Hi All,

I have finished performing a show at a stage with a full lighting system. We taped the show and when I looked at the tape afterwards, I looked like an icecream. With all the lighting on, the camera didn't pick up my facial features or proper skin tone too well. My face was just white on the camera(on the wide shots, the close up shots looked ok). I was wondering, for future reference, is there a setting on the camera that will get rid of the white on my face and make it look normal? I'm guessing that you adjust the settings of the camera to outdoor? I am using a Sony Camcorder. Thanks for your help!

Sammy

You should look in your manual and see if there's a Spotlight setting... it something that will let the camera adjust to that type of lighting in a theater.
Other than that it is always best to do a test shot of the place and the lighting situation that you will be peforming in then adjust the camera accordingly.
Greg

Welcome to the wonderful world of digital! The double edge sword known as digital video is a blessing (cheap video for the masses) at a cost (less contrast range than film).

The simple answer is to do as Greg mentioned. If your camera has a Spotlight setting, this will help a lot. While there is plenty going on in the 'brain' of the camera, the short answer is that the camera normally exposes several areas of the picture and compensates accordingly to make the overal picture look good. In a spotlight setting, the center is bright and the edges are dark. The camera bumps up the exposure, resulting in the white dot. The 'Spotlight' setting sets the center of the image as the priority for proper exposure.

Another (better) alternative is to set everything up to manual and do a test shot (as Greg mentions).

The best alternative (albeit, the most expensive) is to upgrade your camera. I would assume that you have a single chip camera. With a more expensive camera, the inner workings have three chips and they are larger in size (1/3" as opposed to the smaller 1/4" chips). The larger chips collect more light and allow you to record in low light situaltions much better than with a smaller chip.

Also, the fact that there are three chips allows your skin tones to look better. Each of the three chips on the better cameras is devoted soley to one primary color (red, green and blue). So you'll get better color along with better explosed pictures.

Hope this helps!

Warm regards,
Scott Sullivan

What is happening here is your camera is most likley set to auto iris . Which, as a professional cameraman, who has shot for almost every major network, is the worst thing you can do. The reason? Auto iris only calculates for the average amount of light entering the CCD in any given frame)In other words when on a wide shot the camera is seeing most likley 80% of the shot as the darkend area of the stage like the backrop or other unlit areas.It therefore compensates by opening up the iris and overexposeing your face.So your face is washed out. The close ups looks OK because there is a constant or more even light with in the frame so it calculates it as evenly lit and exposes it correctly. To test, place yourself in front of a large open window in day light hours you will see that the camera will expose for the day light and leave you the subject in a silhoutte.Again it is taking in the average amount of light in the frame NOT exposing the area that you want exposed.
The best soultion take it off Auto Iris and find a camera person who can expose the image using manual iris correctly. If your lighting is not changing during the show you can set the exposure before hand and never have to touch it.This will work with a single chip or 3 chip camera although I agree with the posts above you get what you pay for but using any auto function including the spotlight function is not as good as manual exposure provided you have acompetent cameraman or your lighting is not drastically changing.

Pm if you want more tips

SCott

Scott

Depending upon the amount and type of stage lighting that you are using, you may want to consider stage make-up.

Sammy, were you wearing stage make up when you filmed it? That could play a large role (in my opinion) to why your face did not show up.

Hi all,

Yes, I was wearing stage makeup. I was just at a show at the Winter Carnival of magic. It was a professional show, the performers wore stage makeup. There were live cameras on during the show. The image produced by the camera onto the projector screen was not unlike the images on my camera. There were washed out faces also. I belive the problem lies within the camera settings. Thank you all for your help and suggestions!

Sammy

You have pointed out the weakest link in the Country Theater Tonight facility. A multi-million dollar project and they used cameras from Circuit City. I spoke to one of the techs and was told they will be upgrading to professional cameras in the near future. Still, if the cameras aren't set properly, you get what you get.