Exposure, Camers, and Tripods

Exposures, Tripods & Cameras

First rule with tripods,    Left - Loose

                                        Right - tight

Set up: 

1. loosen arm and pull out of the way of legs

2. Undo leg locks

3. open top clips and extend (stronger is better, weight at the bottom)

4. Tripod head - Pre-level; tighten arm and move head to flat position, loosen head and use spirit level to make perfect

5. make sure tilt is firm before mounting camera

6. Mount camera by pressing red button and sliding in base plate.

7. Tighten base plate lock

8. Adjust Tilt and Pan friction to preference

The two cameras we will learn were the cannon XF300 and the Sony EX1

Learning Exposure

Gain: go to menu then gain and set (recommended by Patrick so it must be good) Low to 0dB Medium to +3dB and High to +9dB

Gain is the same as ISO (international standards organisation) it is the sensitivity of the sensor. (higher the gain the more sensitive)

Shutter speed and angle

Shutter speed is how fast the shutter is spinning, normally it is twice the frame rate i.e. 25fps is 1/50s 

Shutter angle setting how large the shutter opening is

The smaller the degrees the less light.

25fps - 1/50s - 180deg

50fps - 1/100s - 180deg

Slowing the shutter speed or increasing the angle (same effect) will cause motion blur but also a higher exposure.

Speeding up the shutter speed or decreasing the angle will case sharp images decreasing the exposure ans also look 'jumpy'

'normal' settings for different frame rates

25fps - 1/50s - 180deg

50fps - 1/100s - 180deg

Aperture

Aperture is controlling the amount of light through the lens. 

Each F stop halves or doubles the amount of light.

(note: stay away from F-stop extremes, causing blooming and showing up lens faults) 

Opening aperture will give a shorter DOF and vice versaso it can be all summed up like this

ISO/Gain: Sensitivity of sensor - Higher ISO/Gain brings noise and vice versa

Shutter Speed/Angle Time sensor is exposed - Slower shutter brings more motion blur and vice versa

Aperture: Amount of light though lens - Larger aperture means smaller depth of field and vice versa