Need Help With Prosumer Camcorder Settings. Quick!?

Question

I've got a Canon GL2 and I'm shooting a wedding at the beach tomorrow. What would look better:

1/720 shutter

8.0 f stop

No (internal) neutral density filter

or

1/60 shutter

8.0 f stop

Internal neutral density filter

Normal video is 1/60, but 1/720 doesn't look bad either. Also, I'm not sure if the ND filter on the Canon GL2 is a real or digital filter (though I think it's real because you can hear something click when you turn it on or off)

Answer 1

Good question. In my opinion, if the wedding is indoors, you will not need the neural density filter anyway. If you do have to use it, don't worry, it is very good on the GL2

Regarding your question on the aperture/ shutter settings, that is very hard to answer. Sometimes, a shutter speed that is too high for the amount of light in the environment you are shooting in, the picture will look grainy. In other words, a high shutter speed in a low to medium lit room will be grainy. However, since you are shooting at the beach, I expect you to be outdoors some, if not all of the time. In that case, 1/720 will look great! In fact, it may be necessary, as f8 at 1/60 shutter may be too bright (unless you use the ND filter). My only concern would be if you are going to be switching indoors to outdoors quite a bit, you would need to take the time to adjust the shutter.

      Side note: I do have one more piece of advice for you. Judging by your question, I can tell you are very meticulous to manual settings. That is a great quality for any videographer (I love manual controls too). However, I have shot quite a bit of live events, and I definately recommend keeping the focus on automatic. It would be terrible if your footage was out of focus. Of course, that is just a suggestion, so if you feel comfortable with manual controls on the fly, then don't let me stop you. Good luck, and have fun!

Answer 2

Nikolai's suggestion about going auto is a good one.

If you want to go manual, I'd only add that since you are shooting on a beach, you accept all of the camera's auto settings (w/b, focus, ND, etc.) except for exposure.

Lighting might be on the harsh side.  Rather than messing with the shutter speed (which could lead to some odd-looking results), keep an eye on the exposure setting and make tiny adjustments as you shoot.

Try turning on the zebra stripes and adjusting it for the scene (probably set to 100).  Wherever you see the stripes in the viewfinder, it's overexposed (no data), so you want to keep that to a minimum.  You're going to want to make sure the bride's and the groom's faces are correctly exposed, even if it blows-out the background (you can get scenic stuff before and after).  Get as close to the bride and groom as you can without family members throwing shoes at you. ;)

Don't forget to monitor the exposure setting though.  Or if you think you won't be able to, set it for whatever light you'll have on their faces during the vows.

The big problem I've had shooting on the beach wasn't video...it was audio.  If there's any way you can put a wireless mic on the bride and/or groom, do it.  Otherwise, the wind and the surf will destroy your audio, especially when the bride and groom get all emotional and start saying their vows in really quiet voices.