White balance is usually done the same no matter what... you hold up something WHITE in the same Environment that you will be shooting in, Fill the frame with the White, and hit White Balance on your Camera. It then adjusts for what White is under your lighting conditions.

To truly know that your captured image looks as you want it to... you would need to use a calibrated monitor (set up correctly) to view the resulting image. Some people use OnLocation for this.
The Color Bars are used with a Calibrated Monitor. They are for getting your colors to look as they should when captured with your camera. Both White Balance & Color Bars are what you do/use BEFORE you start Recording.

Zebra Stripes are for EXPOSURE - They tell you if your picture is too Bright. 'Zebra Stripes' will appear on your Camera's ViewScreen in areas that are Over Exposed or Too Bright. You then adjust according to what your desired look is.

- Bad thing for you is that you're on a New Camera that you don't know and you will probably not have a calibrated monitor to view/setup your camera.
- Bad thing for the Couple getting Married is... you have no idea what you're doing.

My suggestion would be to use a Camera that you are used to until you have adequate time to play with & learn this camera. You just may ruin someone's other wise perfect day by delivering a bad video. Remember: You can't stop the wedding and have them 'Kiss again'. It truly is a 1shot deal.

Premiere Pro & FCP both have a nifty lil feature as to where you can apply a ColorCorrection Filter and select what should be White in your video... the rest is calculated and usually looks pretty good. I tend to use it a lot when I have mixed lighting and White Balance seems to be off.

Good Luck!

Another question...this is the first time I'm using HD...

How does that effect what kind of media you burn the final project on?

Will Vegas 6 work with HD?

And if you have any other important information about HD that I need to know, please share....I know I haven't thought of everything.

Thanks again,
Leslie

HD... you will need to figure out what they will be watching it on.
I can't count the times that clients have asked for HD only to find out that they can't even view HD except as a file on their computer.

If you are delivering HD... you would need to burn with HD Capable Hardware & Software.
If you search the web... you may find a workaround for Delivering HD on a Standard DVD, but I'm not sure how reliable it is.

Since you have till tomorrow... I would run outside and shoot a few minutes of clips and try to ingest them into V6 and make sure you can edit them. I would also test out the White Balance - Outside & Inside to make sure you've got it down before show time.

Ok, the wedding is my sister's. I have a consumer level camera that I have used up until this point. It does not do well in low light conditions such as where the wedding will be. Which is why we rented a professional level camera in addition to the fact that I am looking to buy one but am not ready to buy just yet. She did not hire a professional wedding videographer because of the budget (I'm not being paid but am doing for her) and if I hadn't agreed wouldn't have video at all. I am using the other camera as back up. She understands the risks and is ok with them. And I'm doing my best to learn the camera as quickly and thoroughly as possible (seeing as to how it is rented and I just got it in), so that I can provide her with the best video possible.

Thank you for all the information...it was helpful.
Leslie

One more question...about zebras...is there a specific setting I should have on the Zebras for the XH-A1 in a low light situation (wedding)?

Thanks,
Leslie

Zebras are basically used to indicate over exposure. Not a problem in inadequately lit situations. Set to 100 and adjust aperture to have only the barest zebras in brightest parts of the image.
Remember that you can use the camera in fully auto mode, which I would suggest you employ unless you do actually get to grips with the camera before you start shooting. The more versatile the camera the worse the mess you can make if you don't know what you're doing.
There are many things to watch in setting exposure, particularly shooting a wedding in a church:
1) traditionally the bride wears a white gown with important detail -- do not over expose that or you lose detail that the bride wants to see.
2) traditionally the groom and groomsmen wear dark, and if you under-expose them they appear dressed in noisy coal sacks.
3) the church windows and doors look onto daylight (sun) and you cannot avoid over exposing those (zebras all over) if you're satisfying 1 & 2. Such windows cause problems in full auto, tending to determine camera parameters and pumping exposure if they get into shot.

There are other traps also to using full auto, where the camera selects its own white balance, shutter, aperture, gain and focus. Obviously, as you've already noted, WB must be appropriate for the lighting and you don't want that varying (a fixed error is easier to correct than variations from shot to shot). Shutter should be locked to1/60. Gain should be set by you. The camera has 36dB available, which may be very noisy and you should avoid any more than 9dB, if possible. First choice is opening up the aperture, and never close to higher f/number than f/5.6 if possible. If at max aperture the image is still underexposed, increase gain in 3dB steps. If you need more than 9dB, two choices: 18dB (noise probably acceptable if exposure adequate); use slower shutter (1/30 gives an extra stop) -- in some circumstances you can go slower, but you need to know how that will look. Don't forget the ND filters, which will be first gross adjustment to exposure.

In low light focusing is critical because depth of field is small. It is also critical in HD because you can really see when it is out of focus, which has trapped many changing from SD to HD. Auto-focus may or may not be reliable, particularly in low light, and you need to test (try subject with sharp detailed wall behind). The camera does not have peaking to indicate sharp focus (I believe) and the bad news is that the LCD really isn't adequate for accurate focusing. You can zoom out to max focal length, focus, and zoom back to the frame you want, but that works only if the lens holds focus through the zoom range.

Although you're not being paid and it is for your sister, I wouldn't see this as any grounds for complacency. A client might spread "don't use that guy", but you'll see your sister quite often. Or not, depending on how well you do the job.

wow serena, that was one great explanation, (which, if you don't mind, i'll use with my students), but i have the feeling that it's rather like telling you're field officers where the gun emplacements are just as you're going over the top.....

leslie, i can well understand you wanting to do the best, and doing it with the best tools available, but i think you're cutting it pretty fine. the canon is a great camera, but it isn't a particularly friendly point and shoot. auto will suffice i would think, but next time, give yourself some breathing space,

good luck

another leslie

sure thing, Leslie (ushere). Everything posted here is in the public domain anyway! I like your analogy.

Leslie (ushere) I agree with you - 100%. And you know what, LeslieD, it IS your sister's wedding. Do us ALL a favour, please, and relax, and YOU enjoy it too!

I also agree with you on the highly professional points that were made here.

If there is ONE project that will push and extend a "shooter's" competence, then that HAS to be a Wedding - and all in real time and NO second takes. Mixed light sources; Black versus white; detail on potentially over bright fabrics; audio all over the shop; irritating the attendees, the list is humongous!

My supportive advice would be to go with what you know and then next time prepare in a goodly way for "another" one.

I did 3 seasons of Weddings. And as a result I have the greatest of respect for those true pros out there who do immensely great work. And for those who THINK they do, I have the lowest opinion which is only slightly higher than those who have a low opinion of Wedding Pros. Great Wedding Shooters are immensely talented. When this is combined with creativity they often pull off some amazing scenes indeed.

My advice? Get close in, and stay with the Bride as often as possible; DO get the Parents and Grandparents; lotsa B-roll and reactions! Oh and don't forget the lil people either!!!

. . in any event, this info will be too late for our chum here, most probably the day has started . . .


Grazie

LeslieD, I am sure you realise how helpful this forum is. Please let us know how it went. The Canon XH-A1 is a great camera though, but it needs to be used to it's full potential.

Here's to a bright videographing future!

Leslie, Ive got 2 canon xh-a1s and it does have 'peaking' on the lcd,
there is a small button on left hand side of the body that switches it on.
serenas advice was spot on otherwise
You really need that on otherwise your focus is going to be impossible if you are filming in HD. (once converted to sd its less obvious though)
The flip side to that is the camera cannot display zebra patterns and peaking at the same time.
A good option for you would be to switch the camera to TV mode on the dial on left hand side.
This will select shutter priority and then you can just press the Auto exposure lock button to give you a ball park exposure. you can still change it manually if you want with the lens.
TURN OFF auto gain! its on the left hand side..very important and easy to miss.
This way you can leave peaking on all the time.
The canon has a terrible LCD IMHO but constant use of it does help, unfortunately you dont have time for that.
The auto focus is poor IMHO and i hardly ever use it however one option is to press the instant auto focus button (holding it in) until the camera focuses and then releasing it back into manual.
This way you only have two buttons to worry about i.e instant focus and auto exposure.
Oh yes try to keep the camera around F4 to F5.6 that is definately the sweet spot. use the ND filters(switch on left hand side) .
Good luck its a great camera, just has its issues (no perfect camera though)

Probably too late, but Zebra for many cameras can be set to come on at different levels, usually at 70% or 100%.

If the camera's zebra sensitivity is set to 100%, when you see them on the monitor that means your white levels are at full saturation--right at the top of the wave form monitor. To open the iris any more will mean highlights will be blown out.

Zebra set to 70% sensitivity is just about where face exposure needs to be. Thus, if zebra is set to 70%, you open the iris until the subject's face is full of zebra. That should be about the right exposure.

Safest thing for a new camera being used in an important event is to go Full Auto and let the camera figure it out.

Downside is that a wedding is about the most contrasty situation you can find yourself in and is difficult to shoot under any circumstance.

I still wouldnt recommend full auto for a wedding as they are usually dark and the canon will bump up the gain ruining the footage.
Best option is Tv mode. then only 2 buttons to worry about, that is assuming your filming in interlaced not progressive, which I wouldnt recommend with the Canon if you havnt used it before.
cheers john

Wow. Serena, that was a great explanation! I'm going to have to save that one.

Ushere.... I loved the gun emplacements analogy.

Now LeslieD, we'll all interested to know how well you succeeded.

Glad to hear this wasn't a paid gig. I'd hate to hire a videographer who was so unfamiliar with camcorders and HD.

You already explained everything, so I'm not picking on you. Just sayin'.

Whatever you do, don't use the "Auto".

Use the "Easy Auto" instead!

These Canon consumer cams crack me up. As if Auto were not enough, they have to add Easy Auto.

The XH-A2 will be upgraded to "Super Easy Auto". Hah!

Actually, I am not at all "anxious" about you coming back here and telling me about your outcome - favourable or not, success or partial. You come back here when you are comfortable, good and proper to do it - there is no pressure from me - period.

When you are ready, that'll be good enough for me.

You take your time.

Grazie

Grazie, you are a gentleman.

I registered at another forum several weeks ago and asked a simple question, and got my head chewed off for "being so stupid" and "why didn't you do a search for this before posting". I had in fact done a search, but there was no answer that came close. When I explained this, I was told "nobody ever asked that question like that, so why did you ask in such a stupid way". I guess the reason my question was stupid was because I had used the correct terminology, instead of calling something a "thingy" - who knows.

Needless to say . . . . . . I feel warm and fuzzy here.

Thank you to everyone for your very helpful responses! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write back, I've been exhausted, not only from being in charge of the filming of this wedding but also because I had to help host, plan, etc. I am barely getting back at it now.

Renting a camera was nice because I got to try it out and see if that's the camera I would like to buy. It was also quite stupid because I had limited time to learn how the camera works and lots of pressure. Plus, I didn't think of this before the wedding, but right after remembered that because I recorded in HD, I would have to capture that footage on my computer using the camera before I sent it back. Thankfully, I got that done!

Because I was in the wedding, I didn't actually do the filming, but instead hired a friend of mine (they are really any professionals here) that has some minimal experience with being a camera operator, but also has a similiar creative eye to mine. Thankfully, his experience was with a Cannon GL2! So he already understood the layout of a Cannon and was able to easily adapt to the XH-A1. He came with a lot more knowledge of cameras and how they work than I expected...and together we were able to figure it out.

I haven't begun to work with the video in Vegas, but did check it out during capture. It looked great! The wedding was in my house...I've never had video turn out light enough in our house. But I set the white balance manually and adjusted everything....it came out perfect! I have no compliants. There were a couple of times the camera got out of focus, but it was minimal and I think I can deal with it. I used the sennheuser g2 series to capture the audio in addition to a zoom h2 on the pastor and a shotgun mic. The audio was crystal clear! I can definitely work with this quality of video.

A few questions: I took the video into vegas and vegas doesn't seem to be able to handle it. I am still using Vegas 6, but have heard that you'd want to update to Vegas 8 if you are using HD. Is that true? As it is, Vegas is crashing alot. Any other ideas as far as why that would be and what I need to do about it?

Thanks for all your help! And again, I appreciate all the posts to help me figure out how to use the camera.

Does anyone have the XH-A1? I'm thinking about buying that camera for event videography...Anybody know of any other cameras that are better in that price range?

Thanks again,
Leslie

Yep, I have an XH-A1, LOVE it! I'd like to purchase a second when I can, very versatile. I've shot only HD, even when my final output will be SD, which looks great. If a customer wants an HD version later, I have the tape and can provide it.

Congratulations on a good job. I had great sympathy for you struggling up that learning curve, but I think it wasn't such a struggle, after all. Clearly you have quite good grounding in the art.
Vegas 6 was the first version to handle HDV and it was rather sluggish at it. If I recall correctly it needed Cineform intermediates (was then called Connect HDV now http://www.cineform.com/products/NeoScene.htmNeoscene[/link]) to do it at all well and many people employed proxies in editing (see VASST http://www.vasst.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=129&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=66Ultimate S[/link]). If you're continuing with HD then upgrading to Vegas Pro 8 is probably worthwhile. That upgrade will be sufficient, but you might wish to consider also the extra facilities offered by Ultimate S and NeoScene.