Settings for a treking

[SiriNeos]

Thanks to all of you for the multiple advices and truks.

I bought my HV30 PAL recently and I am lerning every day.
Next week I will travel for a 3 days trek and I woul like record as best al possible. I tried to order the WD-H43 but is out of stock, so I will not have a wide angle lens.
There will be clips without people (only landscape), other clips with people and landscape, and portrait clips. The weather could be sunny (70%) or stormy (39%). There will be clips with the sun rising up, others with the sun over our heads, others with the sun rising down, and others with little light before night.


¿Wich settings do you recommend for having good recordings?

My output will be HDV and DVD.

Thanks in advance to all of your advices.

[SiriNeos]

Is there anyone to give me advices?

[pitonyak]

I use auto modes on my video camera, and mostly manual modes on my still camera. Guess which one I understand better :-)

Off hand, it sounds like your primary issue will be lighting. I mean, you did not say anything like "and then there are these fast moving things...."

First, will you blend all this video together? If so, you probably should be consistent in the modes that you use. For example, choose a basic look such as Cinema mode, or perhaps more importantly, 30P, 24P, 60i, etc... It may not matter, but it is probably easier to edit video with the frame rate constant.

I could tell you about modes such as Tv and Av, but you probably do not have time to master these. Your camera does, however, support special modes:

Portrait, sports, beach, snow, night, and fireworks.

With portrait mode, the camera attempts to set the camera so that the primary object in focus is all that is in focus. More specifically, things behind the subject are blurred. This places the emphasis on that one subject.

Sports mode sets a fast shutter to freeze action shots. Avoid blurring of fast moving objects.

Night mode, well, it tries to use long shutter speeds, so fast moving objects will probably blur.

Snow and beach, well they adjust for light with respect to the sensor. The bottom line is that most cameras assume that a picture is a certain percentage of gray color. If you take a picture of snow or beach, there is usually less gray or black, which fools the camera. The snow, therefor, will usually look grayish rather than white. Although there is not a mode for this, you would have similar problems if you took a picture of a large pile of coal. The camera would probably try to make the blacks gray.

You get the idea. check out these modes.

[pitonyak]

I almost forgot... THere is a button specifically to tell the camera that the subject has a bright light behind them. The button is labeled BLC. I think taht the button is near the front of the camera on the side.

[jgenemans]

Best advice.... Practice, practice, practice, and then repeat. Just like any other skill, it requires a bit of time and experimentation to develop what you personally like and appreciate. If you are looking for gear, there are other threads that deal with this, use the search function.

[SiriNeos]

I prefer the manual settings because I don´t want the exposure/focus changes during a clip panoramic.

My methos is:

1. Set the zoom for the clip
2. Setting the exposure
3. Setting the focus
4. Recording

Questions:

1. Is this method ok for getting the best recordings?
2. What do you think of TV 1/250 exposure for these clips conditions?
3. Do I need faste Shutter-speed for increasing the right focused area?
3. Do you propose an aditional exposure for the other clips (portrait, people & landscape, before night)?
4. What do you think about manual focus in the clips with people walking and lansscape?

Thanks a lot.

[Viperos]

For landscapes I would suggest higher values of aperture and a UV filter.
Neutral density, Circular polarize lnses are must have for some portraits in the outside. They're also useful for some shots with beautifull bokeh, for example flowers, animals.
I would suggest 25p fand cinema mode for recording.
Then in situations where You need to work with aperture (as mentioned above) I suggest AV priority.

[SiriNeos]

For landscapes I would suggest higher values of aperture and a UV filter.
Neutral density, Circular polarize lnses are must have for some portraits in the outside. They're also useful for some shots with beautifull bokeh, for example flowers, animals.
I would suggest 25p fand cinema mode for recording.
Then in situations where You need to work with aperture (as mentioned above) I suggest AV priority.

Thank for your advices.

If I understand, you propose:

1. Recording = HDV 25p
2. Mixing Mode = Cine
Mode = AV priority (I guess is for selecting the highest value with gain=0)


Which one in my different clips situations?
How do I select high aperture in cine mode?

4. I don't understand what you mean with

"Neutral density, Circular polarize lnses are must have for some portraits in the outside. They're also useful for some shots with beautifull bokeh, for example flowers, animals."

Sorry, I am a nuby in this.

[pitonyak]

4. I don't understand what you mean with

"Neutral density, Circular polarize lnses are must have for some portraits in the outside. They're also useful for some shots with beautifull bokeh, for example flowers, animals."

An ideal neutral density filter reduces light of all wavelengths or colors equally to allow the photographer greater flexibility to change the aperture or exposure time, allowing for more control, particularly in extreme circumstances.

In other words... It takes a certain amount of light to expose an image. If I have too much light, then the picture is "over-exposed" (and you see mostly white with little detail). The camera controls the amount of light in a few ways.

1. Reduce the gain on the filter. This is kind of like a volume control on a stereo. Turn it up too much, and you get noise. Turn it down too low, and you miss the low level details.

2. A camera has a shutter that opens and closes to let light in. The longer the shutter is open, the more light hits the sensor. If the shutter is fast, you freeze fast moving objects.

3. There is a small opening that lets light in. The wider the opening (aperture), the more light comes in. A small opening causes a lot to be in focus, but you have less light coming in, so that requires a lot of light. For a portrait, you want a wide opening so that the person is in focus and the background is not (well, usually).

Given a specific amount of light, you can control those three things. The bottom line: The amount of light forces you to choose certain ranges of numbers. If you want to have a small depth of field, but you have too much light, how do you reduce the over-all light? You use a neutral density filter. If the filter is not a neutral density, then it will reduce some colors more than others. There are reasons for doing this, but it is suggested here that you probably do not want to do this outside unless you want to achieve a specific effect.


Look here for some examples (including polarizers)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_filter

Polarized, means, well, the orientation of an electric field of an electromagnetic wave. When the electric field vector is oscillating in a single plane, it is defined as linear polarization. Linear polarization occurs when say light reflects off of glass or water. I always used a polarizer to reduce reflections. I could use a polarizer to filter light in a specific orientation so that I could see into water, or windows, etc... There is a window example at the WIKI link.

Unfortunately, a linear polarizer can prevent auto-focus cameras from focusing because they rely on light in different linear planes (roughly speaking). A circular polarizing filter is essentially a linear polarizer, with the addition of a quarter-wave plate (QWP) that converts the linear polarization of light passing through the polarizing filter to circular polarization. A circular polarizer is able to block all photons rotating in one direction while allowing those going in the other direction to pass.

Circular polarizers are frequently used to darken skies (because they are usually much brighter (and washed out) than the scenery. Haze is also usually reduced, and overall color saturation is increased.

Now, this brings us to the word "bokeh".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Refers to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in the image (remember, we want the subject in focus for portraits, but maybe not the background). this is used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject. Each lens has its own "bokeh" quality. I own a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens for my Canon 30D, which has GREAT bokeh. THe images are really nice to look at when I focus on a specific subject.

If I understand, you propose:

1. Recording = HDV 25p
2. Mixing Mode = Cine
Mode = AV priority (I guess is for selecting the highest value with gain=0)

THis has a specific look about it. Most films are shot with these qualities. If you prefer a different look, then do not use it. Those that use this mode, typically love it. Not having used it, I can not comment.

[SiriNeos]

Questions for recording in my trek:

1. 50i or 25p?
2. Cine mode or AV Prority?
3. Manual focus or Autofocus?
3. Best range for Aperture?
4. What about shutter speed?
5. Always without gain. Sure?

Thanks in advanced .

I edit with Premiere.

[Viperos]

Pitonyak, thank You for all those informations.

Questions for recording in my trek:

1. 50i or 25p?
2. Cine mode or AV Prority?
3. Manual focus or Autofocus?
3. Best range for Aperture?
4. What about shutter speed?
5. Always without gain. Sure?

Thanks in advanced .

I edit with Premiere.

SiriNeos - my knowledge comes straight form photography so I will answer the best I can.
1. 50i is interlaced mode and 25p is progresive - non interlaced mode. If You want to make some slow motion with time warp in Premiere use 50i, if don't - use 25p it's giving You a better film look of Your vidos.
2. Cine mode has a great (for me) final touch to Your movies: less contrast, smooth colors and look. AV priority is usefull for some special shots ex. portraits of people with beautifull bokeh (bokeh - first plain is sharp, the rest is blurred) If i check (or I know) that camera can't take a shot with F1,8 aperture then I'm using AV priority.
3. Hmmm it dpends of what You filming, no answer for that just experiment.
3+ landsapes - something over F11 will be nice. The lower number You use the more bokeh like effect You receive. For portraits I suggest F1,8.
4. the higher the shutter speed the greter look of some speed moving objects. They are not blurred. But in some cases - for ex. waterfall - to get some more artistic look You can use lower shutter speed for ex. 1/50
5. If You think aout locking the gain in low light conditions - Yes it's usefull but sometimes taking out to much data. You have to practise to choose the best solution for You.

[SiriNeos]

[Thank you very much Viperos.

[SiriNeos]

Hello again,

One year later I am here again with some doubts resolved but with a big headache. Next week I will be in a new treking in the Pyrinees Mountains, in the north of Spain.

In my trekings of last year I learned that recording in HDV 50i is the best, because I filmed some panoramas and I filmed using my hands, nor tripod.

But I have many doubts for deciding between TVMode or CineMode.
I have read many post about this debate, but I don´t have anything clear.

Could you help me giving me advices?

Take in your mind that there will be a lot of light, I do not have many time for post, and I hate blown out highlights. ¿Do you have a magic proposal for me?

Thanks a lot, again.
SiriNeos.

[Janke]

I hate blown out highlights.

Then use CineMode, and set Zebra to 100%.

If you see any zebra lines, then go to manual exposure, a few steps minus.

[SiriNeos]

Then use CineMode, and set Zebra to 100%.

If you see any zebra lines, then go to manual exposure, a few steps minus.

Thanks, but what about sharpness. Do you recommend increasing it?
Can I use the same method for TV50, using the zebra lines in order to avoid the blown out highlights?
Why is better Cinemode instead of TVMode for my recordings?

Thanks again.

SiriNeos.

[michaeltn]

Cinemode gives you more room before highlights are blown out, in TV mode you may have to drop the exposure so much that the picture becomes too dark, at least that is my experience.

[SiriNeos]

Current results:
- 2 votes for Cinemode; 0 votes for TV50
- 0 opinions about increasing sharpness

This forum is full of experts in HV30, where are your votes and opinions?
¿Do you have a different proposal for my treking recordings?

Please, I need your advices and knowledge in order to improve my recordings. Help me!

Last year I recorded in Cinemode + 50i (my cam is PAL).
This is the first chapter of the film of that treking: [ame="http://vimeo.com/3517336"]The Flowers Treking - Day 1[/ame]

Questions:

• What do you think about the image? What about the highlights?
• If i had recorded in TV50, what do you think it had been the film? Better or worse? Why?

Many many thanks in advanced.

SiriNeos.

[SiriNeos]

Is there anybody?
Help me!

Thanks.