Preset vs Post

[Brandon Freeman]

Just interested in seeing the ratio of folks that determine the picture of the A1 in camera to the folks that determine the picture in post.

Currently, I am shooting flat with blacks stretched and knees low in order to get maximum latitude, the most detail I can get in both the bright and dark areas. Then, in post, I determine how much to crunch the blacks and/or bring up the whites. I find that saturation needs no adjusting as once I increase the contrast the colors look just right -- any more and it looks too much like video trying to look like film. :)

Anybody else care to share?

[PaPa]

well theoretically, when adjusting the image in post, you are, each time you render, lowering the quality of your initial footage. Heavily manipulating your image in post can also introduce heavy artifacts and noise.

I, myself, like to shoot as neutrally as possible and get my look in post, but the idea of getting the image right, before compressing it to DV would results in a higher quality picture than replicating that same look, from a flat image, correcting it in post.