Setting up D5100 to film Toy Close Ups

modesthunk

Hi,

I'm trying to film toy reviews for Youtube. I've borrowed my dad's Nikon D5100 to do so. I've filmed with other camcorders before so I'm used to setting them up in terms of white balance, but I'm completely lost with the Nikon D5100. Here's what the footage comes out looking like -

As you can see it looks terrible. I've tried manually white balancing and changing the exposure, but the settings seem to constantly be on auto, even when the camera is set to manual. I've spent hours watching You Tube tutorials but I've had no joy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ohyeahar

Hi there! I’ve actually answered a similar question here in the forums a while ago. See here:
http://forums.cameratips.com/discussion/comment/5349#Comment_5349

modesthunk

Thanks, I'll give this a try when I get chance and see if it works. You have no idea how frustrated I was trying to white balance the camera and it just kept saying 'No'.

modesthunk

So I filmed some test footage using your advice, which was very helpful, and this is what I got:



It's still a little dark however. How can I make it so that the white is actually white and not grey? I've WB it using the white sheet in the video so there must be something I'm missing. Thanks.

ohyeahar

Your video was set to private, so it’s not accessible. Anyway, it sounds like you just need to boost the exposure. Use exposure compensation and try boosting it about +0.7-stop. Boost it more until it’s to your liking.

modesthunk

Thanks, I'll try playing with the exposure later tonight. I've changed the privacy settings on the video if you want to check it out. :)

modesthunk

Hey, so i've tried your tips out tonight, which are giving me much better results. However, I still can't get white to look white! I've been messing with the WB for ages and cannot get it any whiter. Here's the videos and a link to a photo of the screen so you can see exactly what settings I'm using.





http://startostartoys.tumblr.com/private/98339178409/tumblr_ncffq23I491rk918k

Again, thanks for the help.

ohyeahar

You’ve set your exposure compensation the other way. Your exposure compensation is at -0.7.
Try it at +0.7 and go up if necessary.

modesthunk

That's great! Tried it again this morning and finally got it to look like it does in front of the camera. Just one slight issue, the shutter speed always drops when I press record. It's 1/50 beforehand, but then drops down to 1/40 or lower when I start recording. Is there a way to prevent this? Ideally I need it to be at 1/50.

Many thanks.

ohyeahar

If you locked the exposure settings before pressing the red record button, the shutter speed shouldn't change (steps 3 and 10 of my other post).
Anyway, what you can always do is just bump up the ISO just a tiny bit more.