Lighting problem

[samoyed]

Hi,

I am having a lighting problem with the videos I have taken.
For example, I shoot from left to right (180 degrees) under natural light inside a room.
The lights from the windows becomes glaring and blurs the video during the transition.
From an acceptable condition, it becomes very bright to the point of glaring then becomes dim and then to acceptable condition again.

I really don't know how else to describe or articulate the problem I am facing.
I hope someone understands what I am trying to say and help me out.

Thank You.

[Richard_G]

The reason for the hunting from bright to dim to normal is because the auto exposure in your camcorder can't cope with the rapid transition from one light level to another. You might be able to improve on it using manual exposure and changing it as the light level changes but that would take practice to get it anything like correct as you pan the camera. Even then, you'd never be able to get it perfect and it would always be noticable when there was light from the window in part of the shot.

[redwudz]

A couple of things you might try:

Eliminate or minimize the light from the window. Pull the shades or use some tinted window film. Or shoot when it's not so bright outside.

Or increase the interior brightness with a couple of video lights so it's about the same brightness as the window. The cheap quartz halogen lights from a hardware store will work in a pinch, but you need to diffuse their glare a bit.

Or simplest, don't pan across any bright windows.

[minidv2dvd]

you could either to shoot at night with just the interior lights, or use enough flood lights in the room to make it brighter than the light coming in the windows, to prevent the changes in exposure.

[samoyed]

Hi Richard_G, redwudz & minidv2dvd,

Thanks for sharing!

There are windows everywhere....I can't avoid them at all.
I am going to try your suggestions.

[edDV]

Hi Richard_G, redwudz & minidv2dvd,

Thanks for sharing!

There are windows everywhere....I can't avoid them at all.
I am going to try your suggestions.

Patient: Doctor it hurts when I do this.

Doc: Then don't do that.

A camcoder can capture about 10% of the natural light contrast at a time. It needs to adjust.

Don't pan from dark to light unless you have lit the scene or let the auto exposure adjust.

Best to not pan at all. Use a tripod and let the camcorder adjust before you hit record.