Recommendations needed for Night Videos

[xiaok23]

Hello guys,

I'm running into some problems with one of the project that's coming up. I'm shooting video of off-road vehicles installed with LED light bars driving in pitch black (outdoor in the wild). You can see a sample screenshot here:

For the shot attached, I actually used a 5D3.. forgot what lens I used but it was probably a Canon 24mm 1.4 L Mark II Initially it actually looked really good in the LCD preview, but once I got back in the studio to see what I had it was WAY OVER EXPOSED. The actual image should have clear details of the ground ahead, very clear details of the peripheral, and you should be able to see even further down the road.. CLEARLY.

If I remember correctly, the settings I had was probably 1.4/60/3200 or 6400.
and what I ultimately want to achieve is to see ALL of the details very clearly and close to what the human eye sees.

So, I want some recommendations on the following:

- Camera: For camera, I've looked online and it seems like the Sony A7 can do some pretty amazing things at night, not sure if this is what I need?

- Lens: Any recommendations?

- Settings: Any recommendations?

- Focus Point: Where should my focus point be? Ground close to the car, far away, or center of the screen?

Any discussion would be great! Thanks!

Kevin

 

[pixmedic]

one of our Mods, runnah, does a lot of video work (its his job) and also happens to use a 5DIII.
hopefully he will chime in with some advice.

I dont really do any video work, but if your getting overexposure, i imagine the solution for video is similar to still shots. smaller aperture, faster shutter speed, or lower ISO.

 

[runnah]

This is a tough scene to shoot. The camera is trying to figure out what to expose for. The places hit by the lights, the dark back ground, the night sky? The camera doesn't know. add into the fact that the lighting will change as you go over crests, around bends etc..

I would:
Meter to expose to the brightest part of the lights.
Shoot lower ISO to get more dynamic range.
No need to go higher than 1/30th of a second for the shutter speed. This will allow you to shoot at lower ISO. Mind you the shutter speed and frames per second are not the same thing.
Shoot in manual, proper metering and set the ISO to auto to act as another auto mode. In the setting adjust the auto iso range to where you want it.

 

[runnah]

Also, focus is going to be a pain as there really is not autofocus on the mkiii.

 

[xiaok23]

Thanks for getting back to me.. what is "Meter to expose to the brightest part of the lights?"

and I'm not sure about ISO range, because we're driving the whole time and it would be better if the brightness is consistent during the drive.. and for focus... I'd need to find a distance to focus.. either far away or close... but since we're shooting wide open, either way would create a depth of field making the video also look kinda weird.

Do you recommend using a Sony A7? Since that camera can really turn night into day so it might work for this case? Any experience?

 

[runnah]

Thanks for getting back to me.. what is "Meter to expose to the brightest part of the lights?"

Adjust the settings until the bits inside the headlights are exposed properly. Use the meter built into the camera to adjust.

and I'm not sure about ISO range, because we're driving the whole time and it would be better if the brightness is consistent during the drive.. and for focus... I'd need to find a distance to focus.. either far away or close... but since we're shooting wide open, either way would create a depth of field making the video also look kinda weird.

The issue you are going to run into is that the settings you choose before you set off are not going to be right for the entire trip. If you lock all the settings you run the risk of getting poor results. Take the shot you have in the original post. The road, the banks and the scrub all act as reflectors send more light back into the camera. Now say you are going in an area with more or less stuff to reflect back light, this will affect settings.

As for the focus well you might be better served by not shooting wide open as you'd have more room for focusing error. But at 24mm the dof is pretty forgiving if you are trying to shoot the road ahead.

Do you recommend using a Sony A7? Since that camera can really turn night into day so it might work for this case? Any experience?

The a7s would be great if you were shooting with no head lights. The basic problem here is similar to shooting in a house. You can expose for the the dark interior of a house but the windows are blown out, or vice versa. the vast majority of DSLR cannot handle the vast dynamic range that would be required to expose for pitch black darkness and bright headlights.

To me the best way around all of this is to change the shot. For example, shoot out side the car as it passes, or have a stantionary shot from inside the car.

 

[xiaok23]

Thank you for the responses! That definitely helped. I think what I'll do is to stick with the 5D3 and play around with the ISO ranges and see what I get. Thank you!

 

[TwiceTown]

The camera doesn't have enough dynamic range to give you what you need in this case which is why it's clipping your highlights. You'll never get what the eye can see but you can fake it. The offroad lights might be so bright that you'd need an neutral density filter to capture what's being lit up and then you'd lose your darks like the sky and anything beyond the lights. You should drop your shutter back to a 30th, lower your ISO and reduce the offroad lights--if possible. That would give you the best result since you're reducing the dynamic range. Or just pop on a variable ND filter (which will let you dial in what works) and expose for the highlights.