Asking your opinion

I shot two videos of the same scene.

I shot these at 35mm and 30fps.

Using the 180 rule, these were shot at a shutter speed of 1/60.

I used a 3 stop ND filter.

In the first, I used an aperture of f/8

In the second, I used an aperture of f/5.6.

I used Auto ISO, but didn't record the ISO. I'm assuming the video shot at f/8 had an ISO of around 400 and the second would have been slightly lower.

The f/5.6 will have a smaller depth of field.

In your opinion, looking at the colors and the sharpness, which do you like better?

Steve Thomas

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.

Digirame wrote:

I prefer the one with more depth of field. But that's only my preference. Other people may like something different. Typically, I like to have great depth of field when possible. If that is not possible like when using a telephoto lens then I like to have blurred backgrounds that are not distracting.

Dig,

Thanks for your observations.

I've kind of decided that when taking wider views, or landscape videos to step down the aperture to larger numbers like f/8 to f/11.

I was just watching a video the other day that was saying that Hollywood film makers use larger apertures like f/1.8 to f/2.8 for closeups for a reason. It helps isolate the subject.

I'm going to have to give those a try.

Steve Thomas

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

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.

I personally think the second video is ever so slightly sharper, but it could be my imagination, because I know this:

On APS-C an aperture of f/8 gives the best sharpness, as any smaller apertures suffer from diffraction.

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Lovely autumnal scene BTW.