Milky blacks with F350 xdcam

[wolfwill23]

Hello,

I recently shot a commercial for a poker player and had to mix Sony f350 footage with Panasonic HPX footage. I almost always use the HPX but unfortunately, it was not available for this whole shoot.

The issue is that the XDCam stuff looks far inferior to the HPX stuff. The blacks are milky and there seems to be a decent amount of pixelation. We shot most everything at 60fps and then I ramped in post.

Anyways, here is a clip of the f350 stuff. If anyone has any tips as to how to treat the footage to clean it up, I'm all ears. I have crushed the blacks just a bit but that's it.

Thanks!

http://vimeo.com/6249789
pass: Wolfgang (case sensitive)

[Chadfish]

The video is password protected.

YOu can change any color setting by adjusting the picture profiles. The cam you are using probably is set to a neutral type of color space to allow for post processing.

[wolfwill23]

The pass is Wolfgang (it was in the op :)

We have already shot the footage and now I'm trying to fix the milky blacks.

Thanks!

[Chadfish]

Is the table supposed to be black? It looks like that IR thing that happens on blacks that are physically hot - like from lights. The camera allows IR contamination and it appears to make blacks have a slightly red hue. But otherwise I think you need to do some work in Color, or another similar app. if the footage is already shot.

[Chadfish]

Here's an example of IR contamination: http://vimeo.com/4791723

With a filter to correct it.

[wolfwill23]

The table is supposed to be black. S**t. You know any fix within FCP or Magic Bullet? I don't know how to use color. The guy I rented the camera from didn't really know how to use it. :(

[Chadfish]

Try the "3-Way color corrector" plug-in in FCP. Put it on the clip. The left-most color wheel is the "darks" (center wheel is mids, right is highs). First click on the eye dropper for the dark circle, then click on the color you want black. The color corrector should move that part of the spectrum to a more true black. Then use the slider under the wheel to adjust the black level to taste. Keep your eye on skin tones. Skin should always look natural over any other color.

Hope that get's you started.

Chadfish

[basspig]

You may also try lowering the levels in the quartertones a bit. The blacks are a bit pushed in that shot, in my opinion.

BTW, what lens did you use? The chromatic aberration is unacceptable by my standards and the focus appears to be out for the entire shot. The compression artifacts make it hard to judge much beyond the most pronounced flaws though.

[wolfwill23]

Thanks for all the feedback. I tried the 3-way corrector and it helped quite a bit. Here is a new version. How do you think it looks?

http://www.vimeo.com/6254196

pass: Wolfgang

[Chadfish]

It looks much better, though maybe the blacks are crushed just a little too much. At least they are black!

[wolfwill23]

Thanks guys. I'll ease off a bit on the crushing. Thanks again for all your help.

[wolfwill23]

I'll post the finished product after I deliver to the client. Thanks again.