Over exposure

[Peter B]

Hi all you expert camerapersons out there.

I am looking for some advice on over exposure settings for videoing. I am recording a dance recital and the spotlights on the skin creates some over exposure at times on the dancers.

I am using three cameras Sony PD150, Panasonic MS4 (S-VHS) and a Sony Digtal8, which I’m not sure about (someone else is using it and sharing the footage with me) (all PAL).

I note the Sony PD150 has a spotlight function, which I plan to use, but I’m not sure about the ND settings, as the manual doesn’t really explain what they do apart from reducing light! Should I be using manual settings for gain, shutter etc or would the spotlight and auto be fine. This is a hired camera so I haven’t used it before.

The Panasonic will be unmanned at the back and I plan to manually focus it and reduce the iris but to what? Also any suggestions for the Digital 8?

Any suggestions, recommendations or general experiences in this area would be appreciated.

TIA

[Aryko]

Best piece of advice I would give would be to try and see a dress rehearsal before hand to get an idea of light levels. Stage productions tend to come in two flavours - a standard wash of lights or a combination of spots with widely varying light levels.

In general, I would keep the exposure levels down, mostly because when the spotlight is on someone it wreaks havoc with the gain of the camera (and in some cases, the autofocus). They look like a white ghost, and there's no saving that in post production. With the exposure down, the light on the subject will be more or less normalized, but you'll lose everything outside of the spot (a concession that shouldn't make you worry too much - the spot is on the person for a reason).

Oh - for your preset cameras - make sure to set a manual focus level and keep it - just to reiterate the point about light and autofocus...

For your operated cameras, I'd set the manual focus and keep a finger on the exposure wheel to account for changes in light levels.

- A