HV20 Outdoor Overexposure
 

Okay, Have my HV20, but am a total NOOB. Take video of Aspen Grove with Grass and flowers and Hummingbirds. Settings = Full Auto no beach or snow settings.

The video in the shadows is really good, but much of the grasses and flowers are really way over exposed. I would post a piece of the video, but am just learning how to do that.

Any start out clues?

Kirt

press the joystick, tap it down until exposure comes up, joystick up ot selct exposure adjustment, and tap left to taste - also set zebras so you can see what's blown out, and correct with the exposure.

Dave didn't mention you first have to put the camera in P mode with the slider on the right side.

Then you go into menu, and on the top line of menu and you can select TV for shutter priority, or AV Fstop priority. P provides an auto exposure that selects both settings, and Cine mode provides a similar setting but also seem to provide a wider latitude in the picture. In fact that works very good for outdoor situations, because it will show shadow detail more.

As far as the brighter objects in the picture, if you turn on zebras, you will be able to see the overexposed areas, and adjust further by pushing on the toggle, selecting exposure, and once selected, sliding the exposure right or left with the toggle to take the zebras out of the picture.

I was shooting in colorado this summer and noticed alot of overexposure in the skies where I did not have the problem here in North Carolina. Like the other poster said, adjusting the exposure helps but I would also suggest either lowering your state or maybe trying some different filters.

You might want to turn on " markers " in the menu also... this wont' help with the exposure but is a great aid in keeping the shots squared up....

If you still have issues with brights being blown out, you should consider getting a polarizer or a nutral density filter to help the cam out....

The polarizer will also help in other ways besides knocking down the blown highlights.....

My ND & UV filter kit is on its way from Amazon, I hope that helps my HV10 as well...
meantime per suggestions on the forum, I select Av (aperture pri) mode, and close down the iris a lot (sometimes all way down to 8.0), and this dims things a lot while still leaving auto-exposure active (since the Exp lock features are "fixed" and will be wrong if you point to differently lit scene. eg it's not an AE Shift , but a lock, unfortunately.)
This will affect your depth of field etc some so you lose some "artistic" latitude, but works decently to fix bright outdoor scenes in the meantime.

Thanks to all who replied
 

I have printed the thread and will try up in the hills this weekend. BTW, "lowering your state" brought out and audiable chuckle.

Thanks,

K

Shooting in cine mode always prevents blown out highlights for me. I colour correct and sharpen in post.

I also noticed when it's dark the HV20 aggresively turns up the gain making the video lighter than it actually is.

I second that Cinemode doesn't do this overexposure but not sure yet if I always want to shoot in Cinemode (due to loss of perceived sharpness and contrast and too lazy to do always PP). Have to do more comparisons between these two...

Colin:
i don't see why a ND filter helps the overexposure problem.
Maybe a polarisation filter is good, but ND reduce all the incoming light.
You become darker picture in darker areas. Dont you?
A gradual ND is better, but this need a good straight horizont.