This article will help you learn about How To Shoot Video In Low Light? which helps with stock photography Rejections issues.
Alright, I know this is a topic a lot of you are interested in, how do you get Footage at night without getting a lot of noise? Well,
first, you need to understand where the noise comes from, and the noise in your footage basically comes from bumping up your ISO.
So, what ISO and how basically sensitive
your sensor is to light, and the more you bump up your ISO, the more sensitive it is to light. Basically, it takes less light to make an image,
So when you’re thinking about exposure, there are three things to know
- Shutter speed
- Aperture
- ISO
If you have a dark image that you would just bump up your ISO.
You know, these cameras nowadays can really bump up the ISO, but then you get really,
To shoot video in low light is really noisy. Unless you’re shooting on something like the A7S or the A7S2, most of the time,
when you start bumping up and you get to these higher ISOs, you’re gonna get a very noisy image.
you can actually use your camera so you don’t get noisy because most of us aren’t shooting on these cameras that can just suck in the light.
It’s a very special, unique camera, and there’s a lot of other cameras out there, and we need to be able to shoot at night.
So, the first thing is, to avoid noise, is doing shoot above your base ISO, so every camera has a base, and so once you start going above that base, you’re introducing more noise into your image. you don’t wanna go above 800 ISO.
A lot of cameras, 800’s kind of like where you wanna stop at, so I would say stick it at 800, do not go above that. So, that’s the first thing.
Everything else that we do with the camera is going to allow us to bring more light into the sensor, but not affect the actual ISO, so you’re not gonna introduce more noise.
Table of Contents
Shutter speed
So, if you’re looking at the exposure triangle, then next is the shutter, and if you’re thinking about the shutter, you don’t wanna go above
” 1/60 if you’re shooting at 30 frames a second, or 1/48 if you’re shooting in 24 frames a second”,
This is because as soon as you bump above that, you’re not going to have the motion blur that looks cinematic.
Also, the higher you go in your shutter speed, the darker your image is gonna get, so you’d ask, well, why don’t I open up more to 1/30?
To Shoot Video In Low Light, when you start reducing your shutter and making it slower, you’re introducing more motion blur,
so when you have an image that you’re shooting at
1/30, at 30 frames a second, this helps to shoot video in low light and gives you a better result, when you move the camera fast or you have something fast-moving in the frame, you’re going to introduce a lot of motion blur, and it’s not gonna look very good
So, you wanna stay at that shutter speed that makes sense to get a cinematic image, which is double that of your frame rate. Now, if you do have a situation where there’s not a lot of movement,
you can bump up your shutter and go at like a 1/30 or a 1/24, depending on what you’re shooting at, and you’ll be able to get a good image and not see a lot of that motion blur.
Aperture guide
It just depends on the subject that you’re shooting, so just keep that in mind. Okay, so, let’s talk about the third piece of the exposure triangle
Aperture and the key with this are using those lenses that have a wider aperture, and those are primes.
So, if you don’t shoot on a lot of primes, then you’re using lenses that have slower apertures,
so it takes more light to expose your image, which makes you bump up the ISO.
Personally, I love using primes, because it not only allows you to get more light,
it gives you a shallower depth of field, and it also forces you to think about what it is that you’re shooting a little bit more.
You have to go through that thought process of oh, I need a 35 for this, I need a 50 for this, I need an 85 for this, instead of just putting on zoom and then just moving the zoom back and forth to get your shot.
You actually have to put a little more thought into it, so a side note, as filmmakers, using primes makes us focus more on what it is that we’re shooting.
we actually become better filmmakers ’cause there’s more of a thought process that goes into getting each of those shots.
However, when it comes to exposure, using primes gives you that wide-open aperture. For example, with the GH5, I use lenses that go as wide as a 1.2, and there are some Voigtlanders out there that get a .95, and that will give you a ton of light compared to your zoom lens,
which only opens up to say a 2.8 or a four, so prime lenses are key. Okay, so those are the settings that you’re going to use for a camera.
Binding with ISO
Find lenses that open up super wide, getting down to a 1.2, .95. Whatever camera system you’re using, find the widest aperture lenses for that. Okay, and then with that, you’ll be able to get some awesome footage.
However, you still can’t shoot in like pitch black. That’s just not something that you are able to do unless you have one of these crazy cameras that can shoot in dark, but that’s a different thing entirely.
when you’re shooting at night, areas that have some light, and so, when you find these areas that have light, you’ll be able to get exposure using these settings,
play with how the light is hitting your subject, and then you can get some really cool footage.
If there’s little to no lighting in the places that you’re shooting, you’re still not going to get much of an image, and you might say, well, what if I just bring it up in the post?
To Shoot Video In Low Light you should start introducing color grading and you start introducing more exposure in the post, bringing up the noise level, and then your footage is to get super noisy,
so this comes down to my last point, which is that when you’re shooting, you wanna shoot for the color that you wanna use in your final piece.
Try to color grade it later, so when you shoot log at night and you’re trying to color grade it, you’re actually introducing more noise into the image.
The more you color grade, the more you play with the exposures, the more noise you’re gonna introduce into your image, so ideally, you wanna shoot with a higher contrast color profile in camera and do minor tweaks in post.
For example, on the GH5, I shoot Cine-V when I’m at night, and it gives a really nice image because the S-curve gives you those really dark darks and it gives you those highlights,
So when you see it, it looks pretty good, and all I have to do is minor tweaks to get the image where I want.
In the past, I’ve tried to Shoot Video In Low Light, and every time I do, I just get so much noise, it’s not even worth doing.
Alright, you guys, so I hope these tips will help you get better night footage.
you just gotta think of that exposure triangle. Make sure you’re optimizing your settings
so you’re getting the best result out of your camera, and then just make sure there is some light in the scene that you’re shooting. With understanding the basic camera settings you can make money fast on Shutterstock or other microstock agencies.
If you need to learn more about Shutterstock rejection and making money by uploading photos check out my blog post.
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Conclusion
Alright, guys, I hope this video was helpful in getting you some awesome footage at night. Make sure you subscribe to the blog Everyshuttercounts if you’re new here.
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