Shooting With Available Light

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  Mitch Lewis 7 months ago

  How is everyone dealing with shooting in available light? I've got some pretty fast Nikon lenses, but I don't think I'd be able to shoot indoors with available light without having to crank the gain way up. Heck, sometimes I don't have enough light when I'm using our 3 x 1000wt Arri light kit! :)
  
  Here's a good example of shooting with available light (first 60 seconds of video):
  vimeo.com/4933564
  
  Maybe I could shoot with our 50mm f/1.4 and get some decent exposures. But if we used our 17-35mm f/2.8 or especially the 80-200mm f/2.8 I don't think we could get a decent exposure. Am I missing something?
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  Maarten Toner 7 months ago

  It never seems to be a problem for me, ok so I love to shoot most stuff with a 50mm F1.2 lens, but never had any problems with the 17-35 or 80-200 F2.8. BTW a common mistake is to think the 80-200 needs more light then the 17-35, my experience is it needs less because you don't need to stop it down at all to get any edge to edge sharpness. Unlike the 17-35 which performs best at 4.0 for me. Also the 28-70 F2.8 is a very nice versatile allrounder which performs great at F2.8, again, unlike the 17-35.
  
  For lighting I usually fill in a bit with my Zylight just to see the eyes and counter any toplight shadows you usually get from natural light. But only when using a tripod when the Zylight can be mounted on a cheeseplate and as far away from the camera as possible. (and only when shooting interview type stuff I guess)
  
  Here is a video I shot with available light only, no fills or whatever:
  
  vimeo.com/1788513
  
  Ex-3 and Letus Extreme, I think it was all shot with just the 17-35 or perhaps the 28-70 as well. Off course the advantage of shops is they are pretty well lit.
  
  So you are not missing anything except more 1.4 primes, and a bit of luck with natural light on location :)
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  Mitch Lewis 7 months ago

  No kidding? What was your gain set at? How did it look in the viewfinder when you were shooting it? Good? Or did it look dark and make you nervous? It looks like you shot quite a bit of this with your 50mm. Very nice! (as usual)
  
  The problem might be my Picture Profile settings. I'm shooting CINE4 Gamma. Also, I'm shooting 1080 30p and I've heard that shooting 720 30p brings in a significant amount of additional light. But I like the resolution of 1080 so I haven't shot much 720.
  
  I think I need to do some more "test shots" and even when it doesn't look that great in the viewfinder, just keep shooting and see what it looks like back in the edit suite. Interesting.
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  Maarten Toner 7 months ago

  Right, this was when I just had the camera 1 day I think so no PP at all and probably shot it in HDV /1080i 25mbps. Also it is starting to dawn on me I shot almost all of those videos with the 28-70, which has off course 50mm in its range. Also shooting full frame looking at the vignetting.
  
  It looked okay in the viewfinder too, 0 gain or perhaps +3? But it was pretty light in that shop. Never saw a difference in light between 1080 or 720? But interesting point, will check it out. Will start shooting 1080 docu soon because it should be a cinema release so will have to test this out.
  
  To be honest the F1.2 nikon 50mm is my fav lens to shoot with just for the bokeh and DOF. The 28-70 is really nice clean lens just like the 80-200 both work very well at 2.8.
  But never used them in difficult light so that might be something to try out as well.
  
  Started using Cine4 gamma a few months ago and tweaked the black a bit so perhaps that makes a third stop difference in light? Would be nice to have a week or so to test all this stuff out :)
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  James Houk 4 months ago

  Well, I'm shooting on the Sony PMW-EX1 with the Letus Ultimate, Nikon Mount, Zeiss and Nikon glass.
  
  Outdoors, I've had veeery little trouble with available light, even in shade. This video was shot all natural with one reflector: (exception is kitchen scene) vimeo.com/6291011
  
  Indoors I have some issues occassionally even with my Arri's up. When that happens I usually resort to my Zeiss 50 1.4 and my Zeiss 85 1.4
  
  The worst problem i've had is when my director wants a wide shot in a super tight space - I have to resort to a marginal Nikor 20mm 2.8 full throat.
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  Mitch Lewis 3 months ago

  Hi James. It's good to know that someone else is experiencing the same issues I am. I love our Letus, but I'm considering buying their new full-frame relay lens (not actually released yet....a little bird told me I should be released any day now). Big bucks, but "should" be a huge benefit shooting in low light as according to Phil Bloom you gain back 2 stops. I wish I could test one before I actually bought it. Maybe Phil will do a review.
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