Focusing with GH2

[Jeff Harper]

Dan, I just activated it yesterday, and I do believe I will leave it on. Seems VERY useful, almost essential, thank you.

[Jon Braeley]

Good photography applies no matter if it is a wedding or a documentary. I have shot three full length docs set in monasteries and temples that included major ceremonies.

You expose for the highlight and there is no circumstance when you let this simply blow out ... and please, I am not talking about a special effect here. Move closer to crop out the light. Broadcasters like the BBC will not accept footage containing blown out highlights.

If you are a one man band, the critical shots are best taken with a shoulder rig or steadycam and secondary shots from well placed tripods or use suction cups on a surface. A monopod can work also. This allows you to get close-ups and different angles knowing you have other footage to use for the 3 or 4 second jump cuts to keep the final edited scene flowing. This is standard film school stuff - I think this was covered in my second week.

I am not sure why you keep saying "I cannot shut my primary camera down every time I need to adjust ISO and exposure" .... why would you do that? I move and change exposure, ISO and color temp in a few seconds while I am moving to another view without shutting down the camera. I change all the critical settings continously regardless of wether they need to change a few seconds later or five minutes later.

[Brian Luce]

Originally Posted by Dan Carter

Have you experimented with turning [Rec Highlight] On in the Montion Picture menu?

I leave mine on all the time. I pay extra attention to skin, no flashy flashy on the skin.
If anyone is wondering, Flashing areas on Rec Highlight mean 100IRE, meaning you're blown out.

GH2 has the REC Highlight feature, histogram, light meter and along with your naked eye, that's 4 ways to measure exposure. Not bad for a $600 camera.

[Jeff Harper]

Jon, I've shot three Catholic wedding ceremonies in a week, 7 or 8 in a month on a good month, 30-50 a year for a few years now.

I keep saying I can't shut down because I need to often need change my ISO settings, or run it in auto. You insist auto is not kosher.

When a reader is 40 feet away in the shadows on the extreme opposite side of the altar, and my 2.8 lens is not cutting it, I need more gain, and if I'm in manual ISO, I'm screwed unless I stop recording and restart.

When the subject becomes the priest who walks while he give the homily from the altar to halfway up the aisle, and back and continually moves, I cannot adjust ISO on the fly.

During a wedding ceremony I cannot pick up and move from one side of the altar to the other to get closer to the subject. It is never permissable to cross the aisle in a Catholic wedding ceremony. Moving equipment during a wedding ceremony is generally verboten. I did it January 1, 2011, knowing it was wrong. What happened? The priest stopped the ceremony and indicated he would not continue if I insisted on moving around. The family of the bride was extremely upset. It was so dark my FX1 couldn't get a decent shot of the priest's homily, so I moved.

Your point about film school is well taken. Whenever I've hired graduates from film schools, they cannot follow directions, and their footage is often unusable, because they are doing what they were taught, which doesn't always work at weddings.

This discussion has been most helpful. It is obvious auto iso is necessary and there really are not any other options short of buying a videocamera that permits these changes on the fly such as I used to use.

Thanks for helping me see this!

[Jon Braeley]

My point in film schools was directed to editing techniques not shooting. I never learned a thing about shooting at a film school.

A recent film I shot was to cover New Year (Losar) - set in a Tibetan monastery - the ceremonies lasted eight hours during extremely diverse low light conditions. I was allowed to use one camera with an assistant. There is nothing too different about a wedding. It's all photography.
Obviously we have totally different shooting styles. I come from large format cameras - 20 years using Mamiya and Hasselblads with no auto features. So switching to video 15 yrs ago, I kept to this by not allowing the camera to choose the exposure for me.

[Jeff Harper]

Jon, I have lots of compatriots locally and we all pretty much share the same issues with weddings.

We shoot continously, ideally never turning off the cameras. It just isn't done, we edit and cut out the fat, but my style involves presenting a bride with a complete ceremony with all angles covered, with emphasis on closeups from the primary camera.

The shooting style is derived from the needs of the finished product, an uninterrupted and complete record of the ceremony. Highlight clips, etc. are another matter.

Short form edits, popular now, and commanding prices double or triple what I charge, are shot completely differently than what I do. The finished product from 12 hours of shooting is often no more than twenty minutes, or 30. If that was what I was doing, my issues would be almost nil. I'd only have to shoot the highlights, and I'd be good.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Jon Braeley

You expose for the highlight and there is no circumstance when you let this simply blow out ... and please, I am not talking about a special effect here. Move closer to crop out the light. Broadcasters like the BBC will not accept footage containing blown out highlights.

This is a counsel of perfection but most of us aren't filming for the BBC. In any case how do you stop windows blowing when you have dark interiors? If I were filming for the BBC then I would perhaps have enough time & money to put scrim or ND filter on those windows or add enough light to the interiors but otherwise I just have to let them blow.

Originally Posted by Jon Braeley

I am not sure why you keep saying "I cannot shut my primary camera down every time I need to adjust ISO and exposure" .... why would you do that? I move and change exposure, ISO and color temp in a few seconds while I am moving to another view without shutting down the camera. I change all the critical settings continously regardless of wether they need to change a few seconds later or five minutes later.

With the camera in question (Panasonic GH2) you cannot change ISO (gain) or White Balance while shooting.

[Jim Snow]

Originally Posted by Jon Braeley

You expose for the highlight and there is no circumstance when you let this simply blow out ... and please, I am not talking about a special effect here. Move closer to crop out the light. Broadcasters like the BBC will not accept footage containing blown out highlights

I work for brides, not the BBC. If I'm shooting wedding ceremonies and the bride is standing in the shade under a pagoda for example, I will set the exposure on her face even if elements of the background get blow out. One of the most common examples is blue sky after just after sunset. If you shoot subjects, for example brides and grooms, in this light with the sky in the background, the sky will be blown out. It will be white, not blue. "BBC says", has no relevance to me. Here is a conversation I never want to have.

Bride, upon seeing her wedding video - "Why am I so dark!?"

Answer - "The BBC says to never blow out the hightlights.

No thank you! - - And a word to BBC - You're fired!

[Jim Forrest]

+1. I just expose for skin tones not widows.