First real experience with DSLR shoot.

[drapeama]

all work lights my friend. ALL work lights. [..] gelled the lights blue with some cheap translucent blue wrapping paper about 5 feet away from the lights. It was about 32 degrees so, the heat wasn't bad.

Oh...now it gets interesting! Do you have any pictures of your setup, I'm intrigued!

[azmyth]

I'm not sure if we have any or not.. most of our set ups were 2, 1000w work lights (the ones on the stands with the double heads.. 500w each) about 20-30feet away blasting into the area we were shooting. We suspended large pieces of the blue wrap/gel between trees using string, and close pins. (think of it like we were hanging towels.. except we had a bottom line to attach them to as well.) we had these about 4-5 feet away from the lights. But the pieces were so big, the light still was able to go through them before hitting the subject. The pieces were the size of christmas wrapping paper.. about 30" tall and however long we wanted.

We had one CFL on a stand that we moved around to illuminate the actresses face on closeups.. which is not present in those darker shots for some reason.

We had some of those smaller 250w work lights scattered around as accent lighting in a few shots. The blue wrap never even came close to melting.

We had 6 fog machines, but the cold was causing them to not function so we had to go without it for most of the shots.

[azmyth]

this just in..

A1ex from ML just pmed me over at DVXUSER and gave me something to try..

he said sometimes the T2I has a bug where it will start with the "display" off and you have to press the display button. I unboxed it, turned it on.. no power.. pressed the display button.. there it was "press the button to shoot without lens" on the screen... is this seriously all that was wrong with it?

[Janke]

no power..

Apparently no power...

Do you have dirty contacts on your lens, or are you using a manual lens?

[azmyth]

manual lens.

[vince]

Thanks for this message, I have experienced the same problem once. After trial and error it disappeared. Now I know why, I hope.

[Janke]

manual lens.

Ah! You know, for $5 you can buy "focus confirm chips" on eBay - I've glued such to all my manual M42-to-EOS mounts. Even though the EXIF is wrong (always 50mm/1.4), it helps detect correct focusing, and the camera also knows that you have a lens on the camera!

Bought from this guy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/320764242735...84.m1439.l2649

(NOTE: It's a bit tricky to epoxy the chip in place, if you're not confident you can do it, don't! Other sellers supply a template that will help you get the chip in the right position, but I chose to do the fine positioning myself... )

Or, you can buy manual lens mounts that include the FC chip - but they are relatively more expensive than the plain mount + a chip.

[Daniel Rutter]

Is there no way to turn off that?

My GH1 has it... but I wonder if the T2i.

[krewcial]

@ Janke : how does it help detect correct focusing ? Do you get focus confirmation in the viewfinder such as with a Canon lens ?

[drapeama]

he said sometimes the T2I has a bug where it will start with the "display" off and you have to press the display button. I unboxed it, turned it on.. no power.. pressed the display button.. there it was "press the button to shoot without lens" on the screen... is this seriously all that was wrong with it?

I experienced something similar where I simply had to press "set" to turn the display on after booting. Not a big issue but still.

[azmyth]

yeah.. I think I've decided to switch brands though.

Not for any reason other than learning about new features I feel like I need for what I am doing that will benefit me more.

[Janke]

@ Janke : how does it help detect correct focusing ? Do you get focus confirmation in the viewfinder such as with a Canon lens ?

Yes, the red focus point blinks once, and the little green focus circle in the lower right corner of the viewfinder lights up when correct focus is achieved. (Not in Live view, of course.)

[Almohada]

Do you have any pictures of your setup, I'm intrigued!

Yes I'd like to see some behind the scenes pics and more footage stills too!!!

[azmyth]

I'll have the whole teaser up by next week so you can see the entire thing lol.

[drapeama]

Yes I'd like to see some behind the scenes pics and more footage stills too!!!

We're for sure interested to watch the trailer, but are even more curious to see HOW you did it!

I'll have the whole teaser up by next week so you can see the entire thing lol.

Good, that would be great! Can't wait to see more work from you, and this time, your work!

[azmyth]

here's a diagram for the time being..

basically the yellow blips are the 2 light worklights.. 500w per light.. so 1000w of light on each end, and a smaller 500w light sitting on the ground, ungelled. The two on the ends were gelled blue with large pieces of blue translucent wrap that we attached to trees with some clothespins and string.

Where ever the actress was in the shot, we used a 100w cfl on a small stand near her to illuminate more of the details in her face.

we had a fog machine at every work light, but they weren't working like we planned so we had one at the top most light, with someone fanning it with foamcore. It still didn't work as planned though. I know we'd have had an awesome effect had we got those to work right, but the footage still looks great nonetheless.

[Almohada]

clothespins

You mean C47's right?

[azmyth]

We got on that discussion that night actually, because I was like "do we have any c47's" (there were some people on set helping who had no idea about set lingo so I was actually just joking) Jokingly because I've always heard them called that for film.. but for me, they've always been clothespins. Kudos to the film industry for trying to make a simple wooden thingy into some technical piece of gear lol.

[Almohada]

We got on that discussion that night actually, because I was like "do we have any c47's" (there were some people on set helping who had no idea about set lingo so I was actually just joking) Jokingly because I've always heard them called that for film.. but for me, they've always been clothespins. Kudos to the film industry for trying to make a simple wooden thingy into some technical piece of gear lol.

Hah yeah, there's even a whole Wikipedia entry about it and how it got that name. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a book about it too!

[drapeama]

here's a diagram for the time being.

Nice. I have a good idea how you did it. Thanks for sharing.

[krewcial]

yeah.. I think I've decided to switch brands though.

Not for any reason other than learning about new features I feel like I need for what I am doing that will benefit me more.

Just make sure you don't end up switching gear all the time without actually shooting ... there's plenty of people doing that ... always switching to a newer/better camera and never taking the time to explore the potential of the one they have. Since your "trouble" with ML seem to be solved thanks to A1ex's advice, I'd suggest trying ML, since it offers most of what you need, including external monitoring over HDMI (which works a charm since the last few updates). Also, it will probably be ported to the 5DMkII in the next few weeks, so you might want to pick up a used 5D and shoot full frame with even better low-light capacities for your next feature.

[Dr. Benway]

the 5DMkII in the next few weeks, so you might want to pick up a used 5D

Prices for new 5D MKII's are dropping (US$1900) and hopefully the secondhand value drops sharply too (Currently about US$1500). Canon have had a good run with the MKII and where I live the one of the local camera shops has whited-out its old MKII prices.

[Bif]

Just make sure you don't end up switching gear all the time without actually shooting ... there's plenty of people doing that ... always switching to a newer/better camera and never taking the time to explore the potential of the one they have.

What azmyth could do (and what I may do) is to "be in both camps". He could go ahead and grab a T3i (or 60D) and a bit later "snag" a GH2. I would feel the high ISO footage from the GH2 could be edited in with Canon footage as high ISO has a look we accept easily if we can see detail.

He may find he can use both on the same project without much difficulty.

I'm beginning to consider selling my 7D to "finance" adding GH2 capabilities to what I work with. But the 60D and T3i will remain in primary service.

Gotta do some more research.

Bruce Foreman

[azmyth]

I've sold my T2i.. solely because after the shoot Saturday I need a swivel screen. Some of the shots i got would have been impossible on my t2i. So.. my options now are T3i/60d or GH2.. I've narrowed it down to T3i and GH2 because they are in my price range. 60d is a bit more expensive.

[Almohada]

I've sold my T2i.. solely because after the shoot Saturday I need a swivel screen. Some of the shots i got would have been impossible on my t2i. So.. my options now are T3i/60d or GH2.. I've narrowed it down to T3i and GH2 because they are in my price range. 60d is a bit more expensive.

What happened to video village? There isn't a way to connect an external monitor? Personally I wouldn't go through that hassle... I'd just get a monitor and I'd be set. Who trusts those tiny screens after all?

Btw -- GH2 -- I'm very surprised that Panasonic jumped onto this movement. Never really though they'd go that path... I always thought they mostly stuck with DVD players and such electronics. But then you have cameras like the HVX they produced...