first things to check before shooting
 

Hello DVians!

This is my first post on the forum, but will not be the last!

I'm new to camera shooting, I read a lot about different subjects; Focus, depth of field, frame rate, gain.. XHa1s manual..and got general ideas.

my question is what you (professionals) do before shooting? :
- set all modes to manual
- adjust white balance
- zoom to the farthest point and adjust focus..

what should I do before starting to shoot? (aka : how to achieve Steven Dempsey look!? ;-) )

thanx for reading!

Hi Abdesammad
Welcome to DVinfo.
Here's a thread that touches on your question, so you may find it useful:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-...e-do-i-go.html

Thank you richard,

i read the thread and also read the manual, I even start to use the presets on this priceless forum, and loved the look of disjecta..

the real question is not how to use the camera, but, the workflow and procedures to follow after you hit the camera on button: as a professional, you never use the auto settings, rather, you adjust manual settings, what do you check first?

is ther any books about filming techniques/workflows?

sorry for this heavy questions post, but, this is my second post ! ;-)

A contarary point of view
 

The last time I brought this up, people sneered and threw things (LOL!) but here goes:

Don't underestimate the value of the semi-automatic settings (NOT the bonehead green box, the other selections). The camera is greatly customizable and if you get the presets you like for color and saturation and knee and all that good stuff, the camera is smarter than --- well, than I am, not speaking for anybody else. But when crap is happening around me (I shoot news) having the camera set up the way I want it and letting it do its thing while I worry about audio levels, what questions to ask a cop who is pushing me and dodging a fire hose at the same time, it works pretty well. In special situations --- and there are many --- I use any or all of the manual focus, manual white balance, and numerous other settings. It's a judgment call. But you paid for a lot of good technology, make use of it as appropriate. Hey, I used to shoot with a Nikon F with a hand-held light meter. But to do it the hard way when today's sophisticated cameras can do it for you, faster and better and let you concentrate on the CONTENT (note emphaisis) would, imho, be dumb. My two cents, feel free to sneer. /Battle Vaughan / miamiherald.com video team

With stills cameras, I would always go through a few films with the camera on aperture priority (AE) and see what happens. What kind of pictures it made a good job of, what needed intervention. I did the same with my video cameras.

Use it on auto, see what it is good at. Then try aperture priority, see what it does best there, then on shutter priority, and so on. You will learn when to trust the camera to give you good results, and when you need to put something on manual. That will allow you to concentrate on the actual picture, framing etc, and the sound. Trying to do too much in manual from the start can get complicated, as it is difficult to remember exactly what you did when.

Fully agreed. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using the Program Autoexposure (A) mode, or either of the semi-auto modes (Tv and Av) if the situation calls for it. My personal favorite is Shutter Priority (Tv) mode, because it lets me lock the shutter speed and switch rapidly switch between auto and manual exposure with a simple press of the Exp. Lock button (for this reason, Tv is better than M in my opinion).

There's no doubt that you can seriously bungle the image in full manual (M) mode, if you don't have the experience (or in my case, presence of mind to juggle a number of variables at once) to judge exposure for yourself on the fly. There are times when you should let the camera do that, so you can concentrate on framing, composition and following the action.

This is actually an excellent question and caused me to think about how and what I do. Most of what I shoot, measured in kilometers of tape, is motor racing from a tripod under fairly predictable conditions from late afternoon to night. For that, my drill is to go TV mode for the shutter speed I want. I prefer 1/250 in sunlight and will drop down in lower light. I set the ND filter so the iris will stay around 4.x to 5.x as I pan the track. Next is to white balance on a white wall in whatever sunlight's available. I don't use presets as I have to match a half dozen other cameras. Ambient sound on 1, announcer feed on 2 with levels set manually. Target peaks between -6 and -12dB. Pretty simple actually.

Two weeks ago I was down on the track for the facilities' biggest race of the year. Shooting cars, crowd, interviews with Rusty, Kenny and Steve Wallace, other drivers, bands and the like. It was late afternoon and some of the track was in sunlight and some in shadow. Again, I set appropriate shutter speed and ND to handle both which it actually didn't. I ended up with a setting that would let me switch the ND on or off for light and shadows respectively. Audio on auto as all I could get was ambient. If I was stationary, I would press exposure lock. Moving, I'd let the iris float. I white balanced for sun knowing I'd have to cc shadow footage in post. Auto WB is too wonky for me.

In the final review, I've shot enough with the A1 over the last two years so that it comes semi intuitive. Sure, I screw up and chase light in the darkness with the ND filter on occasionally but you won't tell anyone, will you?

In a perfect world, I'd learn how to make a preset that pushes the saturation by about 10% to give me more room in post with the HDV footage but I'm just a pikey with ADD so that ain't happening.

Let me know when you make this preset.

thank u all
 

thank you guys for this helpful answers.

I figured out; the best thing to do is pick that camera thing and jump to streets and start making some noise with it!

thanx again!

Absolutely right! And of course if you encounter any specific problem this is a great place to get help with it.

Richard