Shooting weddings with PAL XL2 - basic help please
 

Back to basics please (I'm still inexperienced), and I know that different churches have different issues with natural light, but please can some experienced readers give me some tips and best practices.

I am using the wedding custom preset from this forum using a PAL XL2, but what gives the best results in respect of how I should set up:

Mode:
Frame rate:
Shutter speed:
Aperture:
Gain:
White balance:

Then what changes would you have to make for footage outside for photos.

What then for speeches in a hotel conference room.

And finally for the first dance on darkened dance floor.

I know there is no one right or wrong answer and that every venue has different needs, but some "safe" advice would be great as I find it so hard to call it simply from looking through the view finder.

I use the PAL XL2 to shoot weddings mostly.
I'm not THE expert, but have been using it for about 6 months now. (still learning :)

mode: I use TV setting with my shutter set to 50 or 125, depends on the light available and use the exposure lock if needed
frame rate: I use 50i, because 25p gives me too much strobbing when panning.
shutter: if I have good light and possibly want to do a slowmo, I put it in 125 otherwise I do 50.
gain: never leave it on auto. If I got good light I have it on 0, in lowlight I put on 6 max.
white balance: if out I use its own sunny preset, inside I always do my own on something white

In a hotel and with lowlight I suggest you use the lowlight preset (also in presets here) instead of the weddings one, cause it's beter suited for lowlight. (gives more detail, maybe you just pump the colors a bit in post)
You can have 3 custom presets saved on your XL2 and easy changable without going to the menu.

Hope it helps for a start....

Shooting weddings with PAL XL2 - basic help please
 

Thanks Marko that was helpful.

What shutter speed have you preferred for the low light preset?

I'll chime in here....

The choice of shutter speed just depends on the motion effect you want. The slower the shutter speed, the more blur you will see on moving objects. Higher speeds will give you less and less blur the faster you get, but you'll start to get a strobey, staccato effect.

You'll get the most natural balance between blur and strobeyness at a shutter of 1/50 for either 50i or 25p. Most shooters think it best to stick with that shutter unless they're going for a particular effect and adjust exposure with iris and ND filters.

Definitly 1/50 for me.

Yes, keep the shutter speed on 1/50th for PAL, and only go slower when you need exterior shots of the venu at night, and don't want to add gain.

Use locked exposure and most probably you'll need to add more gain in the church as they can be pretty dim places that you wo n't be able to light. So too the reception, where a diffused movie light will be a must-have. A wide-angle converter will let you float around the b & g at the first dance.

tom.

Lowlight preset
 

I can't find the lowlight preset to download which Marko has been using.