Back To Basics: 3 Tools For Perfect Video Exposure

On this video by Greg from LensProToGo we get back to basics looking at three of the most common exposure tools that can help you with setting up your shoot.

The three tools are Waveforms, Zebras and False Color all three give you information about the exposure of your image but they do so in a different way and each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Waveforms are pretty general in terms of the specific location of the over/under exposure and although they are fast to read the amount of info that they are giving the user isn’t huge.

Zebras can give you location specific information and you can set zebras to show different levels of exposure (say 70% or 90% or 100% if you want to see total blown up parts) but with zebras you only get the stripes when you reach that level and you have no idea what happens with the rest of the image in terms of exposure.

Here is where false colors come into use. False colors gives you exact location and level of exposure for each point on in your shot – this is very useful and you can even change the specific colors in some devices (keep in mind that not every monitor has false colors and very few cameras have them). If you are not used to false colors they can also be a bit complex to read and not everybody needs all that information all the time.

You can watch more HDSLR and video techniques on our dedicated HDSLR channel here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.