Feedback on camera settings

[gi-jones]

This is my first real shoot with the HVX, so some problems were to be expected. Looking back I can see quite clearly that we have a serious underlighting problem in these shots. How do you guys go about that? It looked fine on the monitor, but now the levels are way too low. What's the best way to see that coming?

Now about the camera settings. When checking the levels on these shots I can see that black level is consequently quite high. Is this something in the Gamma settings? Also I think we get a lot of digital noise in the black parts of the image. Can that be done any better with some different settings?

Otherwise, any kind of feedback would be much appreciated.

[FilmBoy77]

did you have the gain turned on or something with these shots? what was the master ped set at?

[Shadow]

By monitor, do you mean the HVX monitor. It will be a good idea to get a HD monitor on the field for proper exposition and color correct.

[gi-jones]

We didn't use gain. Not sure what the "master ped" is though.

We didn't have an HD monitor on set, but used the LCD viewfinder and a external SD monitor. I guess what I meant is; what do you guys do to make sure you get the right exposure?

I have a feeling that maybe the scene file settings should have been different. But I can't really find any info on that. Does anyone have a link to a good in depth explanation of those?

[FilmBoy77]

master pedestal controls overall blacks in the camera and can make the picture have deeper blacks or look more washed out. somebody can probably give a more accurate definition, it should be in the manual. here's a visual of how it can affect your image: http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/MP/

to me, the best way to get a better and complete understanding of scene files and all that is barry green's dvd i think it is sold through this website. he has visuaql examples and goes step by step how to make manual adjustments to scene files and a whole bunch of other stuff.

i just use an HD monitor now to make sure i have the right exposure. not sure why you weren't able to see this with an SD monitor though. did the monitor not project an accurate exposure image when you checked it?

[gi-jones]

I probably were able to see, or the monitor was calibrated wrong. Even so I wish the HVX had something like the levels analysis you see on digital SLR cams.