a lot of blur is desirable.
 
The iris is a physical barrier inside the camera which can be opened or closed (by internal motors) to change the amount of light that actually enters the lens and thus arrives at the shutter. In most lenses they are formed from at least 6 blades which expand and contract to increase or constrict the size of the central hole which allows light to pass.
 
Everybody has their own rules for ideal aperture settings and the effect intended will also influence the aperture setting of choice. Also, some lenses have a range of minimum aperture across their zoom or have aperture.
 
The general effects are:
 
* Lower F stop numbers (the term used to represent the current aperture) cause more Bokeh (blurry background past the point of focus) and a smaller depth of field (depth of the area in focus on the subject). Higher F stop numbers have the opposite effect.
* Lower F stop numbers introduce more light into the image, bigger central hole so more light, and higher F stop the reverse.


== White Balance ==
== White Balance ==


When filming in light that isn't evenly white (ie it has a tinge of a certain colour) the camera needs to be told what it should consider truly white.  If the white balance is set to auto, and the camera is, for example, used indoors where the light normally has a red tinge, the camera will assess the entire image, determine that red is the dominant colour, and reduce the amount of red in the recording.
When filming in light that isn't evenly white (ie it has a tinge of a certain colour) the camera needs to be told what it should consider truly white.  If the white balance is set to auto, and the camera is, for example, used indoors where the light normally has an orange tinge, the camera will assess the entire image, determine that orange is the dominant colour, and reduce the amount of red in the recording.


'Auto' will usually produce useable results, or at least ones which can be improved later in editing, however it is best and easiest to set it manually when the recording is taking place.
'Auto' will usually produce useable results, or at least ones which can be improved later in editing, however it is best and easiest to set it manually when the recording is taking place.


To set white balance manually on an HD camera, press the menu button on the screen.  Select 'custom', 'user', 'manual' or whatever button indicates that it is set by the camera operator. '''Crucially''' you also have to set the new white balance.  Get something truly white to occupy the '''whole''' of the screen.  Then press the button on the screen which  looks like a square above two triangles, keep the camera steady until it's finished changing the white balance. You can now exit the menu.
Use the camera guides to see specific information for setting white balance on our cameras, the menu system is not the same for all of them. When setting the true white reference, fill the entire frame with a white reference card. A white light bounce or diffuse will work, if one is not available then you can use white card or paper.


== Focus ==
== Focus ==


Auto Focus works by the camera assessing the contrast at the centre of the screen.  Consider a very blurred image of something, all the light and dark areas, and all the colours will smear into a uniform colour of a certain brightness, ie it will have very low contrast.  By comparrison an image which is in focus will have many distinct areas of different colours and brightnesses. The camera prefers the latter of these two situations and deems this to be focussed.
Focus on the camera can work in one of two ways; Auto and Manual. Manual involves telling the camera how far away from the lens your subject is, and that's what it'll focus on. Auto involves the camera looking at your footage and working out by itself how far away your subject is.


If you're filming in decent light, and will be zooming then auto is advised. If you're in dark situations, or the camera shot won't be changing at all then manual focus should be considered.
If you're filming in decent light and frequently changing zoom and/or composition, then Auto is advised. Another good use case for auto is when the shot is not setup (a report for example). When it is required to get the shots and things are unpredictable then the auto focus is the best thing to use, it might not be 100% accurate, but its way more reliable than trying to constantly focus pull on manual.  


In the menu press the 'focus' button lightly. Select manual.  Here you can also alter the distance at which the camera focusses.  This is not the easiest way to focus. Instead go back to the main menu and press 'ring set'. From here select 'focus'.  Now the ring near the front of the camera on the barrel will control the focus (sensors detect the ring being moved and drive motors to focus). Additionally the 'Manual' button near the front of the camera body will switch between auto focus and manual focus.
There are, however, many cases where manual focus is the right (or the nicer) option to use. These can be in well setup and rehearsed shots (especially with a focus puller) where a smooth focus pull from one subject to another can be done very smoothly and make the shot better for it being on manual. Also useful, is manual focus when the subject is not centre frame. Often., auto focus systems require the subject to remain central in the frame in order for the system to work as intended. When the blocking causes this not to be the case, manual can make the shot a lot nicer.  


If using manual focus be sure that the shot is focussed, otherwise '''all''' of the recorded footage will be blurry.
On the C100s the auto focus is on the lens and is a small switch or similar between AF and MF. Note, changing this mid shot does tend to introduce a slight wobble to the shot. The C100s also contain 1 shot AF and AF lock (only on the MK2 version) which allow for smoother transition between MF and AF. The focus ring is on the lenses and varies is smoothness and size depending on the lens.
 
The AGAC90s have a focus ring on the lens in the same way, and the selection switch is on the control side of the camera. Normally these are used in auto focus mode only.


== Microphone & Sound Levels ==
== Microphone & Sound Levels ==


It is almost always best to use auto to avoid everything sounding quiet, or even wrse everything sounding too loud and clipping.
The short answer: set everything to Auto. As long as its not clipping, its fine for most things.  
The long answer (for good results): [[Camera Sound|More on sound setup]]
 
[[Category:Mid-Production]]
[[Category:Cameras]]
[[Category:Tutorials]]

Latest revision as of 19:57, 23 July 2021

All of these settings can be set to 'AUTO'. If you're in a rush then 'AUTO' will usually give okay results. On the big black HD cameras, lightly press the 'menu' button on the screen, this will allow you to change the common settings. If one of the settings has a yellow/orange bar next to it then it's been set to manual and you ought to check that it's been set appropriately.


Exposure

This determines how bright the image is. It is done by controlling 'Shutter Speed' and 'Iris' (referred to as 'aperture' in still photography).

Shutter speed / angle, is the amount of time that each frame of the footage is exposed to the light entering through the lens. As a speed, it measures the physical time in divisions of a second that the frame is exposed for. This will be familiar to those who have used stills cameras before.

As an angle, it actually describes a piece of vintage photography from the genesis of film making. The shutter for a motion picture camera was controlled by a number of spinning disks with wedge cutouts in them allowing light through to expose onto the film. The angle of these cutouts determined the effective shutter speed of the camera. On modern cameras of course, this is all digitally controlled and can be set to the nearest 15 degrees (from 15 to 360).

YSTV almost always uses a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second, or 180 degrees if using shutter angle. This is because it is usual to broadcast at 25fps (which YSTV also does) and the normal shutter speed for shooting is to shoot at a shutter speed of twice the frame rate. I.e. so that each frame of the footage is exposed for half of it's interval. This results (at 25fps) in a shutter speed of 1/50th or 180 degrees (which would expose the film frame for half of its time as it passed through he plane.

180 degrees (1/50th) is a good rule of thumb for ~80% of content. There are situations where changing the shutter speed to ~1/60th is advisable:

  • You're filming something that moves really fast and want the footage to blur less. If the view is still light enough after increasing the speed, go for it.
  • To stop on-screen monitors flickering, increase the shutter speed to 1/60th. (Computer video pretty much always draws at 60Hz.) If the shutter speed is not on the main menu; you have to enter the detailed menu to alter it. See the camera operation documentation or see production or technical people.
  • Filming on a green screen, shooting at a faster shutter speed reduces motion blur and so make s the key cleaner and faster

Alternately, raising the shutter angle to ~300 or so works very well for a dream sequence or other artistic effects where a lot of blur is desirable.

The iris is a physical barrier inside the camera which can be opened or closed (by internal motors) to change the amount of light that actually enters the lens and thus arrives at the shutter. In most lenses they are formed from at least 6 blades which expand and contract to increase or constrict the size of the central hole which allows light to pass.

Everybody has their own rules for ideal aperture settings and the effect intended will also influence the aperture setting of choice. Also, some lenses have a range of minimum aperture across their zoom or have aperture.

The general effects are:

  • Lower F stop numbers (the term used to represent the current aperture) cause more Bokeh (blurry background past the point of focus) and a smaller depth of field (depth of the area in focus on the subject). Higher F stop numbers have the opposite effect.
  • Lower F stop numbers introduce more light into the image, bigger central hole so more light, and higher F stop the reverse.

White Balance

When filming in light that isn't evenly white (ie it has a tinge of a certain colour) the camera needs to be told what it should consider truly white. If the white balance is set to auto, and the camera is, for example, used indoors where the light normally has an orange tinge, the camera will assess the entire image, determine that orange is the dominant colour, and reduce the amount of red in the recording.

'Auto' will usually produce useable results, or at least ones which can be improved later in editing, however it is best and easiest to set it manually when the recording is taking place.

Use the camera guides to see specific information for setting white balance on our cameras, the menu system is not the same for all of them. When setting the true white reference, fill the entire frame with a white reference card. A white light bounce or diffuse will work, if one is not available then you can use white card or paper.

Focus

Focus on the camera can work in one of two ways; Auto and Manual. Manual involves telling the camera how far away from the lens your subject is, and that's what it'll focus on. Auto involves the camera looking at your footage and working out by itself how far away your subject is.

If you're filming in decent light and frequently changing zoom and/or composition, then Auto is advised. Another good use case for auto is when the shot is not setup (a report for example). When it is required to get the shots and things are unpredictable then the auto focus is the best thing to use, it might not be 100% accurate, but its way more reliable than trying to constantly focus pull on manual.

There are, however, many cases where manual focus is the right (or the nicer) option to use. These can be in well setup and rehearsed shots (especially with a focus puller) where a smooth focus pull from one subject to another can be done very smoothly and make the shot better for it being on manual. Also useful, is manual focus when the subject is not centre frame. Often., auto focus systems require the subject to remain central in the frame in order for the system to work as intended. When the blocking causes this not to be the case, manual can make the shot a lot nicer.

On the C100s the auto focus is on the lens and is a small switch or similar between AF and MF. Note, changing this mid shot does tend to introduce a slight wobble to the shot. The C100s also contain 1 shot AF and AF lock (only on the MK2 version) which allow for smoother transition between MF and AF. The focus ring is on the lenses and varies is smoothness and size depending on the lens.

The AGAC90s have a focus ring on the lens in the same way, and the selection switch is on the control side of the camera. Normally these are used in auto focus mode only.

Microphone & Sound Levels

The short answer: set everything to Auto. As long as its not clipping, its fine for most things. The long answer (for good results): More on sound setup