Asking your opinion

stevet1 wrote:

SW Anderson wrote:

Nice scene. To my eye both look a bit overexposed, with less contrast and vivid colors than I think was possible there. I would like to see a little more "snap," for lack of a better word. Did you use a lens hood?

Any difference in sharpness seems negligible.

SW,

Thanks for your observations.

I was afraid that with a shutter speed of 1/60 and an aperture of f/5.6, the pictures would be too overexposed. The other day I took a couple of sample videos and added in a negative 1/3 exposure compensation. I was kind of pleasantly surprised at the result. I think I'm going to try shooting that way for a little while and see what I think.

Steve Thomas

Here's a suggestion. Next time you're shooting video in a situation like the one above, start by taking one or more still test images. Set your camera for Program mode  (P), set your auto exposure for a medium-size central viewscreen area in which you'll include a representative medium scene area. Not too much bright sky, not too much dark shadow or subject matter. In your scene above, meter for part of the red tree leaves and a bunch of the brighter background trees, ISO at 100 or 200. Take a test shot. View your result in deep shade or indoors. If the camera set exposure at 1/60 at f/5.6 and the image looks overexposed, with too-bright light areas, pale shadows and washed out colors, or leans that way too much, take another test shot. Set the mode dial for manual. Set the shutter for 1/60th sec., the aperture for f/8 and check the results. If it's too dark and contrasty, then use exposure compensation +1/2 or +1/3  f/stop and check the results. Keep going with test shots, if necessary. When the still image looks right, shoot your video using the exposure setting you arrived at.

Be careful about stopping down below f/8. How far you can stop down depends on your lens. Unfortunately, many of today's lenses for digital cameras start to exhibit degraded sharpness due to diffraction at smaller lens openings, some at f/11, others handle f/16 acceptably. You just have to experiment to see what you can get away with using your lens. If at f/8 you need to reduce exposure and that's as far as you can stop down without diffraction, in manual mode (M) cut the exposure time.

The experimentation I'm suggesting will help you develop an eye for the lighting and feel for evaluating the scene or subject, as well as the adjustments you can make to get a result that looks just right to you.

I hope this will be helpful and worth its length.