Hello All, I am fairly new to video but have been a professional sound engineer all my life,I bought my first camcorder about three years ago it was fine but there was no control over the audio which drove me mad So I recently bought a JVC GY-HM 100 pro camera it's fabulous with great control over the sound and XLR inputs "heaven". I film a lot in theaters and as a rule I place three mics at the front connect them to a mixer pan one left one center and one right then put the stereo out of the mixer into the input of the camcorder. By this method I get great stereo sound.I don't know if this introductory section is the right place to ask questions but I have problems with over exposure in some scenes I.E. I filmed a choir,they were all dressed in maroon but the conductor had a white shirt on I had the camera on auto but when I zoomed out to take in the whole stage the conductor was over exposed,does anyone know how to get round this? I suppose I will have to go onto manual and learn how to use the shutter speed and F stops.

Regards

Kevin

Hi, Kevin. Welcome to Muvipix!

What you're experiencing is actually pretty common -- especially if you were using the auto light setting on the camcorder and ESPECIALLY if the conductor was wearing white. (Where I used to work, the chairman had a habit of taking off his suit jacket halfway through his presentation -- and his white shirt would drive the engineers crazy trying to reset the light settings and white balance!)

Unfortunately, this is a tough one to fix in post. If the conductor's suit was blown out completely (completely white), your video only has white pixels to work with and even changing the brightness and contrast won't help.

But, if he's just a little too bright, you might be able to adjust some things.

Hello and thanks for your prompt reply but you have misunderstood me I'm not bothered about past videos I just want to get it right in the future,I realize this is a massive subject but can you give me a few tips, I feel that in the same situation if I put the camera on manual and adjust the shutter speed or f stops so the conductor looks right won't the rest of the choir look dark? I know I have a lot to learn so can you point me in the right direction? books, tutorials etc.

Regards

Kevin

One thing to learn is the use of zebra patterns. This article http://thedvshow.com/faq-pro/?action=article&cat_id=002&id=2 helps explain roughly what I mean about zebra patterns. You will have to dive into the camcorder manual to learn about the settings that your particular camcorder has.
Another thing to keep in mine is the white balance. I try to set mine manually using a white card. White balance is just that, it sets the scene so that the whites comes out white. A color balancer.
Hope that helps somewhat.

This may not be much help but I thought that I would post it anyway. The key is in the manual settings.

In my previous life I used to be a wedding photographer. One continuing problem was the photo of the bride and groom in the back of the car just before they were driven away to the reception. The car would almost always be poorly lit by natural light anyway, unless it was a convertable. As the bride inevitably wore white, the groom a dark suit, and the car generally had black upholstery, in order to capture a halfway decently exposed pic (and this was in the days of film, not digital) the trick was to take a light meter reading from the bride, then one from the groom and average out the two.

Bride would be slightly over-exposed (now, now, calm down!! ) and the groom slightly under exposed but at least the pic would be presentable.

Excellent advice Don and John, turning the Zebra on and performing a White Balance are two keys to getting good video.
White balance will keep the color, saturation, highlights and contrast even, the zebra will let you see if anything is getting blown out.
That will allow you to make manual adjustments to the gain or iris. This is something that is not automatic so you need to monitor the camera for problems and make adjustments on the fly.

Hi Kevin, Welcome to Muvipix

Thanks for that I feel I am "on my way" to curing this problem I have looked at the manual and it has a great range of settings for both all of which can be assigned to various buttons that can be adjusted "on the fly"

Regards

Kevin

Have we convinced you that you've come to the right place yet, Kevin?

There's an amazing mix of talent and experience here!

YES !!! Great response to a first timer will post more as I get better and hit problems.I will also look out for people with audio problems perhaps I can help !!!


Regards

Kevin

That's great Kevin, thanks. Audio issues come up on a regular basis and we have been a bit limited in that area