David, since this is now the David Chapman ISO Q&A thread, would you ever recommend the '160 multiples' ISOs? What about if you are in a dimly-lit situation where you're just not going to get an optimum range of luminance? Would the 160 multiples help reduce perceived noise?

There is something in the Sony EX1, which I also own, called 'negative gain' that I had several discussions with experts over on that forum, and the conclusion was that if you didn't need the headroom, using the -3db setting reduced noise in darker areas of the image, but also lowered headroom. My argument was if you're going to lower the headroom, why not just pump up the overall light reaching the sensor?

The analogy that made sense to me was that the 'negative gain' setting was like a attenuating the input less on an audio mixer before the preamp. You want to increase the signal as much as possible to the sensor, which overcomes the inherent noise in the sensor, but it will 'overload' at the high end faster. If you can live with that, you get lower noise, but at the expense of headroom. Please comment if you have an opinion about this.

Anyway, if you can addres this

I'll buy it, I bought Philip Blooms which was pricey but extremely helpful.

I did however, find heaps of stuff missing, like the basics.
Setting exposure, white balancing, the LCD's auto function - my first tests were recorded much darker than what it appeared on the LCD screen and so on.

I like your idea of showing how you shoot, edit, grade and deliver, but that was what I found to be lacking.

In short, a guide for video people who are discovering the DSLR's - what's different?
Your typical HDV camera is set up with Iris, Shutter Speed, Gain, White balance and with a responsive LCD screen, it was real easy to set correct exposure.

I realize their is a whole new world of controls and creativity once I can gain control of these functions on the 7d, but just a very simple basic overview would still help me tremendously.

Maybe you can incorporate it in your 'how you shoot' chapter.

Anyways, that was my 2 cents, sorry if it is overkill basic, but I wrote this hoping it will help us both!

Hey guys, sorry I missed replying. I hadn't seen this thread pop up in a while!

@Jordan
You are referring to the "lens cap test" which doesn't show related noise, but highlight clipping. There was a test months ago where people looked at the results and said "hey, there is hardly any noise in these shots! These are the ISO settings to use all the time! Well, the 160 sets are actually cutting off a section of the highlights, which is why the seem cleaner. This is a larger topic and demonstration I am working on to make sense of it. Right now, only a few people have tried to explain it and it's way too technical to appreciate or make sense of for the majority of users.

@Keith
I hope this hasn't become the "David Chapman" thread at all! Haha.
I do have some tips on when to use what that I'm working to show. The thing is, more often than not, I use the 200, 400, 800 rule to keep highlights. There are situations where the 160 set will work better, but I'm showing what those shots look like. After seeing examples, this "when do I use which and why" won't be as much of an issue. The 100, 200, 400, 800 works for newer DSLR people coming in since there are far too many variables to take in. But, yes, I will be getting to that in a chapter. You did explain this well with the -3db gain, but most people still don't understand that scenario either.

@Chris
It looks like I am showing everything you missed. I'm not trying to make a duplicate of what Philip Bloom has produced at all. I'm going a different direction and showing more of the "how do I use this to make my own independent film productions?" angle. There are some things to cover related to video in general as well as post workflows. Since my background is image acquisition, post and visual effects, this will cover a lot of the technical aspects of dealing with the footage, on set decisions and some cool things to do in post. Some of the technical will help with live events (and I intend on adding some of my tricks from over 100+ weddings), but a lot of the shots I've setup are pre-planned (actors in a scene, filming a specific sequence of shots, etc). I do have some wedding tips, but I won't be on location at a wedding pointing out what to do.

Hey David, this is going to sound extremely amateur-ish (as I am to the world of SLR), but where is the option to turn off highlight tone priority? I looked through the menu and can't seem to find it. Your posts have been very helpful, thanks!!

From what I recall you might need to be in 'still mode' (video/still switch rotated to still) before you see these options. I know it's fooled a few people.

Go to the custom function area in the menu (orange) and it's section 2 option 3.

Awesome, thanks Keith and David, I'll have to check that when I get home

I see many people referring to Philip Bloom's settings but still am wondering what they are. Can anyone divulge this?

Sharpness and contrast all the way down
Saturation -2
Highlight Tone Priority On

I think this setting are not from Mr.Bloom.

Is it first advice for our dear friend Mr. Stu from Prolost?

that's exactly what he says in his video...

I think that came from Stu Maschwitz. He actually has a lot of cool stuff on his blog.

prolost.com

I really don't see much of a point in shooting super flat mode when it comes to shooting video. The basic picture styles are like the HVX and it's matrix settings. The basic picture style modes are just fine for shooting. Super Flat mode will not give you anything near the Dynamic Range of a RED One. Also the grading from that super flat mode just looks horrible. But that's just my personal opinion through. I did a very simple daylight and tungsten test to see each styles affect on the light with the image when I first got the 7D and decided to upload it today.

60p to 24p
 

I have read thru posts here and on several other sites regarding 60p to 24p conversion. The general consensus seems to be:

Shoot 60p using 1/60 shutter speed in most cases.
Shoot 60p using 1/120 shutter speed for slow motion conversion.
Convert footage in desired editing software by dropping frames instead of blending them.

Sound right??

Some posts mentioned conversion to 29.97 first and then proceeding to 23.97. Seems like you would lose some quality going that route though.

Bill, if you shoot 60p for slow motion effect, all you are doing is changing a play rate from 60 frames a second and extending the frames over a longer period of time to 24 frames per second. The method you are asking about is relevant to interlaced material (back and forth) from a progressive format having to do with pulldown or a telecine process, although there are varying schools of thought on this.

Thanks for that visual post. It is most helpful.

Shutter speed, ISO & AE
 

I understand that, but does the shutter speed of my camera have any bearing on the quality of the final footage or should I always capture 60p video @ 1/60 shutter speed?

Also, what tips do users have regarding the ISO? When is it advisable to adjust the ISO for video - low ISO for bright light and high ISO for low light??

Lastly, I use After Effects to alter the frame rate and colors of the video I shoot and ultimately deliver to web and DVD. Any tips?

Thanks.

ISO question
 

I have my settings to 1920x1080 30p but some of my ISO settings are grayed out....100 125 160 ISO are all grayed out and the first or lowest I can get is 200 ISO. Did I miss a setting somewhere. I have read the manual a couple of times and get the impression I should be seeing those.

Hey Jim, do you have Highlight Tone Priority ON or OFF? If this is enabled, your lowest ISO in manual mode is 200. I always turn it off anyways.

Hey David
That was it! I found it under My Settings Menu. I think I turned it on when I was trying Bloom's settings.
It appears that 'Neutral' in picture setting is similar to his settings anyway.

SuperFlat
 

I recently shot some footage for my short film in the SuperFlat picture style. I like the dynamic range that it adds, but I question the reason for the sharpness being turned down. I know people say you just re-sharpen in post, but my question is; how much do you sharpen in Vegas Pro to make it look natural, but not too soft? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Zach

Hey Zach,

The creator of Superflat actually prefers now to use the Neutral preset with contrast and sharpness all the way down and saturation down 2 notches.

This isn't the best setting for quick edits as it does require some grading, but will provide the best dynamic range for post color correction.

Turning the sharpening down makes the line skipping less noticeable in some areas. You don't want it as sharp as a photo would be.

Good to know David. So would you even add any sharpening in post? This is for a short film for film festivals, so obviously I am grading and color correcting every clip, but I'm basically trying to figure out if it will still look good blown up to big screen if I don't do any sharpening. Obviously it's a fine line, since if I sharpen up to .3 or .4 it could potentially start getting pixelated. So would you suggest doing any sharpening in post, or just allow it to be as soft as it was shot? Thanks a lot for your help!

If you are going to up-rez, some people have noted that they used a different app to apply SOME sharpening at the same time as the scaling. I think this was scaling to 2K. I can't remember the post, but that's all I recall. I think you can apply a small amount in post as you export if you want... I haven't needed to.

Cool, thanks for the reply. I'll likely stick with little to no sharpening since it will probably be screened on 2k, and I'd rather have high quality soft picture than sharp, pixelated picture... I appreciate your responses!

Auto Lighting Optimizer
 

David, is it worth have the Auto Lighting Optimizer on. I see there is a Low, Standard and Strong. Does this bring out the mid tones? Something like a gamma control?

Hey Jim,

I actually have my ALO turned to off. From what I can tell, this feature is designed more for the entry photographer that will print JPGs straight from the camera. It appears to boost low-level parts of the image, making your shadows/darker areas appear to have more digital noise.

I'll back Dave up on this- definitely turn off Auto Lighting Optimizer for everything, unless you specifically want noise in the shadows.

Would you guys suggest any different settings for very low light work (i.e. shooting in nightclubs where it is very dark with flashing lights?)