Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Advice, Dragon night forest scene , low light

Mike Garrick

Mike Garrick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
1,173
Reaction score
0
Points
36
Location
Australia
We have a shoot coming up involving a low light night forest scene, the light will be intentionally a single diffused source , housed within a china ball/ balloon . We have an actress approaching the light source, the light will be in shot. Transition from shadow to light of actress is important. Lenses f1.4, we will be shooting low light OLPF.

This is our 1st shoot on dragon in these conditions. With MX we would keep the ISO down then boost in post. From what I've read this isn't the way to go with dragon.

Suggestions greatly appreciated.

Ps . Yes we could get a helium light ( brighter light source) but given the location, getting power to the light will be a problem.
 
What kind of lenses are you using? At f1.4, if your actress crosses in front of the china ball, you're possibly going to get a ridiculous amount of chromatic aberration on her.
 
If you have access to PL lenses, something in the t2.0 range would possibly work, would also have some hand held, like an LED light wand of some sort., something to get an eye light. I would also TEST the camera and lens in similar lighting situations, especially at ISO 800- see what combination works.
 
I'd recommend rating Dragon LLO similarly to MX. Dragon craves light, even in darkness. Shooting 1.4 sounds reasonable for the scene. Dragon has so much latitude you could grade the exact look you wanted later, though it would probably help to get some of the shadow detail you already want in frame.
 
Shooting 1.4 with 1/48 shutter in 6k, you'll be able to push to 4000 ISO before the noise gets too overwhelming. You can probably get up to 6400 if you do noise removal. Be prepared for a softer image though.

Make sure you black shade for those settings! The sensor is sensitive when boosted that much.
 
ryan peters castañeda said:
would also have some hand held, like an LED light wand of some sort., something to get an eye light. I would also TEST the camera and lens in similar lighting situations, especially at ISO 800- see what combination works.
Click to expand...

Sage advice!

Niko Pueringer said:
Shooting 1.4 with 1/48 shutter in 6k, you'll be able to push to 4000 ISO before the noise gets too overwhelming. You can probably get up to 6400 if you do noise removal. Be prepared for a softer image though.
Click to expand...

After using the MX outside at night (also in the forest) I'm happily surprised that Dragon is useable up to 4000. I attached a frame from an MX shot last year, shot at f1.8, 1/48, ISO 1600. The scene was MUCH brighter to my eyes in person, but I think the shot worked for my purposes despite the fact that there is NO information in the shadows. That little spec of light in the middle is actually my (very bright) headlamp. If Dragon is really that much of an improvement, I'm psyched to revisit this in a few weeks. I wouldn't have pushed the MX past 1600.

Not to derail the thread, but does anyone have any experience using something like a 1DC in these conditions? I saw a video a while back (I can't find it now) of a guy shooting in Yosemite with moonlight only, and it looked amazing. The takeaway (at least for me) was that ISO 12800 was useable with only a little help - it looked about the same as 1600 on the MX.
 

Attachments

  • sunrise.jpg
    sunrise.jpg
    67.3 KB · Views: 0
Dragon is an ISO 250 sensor. You can underexpose it 1½ - 2 stops without much noise popping up depending on your exposure habits and the environment you are shooting in. ISO 6400: hahah. Reduser is the best advertisement platform for neat video.

---

Since over 100 years there has always been this rule: when there is not much light in the scene (low key) give the film-stock/sensor an extra bonus of light, eg. open the iris half a stop.

---

T 1.4 leads to a very shallow focus and only a few lenses are able to deliver a sharp image open this wide. The only ones I know and use are: MPs and Leica Summilux. Probably Cooke S5 will do fine as well.

My advice: bring some light to the set.





Hans
 
Shoot with Leica Summilux at T1.4, it's very sharp. Based on your movement of the camera/actor you could increase the shutter speed. Make sure the black shade is perfect, not "ok", but perfect, the noise at ISO12800 should be monochrome and even. Shoot at full resolution and expose as much as you can with what you have. I would still recommend some kind of ambient lightning.
Put it through neat video on the original r3d files or after a downscale to 4K DPXs. Use adaptive and 5 passes (if you want this to work you need to have the computer power for this procedure in 5 passes).

I've done this on a STH Dragon and it works, the LLO will work even better.
 
Get a 50mm f0.95 or F.1 or at vey worse 1.2 lens ... We use F.1's and get great low light performance from them. Remember to put in the low light OLPF as well. Not the Skin OLPF. 1.4 is not enough to really suck into the night. Ziess MKIII's are F1.2 they work well in low light.
I personally would push past 2000ISO on Dragon. if you want minimal noise.
Use a A7s for a (DARK) night shoots (shooting 4k onto a recorder) and you'll nail it, I've shot under moon light successfully.
Good luck.
 
Mark Toia said:
Get a 50mm f0.95 or F.1 or at vey worse 1.2 lens ... We use F.1's and get great low light performance from them. Remember to put in the low light OLPF as well. Not the Skin OLPF. 1.4 is not enough to really suck into the night. Ziess MKIII's are F1.2 they work well in low light.
I personally would push past 2000ISO on Dragon. if you want minimal noise.
Use a A7s for a (DARK) night shoots (shooting 4k onto a recorder) and you'll nail it, I've shot under moon light successfully.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if shooting with almost no light at all, the A7s is the way to go.
Which f0,95 or f1,0 lenses are you recommending?
 
A7S + recorder combo is frikkin amazing. Lifesaver for ultra low light scenes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top