- Hey, guys, what's going on?
In this video, we talking about how you can shoot at night
and get little to no noise in your image.
(funky pop music)
Alright, I know this is a topic a lot of you
are interested in, how do you get an image at night
without getting a lot of noise?
Well, first, you need to understand
where the noise comes from, and noise in your footage
basically comes from bumping up your ISO.
So, what ISO is is basically how sensitive
your sensor is to light, and the more you bump up your ISO,
the more sensitive it is to light.
Basically, it takes less light to make an image,
so when you're thinking about exposure,
there's three things that affect it:
your shutter speed, your aperture, and your ISO.
So, it makes sense if you have a dark image
that you would just bump up your ISO,
because it can go up to 10,000, 25,000.
You know, these cameras nowadays can really bump up the ISO,
but then you get really, really noisy images.
Unless you're shooting on something like
the A7S or the A7S2, most of the time,
when you start bumping up and you get to these higher ISOs,
you're gonna get a very noisy image,
and so there's ways that you can actually use your camera
so you don't get noisy,
because most of us aren't shooting on these cameras
that can just suck in the light.
It's a very special, unique camera,
and there's a lot of other cameras out there,
and we need to be able to shoot at night.
So, the first thing is, to avoid noise,
is doing shoot above your base ISO,
so every camera has a base,
and so once you start going above that base,
you're introducing more noise into your image.
So, with the GH5, you don't wanna go above 800 ISO.
A lot of cameras, 800's kind of like
where you wanna stop at,
so I would say stick it at 800, do not go above that.
So, that's the first thing.
Everything else that we do with the camera
is going to allow us to bring more light into the sensor,
but not affect the actual ISO,
so you're not gonna introduce more noise.
So, if you're looking at the exposure triangle,
then next is shutter, and if you're thinking about shutter,
you don't wanna go above 1/60
if you're shooting at 30 frames a second,
or 1/48 if you're shooting in 24 frames a second,
and this is because as soon as you bump above that,
you're not going to have the motion blur
that looks cinematic.
Also, the higher you go in your shutter speed,
the darker your image is gonna get,
so you'd ask, well, why don't I open up more to 1/30?
Well, when you start reducing your shutter
and making it slower, you're introducing more motion blur,
so when you have an image that you're shooting at 1/30,
at 30 frames a second, and you move the camera fast
or you have something fast moving in the frame,
you're going to introduce a lot of motion blur,
and it's not gonna look very good.
So, you wanna stay at that shutter speed that makes sense
to get a cinematic image,
which is double that of your frame rate.
Now, if you do have a situation where
there's not a lot of movement,
you can bump up your shutter and go at like a 1/30
or a 1/24, depending on what you're shooting at,
and you'll be able to get a good image
and not see a lot of that motion blur.
It just depends on the subject that you're shooting,
so just keep that in mind.
Okay, so, let's talk about the third piece
of the exposure triangle, and that is aperture,
and the key with this is using those lenses
that have a wider aperture, and those are primes.
So, if you don't shoot on a lot of primes,
then you're using lenses that have slower apertures,
so it takes more light to expose your image,
which makes you bump up the ISO.
Personally, I love using primes,
because it not only allows you to get more light,
it gives you a shallower depth of field,
and it also forces you to think about what it is
that you're shooting a little bit more.
You have to go through that thought process of oh,
I need a 35 for this, I need a 50 for this,
I need an 85 for this,
instead of just putting on a zoom
and then just moving the zoom
back and forth to get your shot.
You actually have to put a little more thought into it,
so a side note, as film makers,
using primes makes us focus more on
what it is that we're shooting,
and we actually become better film makers
'cause there's more of a thought process
that goes into getting each of those shots.
However, when it comes to exposure,
using primes gives you that wide open aperture.
For example, with the GH5, I use lenses that go
as wide as a 1.2, and there's some Voigtlanders out there
that get a .95, and that will give you a ton of light
compared to your zoom lens,
that only opens up to say a 2.8 or a four,
so prime lenses are key.
Okay, so those are the settings
that you're gonna wanna use for a camera.
You're gonna wanna keep your ISO at its base.
You're not gonna wanna go above double that
of your shutter speed, and you're gonna wanna find lenses
that open up super wide, getting down to a 1.2, .95.
Whatever camera system you're using,
you're gonna wanna find the widest aperture lenses for that.
Okay, and then with that,
you'll be able to get some awesome footage.
However, you still can't shoot in like pitch black.
That's just not something you're gonna be able to do,
unless you have one of these crazy cameras
that can shoot in dark,
but that's a different thing entirely.
So, what you're gonna wanna do is,
when you're shooting at night,
you're gonna wanna find areas that have some light,
and so, when you find these areas that have light,
you'll be able to get an exposure using these settings,
and so you've gotta play with the light,
play with how the light is hitting your subject,
and then you can get some really cool footage.
If there's little to no lighting
in the places that you're shooting,
you're still not gonna get much of an image,
and you might say, well, what if I just bring it up in post?
Well, when you start introducing color grading
and you start introducing more exposure in post,
you're just gonna bring up the noise level,
and then your footage is gonna get super noisy,
so this comes down to my last point,
is that when you're shooting,
you wanna shoot for the color that you wanna use
in your final piece.
You're not gonna wanna shoot log with these cameras,
and then try to color grade it later,
so when you shoot log at night
and you're trying to color grade it,
you're actually introducing more noise into the image.
The more you color grade,
the more you play with the exposures,
the more noise you're gonna introduce into your image,
so ideally, you wanna shoot with a higher contrast
color profile in camera and do minor tweaks in post.
So, for example, on the GH5,
I shoot Cine-V when I'm at night,
and it gives a really nice image,
because the S-curve gives you those really dark darks
and it gives you those highlights,
so when you see it, it looks pretty good,
and all I have to do is minor tweaks
to get the image where I want.
In the past, I've tried to shoot log at night,
and every time I do, I just get so much noise,
it's not even worth doing.
Alright, you guys, so I hope these tips will help you
get better night footage.
You just gotta think of that exposure triangle.
Make sure you're optimizing your settings
so you're getting the best result out of your camera,
and then just make sure there is some light
in the scene that you're shooting.
You might even have to bring some light, and that's okay.
You can do that.
You can put a light in the scene and get that exposure,
but you need to have some light in the scene,
shoot a color profile that has a burnt in look,
that has a higher contrast,
and you'll get some awesome footage at night,
no matter what camera you're using.
Alright, guys, I hope this video was helpful
in getting you some awesome footage at night.
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Alright, that is it.
Thanks for watching, and guys,
I will see you on the next one.
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