Help with shooting indoors near windows?

[yukon33]

Hi - I hope this is the correct forum for a basic camcorder capturing question?

Hopefully all will know what I am talking about when referring to the changes from light to dark and back again when panning past a bright window from within a room?

This is obviously the camera making adjustments to deliver the most clarity during each stage of the pan.

What manual adjustments can I make to stop the camera changing the light levels as it passes a bright window? I appreciate that using a fixed setting within the room might make the room appear darker but the window normal and vice-versa (i.e. the room perfect but the window very bright), but I need to achieve this level of control and take it from there.

My camera I am about to use is a Canon XM2.

Appreciate any help with this.

Thanks in advance

[JohnnyMalaria]

The XM2 has extensive manual adjustment options, including exposure, shutter speed and aperture. Just set each function to manual and adjust according to your environment. Use the zebra pattern to assist getting the levels right.

[edDV]

Normal practice with a manual adjustment cam is to expose the foreground (window out of the shot) and hold that exposure as you pan across the window. It is true the window area will clip to 255 but you can fix that in post. Fancier camcorders like the the Sony PD-170 up have the famous "knee" that will manage that overshoot area down into the 235-255 range.

Pros would do one of two things or a combination of both.
1. Place large neutral density plastic sheets behind the window to stop the light down to the needed camera exposure.
2. Light the foreground to match the window spill light.

[daamon]

Depending on your shoot, a slower pan will give the camera time to adjust and the transition as the camera adjusts itself will still be obvious, but won't be harsh - it'll be a gradual adjustment.

[yukon33]

Thank you all for your replies - pretty much what I thought but very helpful in case I was missing something.

Practising with the camera on 'manual' settings, I think I can decide upon the right balance of exposure between the room interior and window.

However you could perhaps help me out further if I explain a little about what it is I am trying to achieve.

My filming project involves the coverage of several empty rooms in a house. This means I will be setting up on tripod in each room, manually setting the camera, and then making a series of pans and tilts throughout to give as much coverage as possible to these interiors.

So while it would be nice to avoid getting bright windows in shot altogether, you can see it is a necessary part of this project in order to display all the important aspects within the room (including windows).

Okay, so I will manually adjust the camera settings on the XM2 - my next question is: should I set the shutter speed, aperture and gain individually until it looks 'best', or simply adjust 'exposure' (which I understand is essentially all 3 together) and not worry about them individually?

My concern is that I do not currently have a lot of experience with shutter speeds and F-stops - I understand their concept and basic function, but do not know how they should work best together, for this particular project.

If I do choose to set these 3 individually, just so I'm armed with this info could you give an idea of the average/ideal shutter speed for shooting inside a room in good daylight ('normal' for PAL is 1/50?), and F-stop on the aperture (the camera seems to default at around 2.0 in its auto settings)?

Note I will be using a .5x wide angle lens, and I know focusing could be an issue - my absolute main priority is to sweep a room with as much as possible in focus, and maintain good lighting throughout (overbrightness of windows during passing excepted). Coverage must be impeccably smooth so I could not allow any side-effects to creep in through wrongly setting the exposure.

Thank you for any further help!

[edDV]

You need to experiment. I'd start with "exposure" but try to keep it constant for all the shots in a particular room.

I'd also get a fill light with variable control to light the interior to match the exterior. In other words, adjust the light for matching interior/out window exposure. Also avoid mid day strong sunlight.


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