beware auto shooters everywhere...

[BillGrant]

You may be faced with this very scenario one day... and then you will know the wrath of auto exposure. I saved this job because of knowing my manual settings. Don't rely on your camera. Rely on yourself. I will post video when I get it delivered...

[HankCastello]

Ouch!

[DavidPartington]

Yeah, nasty conditions and a very good example of why people should not be shooting in auto mode.

[kwshaw1]

Yeah, nasty conditions and a very good example of why people should not be shooting in auto mode.

It's not that people shouldn't ever shoot in auto mode, but they do need to be able to tell in advance when that won't yield good results and be prepared to respond accordingly. Conversely, there may be times when some use of automatic features can help you focus on capturing the action instead of fussing with camera settings, and camera engineers work hard to make those auto features useful. You can miss a shot by screwing up manual settings just as easily as by over-using automatic ones, so it's all about making the right decision for the circumstances. Know Your Gear.

[HankCastello]

Ya know, Kevin's onto something here.  There are times I'll put the static cam on auto pilot, like when I know they lights will be changing at some point in the ceremony, etc.  Most cams allow you to set + or - from default auto, and you can sometimes frame out backgrounds that will cause trouble.  If it's an unmanned, static camera, you take your chances one way or the other.

[Cougar22]

Bill,

You probably know this already but if you are interested, I think you can get more out of your close in shots with your editor.

You can target the shadows in the shot and restore the guy's suits and get rid of some fog using multiply.

I use vegas but this should be similar with any editor.
Step 1 duplicate the tracks after editing. (Set up a color corrector in both tracks)
Step 2 (mute top track) Bump up saturation in the bottom track to 1.361
Step 3 (Unmute to track) Set bottom color corrector saturation to .305 (mostly black and white).  Blowout highlights - Gain 1.771
Step 4 Set top track to multiply (this gets rid of white), track level to 100%

Adjust as needed.

I hope you don't mind but I used your bottom pic to obtain the above numbers.  I made a frame grab but cant figure out how to post it.  Hope you or someone finds this useful. This will slow down your render a bit (especially HD) but might be worth it.

Also, glad to be back after 2 years or so. (life is busy!)

Cougar22

[Cougar22]

Never mind Bill, just read your post in Editing times vs. Cameras lol

[HankCastello]

Great post!  Bill may not need it, but there are literally thousands of lurkers on here, and I know it will be appreciated.  Email me the photo and I'll post it.  I think for the image tool to work here, the image must first be uploaded onto the Web somewhere, and it doesn't include an upload feature.

I get messages every month from lurkers telling me how much this site has helped them.  It is really you all who are doing most of the helping and you should know that you are being appreciated.

And welcome back!

[DavidPartington]

Thanks for posting this Cougar22.   If I even need this I know where to look for inspiration

[BillGrant]

I would say that the basic point of this is know you're camera. In most cases, I use manual settings on everything but focus. I don't trust that the camera knows what a good shot is, mainly what science and numbers submitted into a matrix. So, I trust my judgement and know that I can pretty much fix anything that happens. But, the moral of the story is know you're proclivities and understand your camera and its limits. That's all...
Bill