Hey guys, I'm Criss.
Exposing correctly is the first thing that
you need to pay attention to.
Exposure, color correction and color grading
are strongly connected to each other.
You cannot color correct or you cannot grade
a blown
out footage in the highlights for example,
because those pixels are lost.
Same thing if you underexpose and you have
complete black areas in the frame.
If you try to raise the exposure in post production,
you will
introduce a lot of noise.
In some cases these mistakes can ruin your
shots or the client's shots.
Eventually, you will lose money or you will
have to reshoot.
You need high end cameras that shoot raw,
to be able to to recover information from
a shot that wasn't exposed correctly.
While most of the cameras don't record in
raw format, you need to expose well in the
camera.
In this video I will explain how to expose
your videos correctly using 5 >different tools
that you can find in your camera or an external
monitor.
So what are the 5 powerful tools can you use
to expose for video?
A Histogram, a Grey card, that's actually
a physical thing, Zebras, Waveform scopes
and False color.
Let's say you're just starting out, and you
don't have the money yet to buy an external
monitor, but you have a decent camera, a DSLR
or a Mirrorless.
Some cameras have a histogram only, like my
Canon EOS R. And that's a nice tool to have
when you're just starting out, but it's not
so precise like the next ones that I will
talk about in this video.
Anyway, the histogram is the first tool you
need to understand.
It can offer you a good starting point, to
make sure you avoid having pure black or pure
white
pixels in your shot.
Don't judge your exposure just by looking
at your LCD screen on the back of the camera,
you can be tricked so easily, especially when
you shoot video on a sunny day, on a bright
day.
So very simply explained, the exposure on
a histogram
is represented by some mountains and hills.
Let's take this indoor shot as an example.
On the left side you will have the shadows,
the midtones in the center and the highlights
on the right side.
You don't want to expose your shot on the
far left like this, because you will have
pure black pixels in the image.
You also don't want to expose to the far right
completely because you will have pure white
areas which you can't recover.
Your exposure should look something like this,
where you don't lose any details in the shadows
or highlights, so you can tweak them more
easily in post production.
Because you shoot video, I recommend you to
change the exposure by either changing your
ISO, by adjusting the power of the light,
or by changing the aperture value.
The shutter speed should always be locked
in at double of your framerate.
I mostly shoot in 24 fps so the shutter speed
will always be at 1/50 of a second.
I mentioned the grey card as another tool
to set the exposure on video and this is what
I use for a while now.
It's the SpyderChecker from Data Color, a
very precise tool for both photography and
videography that will help you set the exposure
and white balance as well.
The coolest thing is that I can flip one of
these charts and on the back I will find this
bigger 50% grey card that helps me find a
good exposure when recording video.
So with the shutterspeed and aperture locked
in, I set the ISO on auto, fill in the entire
frame with the 50% grey part and half press
the shutter button on my Canon Camera.
As you can see the ISO value appeared on the
bottom right and now I can set it manually
to be at this constant value while filming.
Keep in mind that the grey card needs to be
in the same environment where you are recording
your video and if you change locations you
will need to use it again if the lighting
conditions change during this time.
Now.. the following tools that I will talk
about next are not available on my Canon EOS
R and this is why I use an external monitor
connected to the camera.
It's called Andycine A6 Plus and it has zebras,
waveform scopes and false color.
All these tools are more precise than a histogram
in my oppinion so if you have the money consider
investing in a monitor like this and you won't
regret it.
It's far more cheap than other monitors, but
it does the job really well so I'm happy that
I own it.
By the way I will link all the products that
I talk about in this video down in the description
so you can check them out.
So let's talk about Zebras.
Zebras allow you to see what parts of your
image are too bright.
As you can see in this example zebras are
present in the frame and that means I have
over exposed areas.
The coolest thing about this tool is that
you can set different values for it, different
threshhold values.
For example, on the monitor, I can set values
between 1 and 100%, but I will set it to 95%,
because if I have bright objects in the scene
and I would like to avoid overexposing them.
When these stripes are visible on the monitor,
it's more like a warning, it means that those
areas are now over 95% brightness.
So I will need to dial down my exposure just
until I have the minimum amount of zebra stripes
on my monitor and this way I ensure that my
exposure is right.
You can also use zebras to expose your skin
properly.
I usually expose my skin between 60-70%.
So I set the threshhold to 70% for Zebras
and when I start to see stripes on my face,
that means I have a good exposure for my skin.
Keep in mind that everybody's skin has a different
brightness, so I recommend you to check out
the exposure chart made by Ansel Adams where
you will find more info about how you should
expose for different things including skin.
Unfortunately Zebras are not available in
the Canon EOS R, but they exist on Sony cameras
for example or the Panasonic GH5 and other
cameras as well so tell me in the comments
what camera do you use for film making and
if you have zebras in the menu.
Also drop a like if you find value in this
video.
Ok, next on the list is Waveform Scopes and
I use this a lot.
It's kinda simmilar to the histogram, but
it's not.
Because Waveform Scopes not only allow you
to check if your exposure is correct on a
vertical axis, the highlights at the top and
the shadows at the bottom, but it will show
you a clear representation on the graph where
the overexposed or the underexposed object
is in the frame.
So if you have the sun or a bright object
in the scene in the left part of the frame
for example, it will appear on the Waveform
in the same area and this is super helpful.
Waveform Scopes is actually a very helpful
tool that you will find in video editing software
like for example Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve
and Final
Cut.
However, you should not rely on software and
you should make sure you expose your clips
properly in camera and then make small adjustments
in post production!
Let's talk about the False Color tool.
This is another very helpful tool that you
will find on external monitors like the Andycine
A6 Plus.
This tool may look unnatural to you when you
see it for the first time, but It's really
really
powerful.
False Color is showing you different colors
for every exposure value in the frame.
As an example I know that my skin sits around
the 60-70 value for exposure.
When using False Color I have this representation
of the values and colors at the bottom, so
for my skin as an example, the 70% value is
represented by the grey color.
If I overexpose the shot, you can see that
my skin becomes yellow so it's not properly
exposed.
But if I bring the exposure down a bit until
my skin becomes grey in the majority of the
parts, this means I have a good starting point,
this means I have
a good exposure for my skin.
So make sure you pay attention to your frame
and scene before hitting the record button
and try to use one of these powerful tools
to expose your shots correctly in camera because
this will help a lot in post production, this
is the first step that you need to do.
The second that you need to do is to learn
how
to color correct your footage so you should
watch this video right here and then you should
learn how to color grade your footage and
you could watch
this tutorial right here.
So..I'm Criss, thanks for watching and see
you in the next video!
