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Cam Question for the cam page
before i get started let me say this. this forum needs a cam page. all of us edit and design. the peripheral equipment that we use is sometimes a part of both solution and problem.
things like cameras, lighting, photoshop and Ae are used in conjunction with fcp. a lot of the time we are trouble shooting things that could be corrected or caused by these other than apple components. all of us use these things at one time or another and there are experts hear that could help with some of these things.
so why not a FCP Peripherals page or a Cam & Lighting page?
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meanwhile back at the ranch, i have a dvx100b and i have been experimenting with DOF. i can get it but i cant hold it even with auto off. the manual mode gives me a blue hue which i have found no adjustment that removes it.
in auto mode i can get it by manually turning the focus ring at a steady pace. once i let go the cam refocuses and removes all blur.
i saw an net zero commercial that i am told was filmed with the dvx100b. it has a steady 30sec shot with DOF.
How did they get the dvx100b to hold the DOF??
i would like to use it for an interview with the governor in 2wks.
""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."
> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"
WOW
that is expensive.
whats this claim of being able to set up your shot for DOF. i was once told that if you know where you are shooting that you could set up for DOF. i am guessing this to be that you would film say 3 minutes of the back ground then film the subject there and somehow combine the 2.
is there a way of faking it??
""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."
> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"
This is predominantly a Post Production forum. If you want more Production (shooter) opinions from people that do that for a living, go here:
[ forums.creativecow.net]
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
Learned long ago to not even try to be all things to Digital Video folks. dvinfo.net and dvxuser.com handle cams better than we ever could.
lafcpug kicks butt on the pro-apps
Michael Horton
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go to dvxuser.com they have forums for a number of different cameras
yeah we do kick Dairy Air.
what about the photoshop/AE idea would that still be out of our realm also? i mean i know we do handle a lot of that in the cafe' but would it be a good idea to separate those Q's into a other apps page?
i am just throwing ideas not making a campaign.
""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."
> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"
BTW
does anyone know how i might be able to create a suedo DOF in FCP?
is there some kind of masking that i can do?
""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."
> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"
This has been discussed. This is (understandably) an Apple Pro Apps sanctuary...period. I personally (as well as a few other grafix guys) hang around & try to help those looking for answers to the AE / PS / ILL questions.
If I were in AE, to create a fake DOF on a subject in a clip I would duplicate the layer, rotoscope (animated masks) the subject out and rack focus (blur) the bottom layer (or visa versa). Cheesy, but if the clip isn't too long it fools the eye. Rotoscoping takes a lot of patience (and a Wacom tablet, IMHO).
Joey
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
this is ENTIRELY the WRONG place to discuss this...
kinda like discussing carburetors in a tire forum.
Not really. Discuss away. Always something to learn. Besides we are now into faking DOF, so thats very relevant to this forum. You can do it in FCP by Joe's method above with a Gaussian blur. One would hope it is a static shot or yeah, masks and rotoscoping come into play.
Michael Horton
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Also there are a couple nifty shooting tips over at DV Creators. net
[ dvcreators.net]
and
[ www.dvcreators.net]
Much easier than faking it in post. Rather sort of fake it in production.
Michael Horton
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Quote
this is ENTIRELY the WRONG place to discuss this...
kinda like discussing carburetors in a tire forum.
I wouldn't say that...but you would find more input from dedicated shooter forums.
Joey
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
For J. Corbett,
Michael's links to DV Creators are right on. Those are the techniques used to get that nice shallow depth of field. Not only for video, but, for still photography as well.
What was NOT mentioned was to use as low a lighting as possible if indoors, so that you can get the iris opened up all the way. If you don't have a lower wattage bulb, try using screening (yep, the kind for screen doors) to knock it down. If using a soft box, you can get away with plastic screen since it's far away from the heat. Find the old metal type screening for anything else.
Cameron Young
does anyone know how i might be able to create a suedo DOF in FCP?
Not easily in FCP but you can certainly do it in AE using lens blur and a depth matte:
Apply the lens blur to your footage. Create a gradient/ramp (black to white) and select this as the depth matte layer in the lens blur settings. pre-compose it and you'll see your DOF. By adjusting the Blur focal distance you can adjust the point of focus.
sorry thats not the clearest but in a nutshell you can get some nice effects like this!
is the iris effected by auto. i figure out how to get a steady DOF but i am still wondering what the auto does or what it is effecting.
the dv creators tutorial helped a lot.
""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."
> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"
The auto iris function will move the iris so that the exposure is at a default level.....unless you are doing a lot of moving around, I would stay on manual, especially if it's a sit down interview.....if you are going for a shallow dof, set your exposure and leave it.
I found the DVX100's auto functions pretty good except for the auto white balance, there is a definite lag. I only use auto when it's a run n gun situation, but I stay away from the auto white balance.
Cameron Young
I don't know of any cam where the auto white balance works well. Sort of hit and miss most of the time.
Michael Horton
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This is long. Sorry- I?m afflicted with terminal prolixity?
Think of Depth of Field as a transparent wall out in front of your camera. Inside the wall, everything is in acceptable focus- that?s your ?Field.? The thickness of the wall is your ?Depth.? For any given sensor size, you manipulate the thickness of the wall using the iris and focal length settings on your lens. The thinnest you can get the wall for a given sensor size (which also plays) will be with the iris wide open, and as telephoto as you can go. ( And vices versa- by shooting wide angle, and at a very narrow aperture, you can make the thickness of the wall extend from a few inches in front of your lens to infinity.) Iris setting, focal length, and sensor size- in principle, nothing else affects DOF! ND, amount of light, the distance from the camera to the subject are all irrelevant to your DOF- to how thick the wall is.
That?s the principle. In practice, of course, things are a little trickier, because you probably want your out of focus areas to be as out of focus as possible, and of course you want your image to be properly exposed. That?s where camera-to-subject distance and ND or amount of light comes in. You move the position of the ?wall? around in space by using your focus ring. The closer to the camera the point you focus on, and the farther that point is from the background, the more out of focus the background will be. (Note that this will drastically affect the ?look? of your image-but it won?t change your DOF- it just changes how much the things outside the wall are out of focus.) You control exposure either by using ND to diminish the amount of light coming into your lens, or by reducing the amount of light on the subject (ditto) so that the widest iris setting on your lens becomes the ?correct? setting to give you a properly exposed image.
In practice, for an interview, here?s what I?d recommend trying to do- plunk your camera down as far away from the background as possible (and don?t forget shooting through a doorway with the camera sitting down a corridor somewhere.) Zoom all the way in, and open up your iris to wide open. Now, try and place the subject so that he or she is properly framed at this focal length. (This?ll probably mean about 10-12 feet away from the camera for a tight CU.) Light your subject or ND appropriately to keep your wide open iris setting.
And, of course, you can only rarely do this- the room is never big enough, you want to be able to frame him or her in a MS, and zoom in for the CU, etc, etc. so you have to start trading stuff off. As a general rule, I try to keep subjects about twice as far away from the background as they are from the camera, and zoom out to frame them as necessary, and call that the best I can do?But do play with this, because it isn?t hard and fast. The iris setting, though, you always can and should control with ND or lighting to stay wide open.
Trying to do this with anything set to ?auto? is a real PITA. (?Auto? is probably changing your iris?) I?d suggest setting your camera to ?manual? and trying to figure out where out your blue hue is coming from?Are you shooting outside or in a window-lit room with the camera set to ?indoors??
cheers,
randy
Great tips Randy. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.
Michael Horton
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Quid pro quo. This forum's saved my bacon on editing stuff bunches of times...
this blue hue i have on the shot is it possible that it is coming from too much light?
i have used temp settings, chroma shift and red giant to remove it in the camera. i am starting to think that it can only be removed in post. i am also thinking that removing it in post will give me some chroma distortion.
""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."
> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"
White balance. Check out one of the shooter links for more tips.
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
The blue hue is incorrect white balance......there is a switch on left side of the camera towards the bottom....there you'll find white balance A/B/Preset.....the Preset will toggle between 3200k and 5600k by the AWB button on front of camera, which gets you in the ball park......you can manually white balance by switching to either A or B, framing on a white piece of paper, and holding the AWB button until you get an OK prompt.
Hopefully you have the manual, it walks you through this. You can try the Panasonic website and see if they have manuals to download
Cameron Young
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