Just a side note: In my experience, any grain present in the picture is most visible in the darker areas. Therefore, in a night shoot situation, with lots of shadow, you will more than likely see some grain at even 0 db of gain. Maybe it's not grain precisely, but what I like to call "swimmies."

The October issue of DV magazine does have an excellent article on night shooting with video.

The idea is to shoot like you would with film. That is, use plenty of light, filters, and patterns to achieve a "nighttime" effect, without losing the image.

By the way, Kinescope was a way of preserving LIVE television shows by FILMING television screens. This was before video tape. (That's right - video transmission preceded video recording)

Yeah, I was in television from 74-76. A cameraman. We were using HUGE studio cameras on location at football and baseball games here in Houston. Still shot some film for news... I left just before ENG cameras came in.

(I remember the razorblades...!)

When shooting on location. Look around to find something that would be your "source" of light. In other words, if there are street lights in the background then the viewer will assume that there is a street light around your subjects somewhere. Then you light the scene with the viewer assuming the light is coming from the "streetlight". If you are in the middle of the woods then assume there is a full moon. Wrap 1 or 2 600 watt lights with diffusion paper and make it as soft as possible and as high in the sky as humanly possible. Don't forget to subtlely backlight your subjects. Alsodeflectors work well at night, they gather only the light you allow to be deflected into areas you need and it doesn't look as though there is a "hard" light on those places.

Bill
thanks,
All I remembered was kiniscope looked like real grainy stuff, I thought it might have been degradeing video, but now I know better.

thanks again, shows we never stop learning.

Bruce

After reading all the advice given in the thread and the forementioned article in DV mag, I did some indoor night light experimentation and got some super tight results!

I set for 4 different scenes/moods: 1) moon-light, 2) TV glare, 3) computer monitor glare, and 4) candle light (got the idea from DV mag article for this one). All situtations included a model to experiment with the level of detail that could be attained and the amount of noise in the darker areas. As I said, the results were astounding. There was very little (if any visible) noise and the amount of detail was comparable to a feature film (not trying to brag).

Playing with gels and white balance was critical to achieving the results I wanted. If anyone is interested in seeing the results, let me know.

I'd like to. Since we're all on the quest for the film look, to see what you did would interest me.

okay, let me clarify that I was not after a "film look," but after getting the amount of detail and low noise level that you would see in any night scene of any typical movie.

I'd be very interested in some footage of this indeed! Especially
with some explaining next to it. Thanks!

Jordi-San, post them results! :)

Aaron

DV Magazine
 

WG, in an earlier post, referred to an article in DV Magazine. Yes, you can buy it on newstands, but you can also subscribe free of charge. On the inside there is a full-size page (card stock) that you tear out, fill in, then mail or fax to them.

How easy can it get?