Wsup ppl, I got a canon t4i and the two stock lens that came with it. I'm bettering myself with the camera but i got a quick question. When using video I want to make sure I get the most professional look I can with the t4i. I'm not sure if this is mainly a lighting or editing problem. When viewing my videos on the CPU the come out a little grainy. I'm sure I can figure this out on my own research bit I always like interactive advice. Any tips,help,advice, techniques would be highly appreciated.
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How do I get better quality?
- Thread starter Wesmith829
- Start date
your first mistake was not informing us of what system you have..
I have the t3i, i did a shoot just a couple of days ago images look good to me..
and also you need to give us a reference file to look at otherwise it could just be OTT OCD
I have the t3i, i did a shoot just a couple of days ago images look good to me..
and also you need to give us a reference file to look at otherwise it could just be OTT OCD
What ISO are you shooting at? That's usually the source of noise, and the only effective way of dealing with it is to add more light to your scenes when you shoot so you can keep it low.
Can you show some screens from what you say that is not so good? I think it will help people to help you.
Ill guess..
My guess is that lighting and set design are non existent in your films. Put time and money into both areas and your quality will go up.
My guess is that lighting and set design are non existent in your films. Put time and money into both areas and your quality will go up.
Important areas:
Light: As wheatgrinder points out, lighting design is unbelievably important. Photography is about light first, and composition second. Even the most amazing HD camera in existence will deliver substandard-looking footage if your lighting sucks.
Motion blur: Your shutter speed should (generally) be set to twice the speed of your frame rate. Shoot in 24p with a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second (as most DSLRs can't do exactly 1/48th of a second).
Exposure and Grain: Since your shutter speed is fixed, you can only control your exposure via aperture (size of the opening in the lens the light comes through) and ISO (the sensitivity-to-light/sensor-signal-amplification setting). Small aperture numbers (big opening) let in the most light, but gives you a narrower depth-of-field. A high-ISO number (high-amplification) lets you shoot in lower-light conditions, but also adds grain. Use the absolutely lowest ISO number you can get away with.
Native ISO: Canon cameras have "native" ISO settings of doublings of 100: 100, 200, 400, 800, etc. All of the in-between ISO settings are either the lower ISO number amplified (increases noise) or a higher ISO diminished (reduces noise, but highlights clip 1/3rd of a stop sooner). This is why you'll find less grain/noise at ISO 160 compared to ISO 100 -- it's actually the native ISO 200 setting de-amplified a bit. The rule is: one ISO click above a native ISO amplifies (more noise), and one ISO click below a native ISO de-amplifies (less noise, clippier highlights).
Depth of Field: If your aperture is wide open (tiny aperture number) on a low-light lens, your depth-of-field might be very, very narrow. This can result in the wrong parts of your image being out of focus. Example: I shot a short film in candlelight, and a few shots were done with an 85mm lens at f1.2. My depth of field on my main character was roughly half an inch. I had a hell of a time just keeping his eyes in focus.
Bitrate: The number of bits per second used to encode the video into the h.264 format. h.264 is extremely lossy (eg. throws away visual information), so always shoot at the highest bitrate you can. The default setting can get you blocky compression artifacts on smooth gradients, and most Canon DSLRs don't let you directly alter your bitrate. If this is the case with your camera, use the Magic Lantern firmware and the fastest memory cards you can afford -- it may take some trial and error to find the highest bitrate you can use that won't cause glitches in your footage.
Noise Reduction: Get NeatVideo. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Do calibration shots and save those settings. You can get very clear footage out of fairly grainy sources -- super important if you're forced to shoot in lighting conditions that require a high ISO setting.
Color Profile: You should be shooting in a flat color profile like Neutral, Faithful, Flatt, or CineStyle (those last two are third-party add-ons). This will give you the most latitude (detail-retaining areas from darkest to lightest) in post for color correction and grading. Also remember to set your white balance!
Light: As wheatgrinder points out, lighting design is unbelievably important. Photography is about light first, and composition second. Even the most amazing HD camera in existence will deliver substandard-looking footage if your lighting sucks.
Motion blur: Your shutter speed should (generally) be set to twice the speed of your frame rate. Shoot in 24p with a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second (as most DSLRs can't do exactly 1/48th of a second).
Exposure and Grain: Since your shutter speed is fixed, you can only control your exposure via aperture (size of the opening in the lens the light comes through) and ISO (the sensitivity-to-light/sensor-signal-amplification setting). Small aperture numbers (big opening) let in the most light, but gives you a narrower depth-of-field. A high-ISO number (high-amplification) lets you shoot in lower-light conditions, but also adds grain. Use the absolutely lowest ISO number you can get away with.
Native ISO: Canon cameras have "native" ISO settings of doublings of 100: 100, 200, 400, 800, etc. All of the in-between ISO settings are either the lower ISO number amplified (increases noise) or a higher ISO diminished (reduces noise, but highlights clip 1/3rd of a stop sooner). This is why you'll find less grain/noise at ISO 160 compared to ISO 100 -- it's actually the native ISO 200 setting de-amplified a bit. The rule is: one ISO click above a native ISO amplifies (more noise), and one ISO click below a native ISO de-amplifies (less noise, clippier highlights).
Depth of Field: If your aperture is wide open (tiny aperture number) on a low-light lens, your depth-of-field might be very, very narrow. This can result in the wrong parts of your image being out of focus. Example: I shot a short film in candlelight, and a few shots were done with an 85mm lens at f1.2. My depth of field on my main character was roughly half an inch. I had a hell of a time just keeping his eyes in focus.
Bitrate: The number of bits per second used to encode the video into the h.264 format. h.264 is extremely lossy (eg. throws away visual information), so always shoot at the highest bitrate you can. The default setting can get you blocky compression artifacts on smooth gradients, and most Canon DSLRs don't let you directly alter your bitrate. If this is the case with your camera, use the Magic Lantern firmware and the fastest memory cards you can afford -- it may take some trial and error to find the highest bitrate you can use that won't cause glitches in your footage.
Noise Reduction: Get NeatVideo. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Do calibration shots and save those settings. You can get very clear footage out of fairly grainy sources -- super important if you're forced to shoot in lighting conditions that require a high ISO setting.
Color Profile: You should be shooting in a flat color profile like Neutral, Faithful, Flatt, or CineStyle (those last two are third-party add-ons). This will give you the most latitude (detail-retaining areas from darkest to lightest) in post for color correction and grading. Also remember to set your white balance!
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Ok thnx for the advice but I think I should of her asking about color grading/correction. I've just started learning about this and I think this is what I was trying to get at. I have no experience in color grading and I'm basically teaching myself about it. I already posted a thread in another forum hopefully I can get some feedback. I'm always open to advice. Thanks
There are different white balances on your camera. Watch any tutorial on youtube and they will tell you how to get certain colors in camera. This will prepare you for the look that you want while shooting.
Waitaminit!
You can't change & set the shutter speed on Canon t4s, or all Canon DSLRs for that matter?
That's limiting.
I can on my 60D...
In fact, I did it accidentally the other day. I was just messing with the settings and started getting really strobing footage. Not sure why, I think I'd only taken it up to about 1/100! Dropped it back to 1/50 straight away!
You sure can adjust shutter speed on the Canon Rebels, yes, while shooting in Movie Mode.
With the optional ever-useful Magic Lantern, you can make even more precise adjustments to shutter speed than are included with the camera to start with.
I imagine Escher's comment is more along the lines of what value one shouldn't change, for a variety of reasons... resulting in the lead into the settings that are good to play with.
Hah! No no no, what I meant was, for proper motion blur at 24p, you have to set your shutter speed as close to 1/48 as you can, so it's "fixed". Sure you can change it, it's a friggin' DSLR, but then your motion blur won't be quite right, leaving you with just aperture and ISO for exposure alterations.
Oh, and ND filters. Handy if you want a shallow DOF when shooting in direct sunlight.
You can, but unless you are attempting to mitigate 60hz flicker or dealing with some obtuse frame rate, you really shouldn't muck around with it because it starts to make motion look "strange." Default to 1/(2x<framerate>) At 24fps that would be an ideal of 1/48th, which we all do as "50" on dslr (1/50th) since that is the closest available setting.
Edit:
In other words, what Escher said.
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