Shadowing Practice: ZV-E10 Low Light - Best Picture Profile - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hi guys, do you own a Sony APS -C camera

and you're wondering what is the best picture profile to use in low light?

Well, me too!

So I made a video.

Let's talk about it.

So I was actually about to make a video comparison between the little ZV -E10, my little dougie, and my fancy A7 -4, Mr. Harvey, that you're looking at right now.

And I am still going to make that video.

I don't care if it's fair or not to the ZV -E10.

Plus, you might be surprised by little Dougie, I actually already compared him to the juggernaut of low light,

the A7C, and also an iPhone 13 Pro I threw in there as kind of a barometer.

And that will be over my left shoulder.

You can click on that video after you've watched this one, of course.

But I actually wondered, before I did that test, what is the best possible situation for the ZV -E10 in terms of picture profiles?

Because personally, I always use HLG3, and I overexpose, and I use a Paul Leeming LUT, and I love the way my footage looks from the ZV -E10.

But that will give you great dynamic range in a good lighting situation.

But what about a bad lighting situation where it's very dark and dynamic range isn't the issue?

The issue is how does it look in the dark?

And you also have to remember the picture profiles, they are not set in stone, they're just settings.

Sony gave you 10 options and said, hey, why don't you try these?

You can manipulate them as much as you want.

You can change picture profile one to match all of the other picture profiles if you felt like it.

And this video is not about zooming into the corners and finding out which one has the most amount of noise.

It's which picture profile is the most usable when it comes to very low light situations.

Because I don't know if you've watched a Netflix documentary, but my wife makes me watch them every now and again.

And there are people, they're filming in like bunkers and tunnels and basements, and they don't have any light at all.

And if they had watched this video that was not out yet when they made their documentary,

they would know which picture profile they could use in those tunnels because I don't know what you're shooting, right?

Maybe you found the lost tomb of Adolf Tutankhamen and you have no choice.

You have no lights down there, you know, and maybe if you turn on a light, a mummy strangles you.

So, you know, this video will help you not be strangled by a mummy.

So there are some things that can help you set yourself up for success in low light.

And number one is get yourself a fast lens.

I have the Sigma 16mm f1 .4 lets in a huge amount of light that will help you very much.

You open that lens up as much as you can all the way down to 1 .4.

Number two, shoot in the highest resolution possible with the highest bit rate possible.

Shoot in 4K and I like to shoot in 24, 24 frames per second at 100 megabits.

If you're in the PAL region, shoot at 25 at 100 megabits per second and also shoot in manual mode.

You can do shutter priority if you want

and set your shutter speed to one over 50

and the camera will take care of the rest

but i find it's just easier to do manual mode

so put your shutter speed one over 50 put your uh frame rate at 24

or 25 100 megabits per second in 4k turn the detail

down to minus seven in all of your picture profiles whatever

picture profile you want to use use minus seven detail and

that way you know you can sharpen in post later

if you want but you may find in very low light situations

that you don't want to sharpen in post because that'll just increase the noise and the grain and the artifacts.

So sometimes it's better just to leave it off.

And if you want to sharpen, you can later, at least you have the option.

And I'll take you into the menu for the other things here.

Go to your metering mode here on page six of 11 in tab one.

You see metering mode here is at multi.

Now I like to, oh, look at all those cables.

Don't look at that.

I like to go into the metering mode

and put it on center in the nighttime when you're out and you just want to do your face there,

then it's good to just do the center so that the whole screen isn't being metered because that will confuse.

You can use the spot metering as well, but you gotta make sure the dot is in the right place or that may mess up your camera as well.

So I like to do center metering if I'm shooting people

because then the people are usually in the center of the frame, especially if I'm vlogging and I have my gorgeous face in the center of the frame.

And also with the focus area, I like to use flexible spot for this thing here.

So here's the focus area.

I just pressed the FN menu on the back of the camera and in the focus area here, instead of wide, I turn on flexible spot.

And then you see you can move the flexible spot

and I put that there on my face

because the camera has a hard time focusing in really low light

and you will help it out if you're trying to do autofocus by putting that flexible spot on.

But with the Sony camera, you can also tap to focus on the screen so

if you have that enabled you can just tap on the screen in the place

that you want to focus that'll do it too you also may just want to use manual focus

because the camera even if it's locking focus on your face it will still be hunting

because it's struggling in the night you will see the lights

in the background of the images i will show you they're pulsing in

and out in and out

because the camera is trying very hard to keep focus it

does keep focus very well on my face in most situations

but it's definitely you can see the pulsing so

if you don't want that set it on manual

when you're in these extreme low lights and

when it comes to iso i was using auto iso in the situation

but here's the thing uh here you see that is

that 32 000 that is not the default it the default

that it comes on is i think was it yeah it's 6400

and what you want to do is make sure that your ISO auto minimum is down to 125 and your maximum

goes all the way to 32 ,000.

That will allow your camera to adjust the ISO really really

high well up to 32 ,000 on this camera instead of the default 6400

which won't get you very far in very dark situations.

So now let's move on to the test.

First I will show you on screen all of the images at once

which won't really be that much help

because they're going to be little small squares and especially

if you're looking at your little blackberry

or whatever phone you have you're not going to be able to tell what the hell is going on now

if you're watching on a big screen tv get your 80

inch screen tv you might be able to see some differences

so go watch this video on your big fancy tv

and i'm going to put up uh 12 boxes

100

because i'm also going to use picture profile off

101

but i will also use another picture profile the last one hlg3

102

because that's what i normally use HLG3 with the Paul Leeming LUT you know

103

and just in case

104

that is the best picture profile to use in low light

105

spoiler alert it is not now this is not how I'll be showing you these images

106

because as you can see the log footage is gray

107

and the HLG footage is blown out

108

because they need to be converted to a rec 709 timeline

109

so I will and I also need to adjust the exposure for a few of the other profiles

110

so I will be showing you an overview that looks more like this.

111

Now here I've applied LUTs to the S -Logs and the HLG3s

112

and I have adjusted the exposure to all of the picture profiles I think starting at picture profile 3.

113

Picture profile off 1 and 2 I have done no corrections to whatsoever.

114

So all of these were at ISO 2000 which is already quite a low light situation.

115

I will show you a few seconds of each of them now full screen.

116

Now Now, to me, I like picture profile off one and two the best when it comes to this.

117

The HLG3 was okay, but it lost a lot of detail.

118

If you compare the image, the little stubble in my goatee, is that what you'd call this piece of thing on my face?

119

Anyway, if you compare the little hairs on my face, then you will see there's much more detail.

120

Also, you can see more wrinkles on my face in those picture profiles, the zero, one, and two as opposed to the HLG3,

121

which maybe means I should use the HLG3.

122

You don't need detail when you're getting old, am I right?

123

And the S -logs, there is just no point in using these on 8 -bit cameras, especially in this really low light situation.

124

And some people say you should overexpose HLG.

125

In fact, pretty much everybody says you should overexpose HLG and S -log.

126

And that is what I did.

127

And I will show you now the same lighting situation, but with it overexposed.

128

now i overexposed them but i overexposed them by bumping the iso

129

which creates even more noise and more grain

130

and there's all kinds of weird color things happening

131

and i just there is really no point in talking about

132

any of the s -logs just don't use them i mean go ahead

133

if you want you can try it out

134

but for me i won't be using them

135

and in fact the hlg as well the hlg profiles weren't as bad as s -log

136

but they are definitely losing detail and softer than the standard picture profiles oh

137

and i should also say you'll notice that picture profile off

138

and picture profile one look very similar and they do they share the same movie gamut now in terms of their color.

139

I don't know if they're using movie for both.

140

I know picture profile one is movie because you can go into the settings and look at it.

141

but the color seems slightly different.

142

So the color mode may be different on picture profile off, but they are both using the movie gamut.

143

They are both very similar.

144

However, with picture profile one, even if they're identical, it's still better to use that because you can turn the detail down to minus seven.

145

So, so far in the test, in a nutshell, to me, picture profile one and picture profile two are winning.

146

So now in this next test, I turned my lights down 50 % in the backyard there.

147

So the ISO is at 8000 at this point.

148

And here's an overview of what they all look like with the exposures matched, lots applied, etc. So now I'll show you a few seconds of each full screen.

149

Thank you.

150

so same crap different day here i still like picture profile 2 the most

151

and probably picture profile 1 after

152

that now the other picture profiles uh number three to six

153

number three to six they uh they're starting to look a lot better as well

154

but remember i've had to adjust the exposure on those to match it.

155

So since I still kind of prefer the look of picture profile too, I also don't have to do any corrections.

156

That is just straight out of camera.

157

Now on this next test, we're going to completely max out the ISO on the camera at 32 ,000.

158

And now the manual meter, by the way, that's what that is.

159

A lot of people think it's manual mode in the Sony cameras, that little M .M when you're in manual mode, but it's manual meter.

160

Anyway, the manual meter is still at 0 .0 here with my center metering.

161

So the camera is saying the exposure is okay, but we are at 32 ,000.

162

Let's take a look.

163

Once again, I think picture profile 2 wins it for me, especially because I don't have to do any adjustments in post.

164

I find when the lighting is this dark, any adjustments you do makes it very difficult and images start to fall apart even more.

165

But there's one more test that is interesting.

166

Something definitely happens in this next test, which is not in picture profiles to favor.

167

And it's when we're underexposed, even at our maximum 32 ,000 ISO.

168

So in this one here, i have the lights in the yard completely turned off i am in the dark

169

so even maxed out at iso 32 ,000, I am still two stops at least underexposed.

170

and what picture profile actually works the best here is picture profile 3

171

or picture profile 4 the uh the gammas the itu 709

172

i just found i was able to bring the image back

173

more i had to adjust the exposure on all of them and

174

so once i had to change the exposure trying to bring the brightness up on picture profile 2 it fell apart

175

pretty hard but the picture profile 3

176

and picture profile 4 you know they actually worked okay

177

so what are the takeaways from this in my opinion using picture profile 2 is probably your best bet

178

if you are in extreme low light situations unless you get

179

to the point where you've maxed out your 32 000 iso

180

and of course you've opened your lens up as much as you can to the 1 .4 and you're still

181

very underexposed if you still are underexposed at those particular levels then picture profile 3

182

or picture profile 4 seem to be the most saveable images it also makes a lot of sense too

183

because this picture profile 2 is very similar to what josh yo found

184

when he did a he did a famous low light profile for the a7iii a few years ago

185

which is also an 8 -bit camera and he basically found

186

that picture profile 2 was close to the picture profile he made he sort of based it off

187

that one in fact i did use uh josh yo's settings

188

because i thought why not check those out for uh these really low light situations

189

and uh here they are okay now this is make art now lights at 30 percent

190

and uh yo yo josh yo turned auto focus back on yo yo blue shirt fancy haircut cinematic that computer voice

191

so many things they just still weren't as good as picture profile 2 on its own

192

and it wasn't designed for this camera it was designed for the a73 it is a different camera

193

but i figured i'd give it a shot anyway you know

194

if it worked i was going to put on a blue shirt and get a nicer haircut.

195

Anyway, that's it.

196

I hope it was helpful.

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If you got a comment or question, leave it down below.

198

And of course, this thing is subjective a little bit.

199

So check out the profiles for yourself and see what works best for you.

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And I just gave you my opinion.

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Don't forget to like, subscribe if you haven't already, and we'll see you again soon.

202

Okay, buh -bye.

203

This is a 24mm G -Master.

204

Gonna be some tests on this bad boy coming up.

205

Thank you.

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234 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 205 sentences and 2685 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:17. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
manual noun	/ˈmæn.j(u)əl/	Synonym of handbook.
exposure noun	/ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/	The condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected.
meter noun	/ˈmitəɹ/	A device that measures things.
adjust verb	/əˈd͡ʒʌst/	To modify.
flexible adjective	/ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/	Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking.
compare verb	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
log noun	/lɔɡ/	The trunk of a dead tree, cleared of branches.
fancy noun	/ˈfæn.si/	The imagination.
josh verb		To tease someone in a kindly or friendly fashion.
footage noun	/ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/	An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording.
default noun	/dɪˈfɔlt/	The condition of failing to meet an obligation.
lens noun	/lɛnz/	An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
minus	/ˈmaɪ.nəs/	Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
automobile noun	/ˈɔː.tə.məˌbil/	A type of motor vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver, a small number of additional passengers, and…
metre noun	/ˈmiːtəɹ/	The basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Système International d'Unités), equal to the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
fall apart verb		To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
blow out verb		To extinguish something, especially a flame, especially by means of a strong current of air or another gas.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
mess up verb		To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss.
put up verb		To place in a high location.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 66 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, corrections /kəˈɹɛkʃənz/, sharpen /ˈʃɑɹpən/, shutter /ˈʃʌtəː/, nutshell /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/
Long words — get the stress right: automobile /ˈɔː.tə.məˌbil/, documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, whatsoever /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/, manipulate /məˈnɪp.jʊ.leɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like manual, exposure, meter.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you haven't already, and we'll see
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've watched · I've applied · have adjusted
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are not set · be strangled · being metered

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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