HELP Canon XF105

[Kim2803]

Hi

I'm relatvely new to filming and my new workplace has a Canon XF105.

I need to film a large about of footage against a green screen... here's my set up.

We've just bought this new kit which includes 4 x 85 Watt 5500k Day Light Bulbs.

The reason fro purchasng the new kit was because a previous filming session resulted in poor quality footage - green screen was really dark and lights minimal. Additioanlly i was shotting in auto mode so movement resulted in an awful blur.

So, hense the new kit, plus a large amount of time looking at different set-ups, lights and camera settings.  This is what working with at the moment...

• Changed my Bit Rate / Resolution from: 35 Mbps 1920 x 1080 to 50 Mbps 1920 x 1080
• Frame rate from 50i to 25p
• Made sure my premiere settings matched my footage settings
• Positioned my subject three feet from the background
• Light the green background and subject separately
• Changed from auto focus to manual focus
• Gain set to low
• Manually change white balance to 5500k
• Changed shutter speed to 1/50

But my footage is still really grainy and blured - any advice anyone has i would be really grateful!

Many thanks in advance, a novice videographer!

[Tim]

Hello Kim2803, 

If the footage is grainy then there isn't enough light getting in.  You're probably going to need brighter lights because 1/50th of a second is low and is the reason you're getting blur.  Cameras always need a lot more light than you might think as they perceive light differently than our eye would.  It may help if you set the gain to M and then fine tune it to adjust the specific scene you are shooting as well.  

[Kim2803]

Hi Tim

Thank you so much for geting back to me.  I will change my gain settingto M and give it another try prior to filming on Thursday!

I really appriciate your help!

Best wishes,

Kim 

[BurnUnit]

Is it possible that those umbrellas are reflecting more light away from your subject rather than toward it? Might you be better off using those two lights with reflectors pointing forward, or maybe even turning the umbrellas around and getting more reflected light on your subject?

[Kim2803]

Thank you that's a brilliant suggestion - I'll try it out this afternoon!

[BurnUnit]

I'm a novice too when it comes to video cameras, so any advice I come up with is based mostly on my experience with still photography. So don't take any of it as gospel, just some simple, basic changes that you might experiment with. I looked at some of the specs for the Canon XF105 and it appears to be a pretty serious chunk of gear. A bit of a learning curve, for me at least, but should be more than capable of the task. Do you at least have some background experience working with still photography?

As Tim mentioned above, photography loves light. But video really seems to drink it up. If you're worried about using too slow of a shutter speed, don't forget that you can possibly also open up the aperture a bit to suck in some more light if you're shooting in manual exposure mode. But like with still photography it will also reduce your depth of field. Though that may not be that much of a concern for shooting against a green screen.

Are those CFL lamps in your photos above or some type of LEDs?