Arizona Train

[antomic]

On my way back to California from the Grand Canyon I pulled off the road in a small town just oustide of Ash Fork or Seligman, AZ. I was going to shoot a talking head interview on the side of the railroad tracks, and just as I was setting up, a train rolled through. Thought I would share.

http://homepage.mac.com/antomic/train.html

I wanted to post some grabs, but there's really nothing to see, as everything is moving and blurred, so enjoy the footage.

EDIT: Oh yeah....Happy New Year to all!

[BLUESPIDER]

it looked alittle dark. Did you have one of your ND filters on? I thought I saw a midget hanging on the train. The clouds came out very nice by the way. Keep filming away buddy. :)

[antomic]

Thanks...I was setting up for an interview, but the train came and i was shooting in to the sun. no time to expose. i figured it was better to grab than lose. PLUS, don't know if it's me or not...but are you guys posting the same footage to the web that you broadcast, or do you find yourselves having to brighten your web clips?

I am a photo illustrator and my monitors are calibrated for the print world, but i use an ntsc monitor for all my video color correction. DVD's i've made play fine on several settops (in fact tend to be light) but all my web clips seem real dark. gammas?

damn NTSC...

[David Jimerson]

Actually, footage shot on a well-calibrated NTSC monitor generally needs to be darkened on the computer screen . . . pedestal set lower, saturation higher.

[antomic]

hmmm....don't know about that. i'm on a mac, calibrated to d65 at 1.8 gamma. again, i'm in the print world, so that comes first. i can make a second profile for video with a higher gamma, but that wont solve the problem...if it's dark for me at 1.8, it's still going to be dark for you guys, regardless if i brighten my gamma or not. like i said...broadcast stuff looks fine on multiple sets for me...i just question the web stuff.

anyway...i dont mean to talk tech in the grabs...but it's okay to hijack your OWN post, right? ;D

[Barry_Green]

I usually find that computers display video much darker than televisions do. I don't know what you're using for output, but Vegas includes a conversion filter that works pretty well, a preset for "studio to computer RGB".

[David Jimerson]

Well, the Vegas preset ups the gain by 16.4%, but it lowers the pedestal by quite a bit, and leaves the gamma alone, resulting in an overall darker picture. Clips shot to look good on an NTSC monitor tend to look brighter, less contrasty, and grayer on the computer monitor.

In my observation.

[antomic]

thanks barry...i knew i couldn't be that far off...currently i have been treating all my footage as i normally would for broadcast. then i render out a final for the web with a color corrected curve to lighten it. (except for this one of course) i am exporting standard sorenson3 quicktime from FCP.

i'm glad to hear that it's not just me, and that vegas even thought of a fix...now if i can find an FCP fix.

problem is, i hate geting tangled up in web-fixes when i'm not usually prepping for web display. oh well, not the first obstacle, certainly not the last. :'(

[Barry_Green]

Hmmm, surprising that we're not seeing the same thing... I agree that video clips, when viewed on the computer, are flatter and grayer, but they also look darker to me than they do on the television. On television they have snappier contrast and brighter, more saturated colors than they do on computer. After applying "studio rgb to computer", they look more like what they do on the television.

[antomic]

well, i just played it back on an

NTSC monitor (good)
mac (okay)
pc (dark)
and my 15" powerbook (as good as the NTSC monitor)

in fact NTSC and powerbook, although on the backlit side, actually looks very cinematic. I dont mind the tonality of it. but i could see where other people might feel it's still too dark overall...and at that point it's just a matter of personal preference. However, you all arent here looking over my shoulder at my calibrated mac...so from now on...i only post bright shots! *;)

and barry, remember calibrated computer monitors are subjective. mine is calibrated for print, and i know it is accurate for that, but david may have *lightened* his up so video looked brighter than it does for you or me. I could be wrong.

[David Jimerson]

Both my computer monitor and my editing NTSC TV are calibrated to color SMPTE color bars.

I agree that when the Studio RGB to Computer RGB filter is used, it looks on the computer much more like it does on the TV; I just think it makes the clip darker.

Meaning, the clip appears brighter on the computer screen than it does on the TV screen until the effect is applied. *Then it looks like it does on the TV.

But maybe it's just the way my brain interprets the deeper blacks and more saturated colors.

[antomic]

well, to me that explains why clips look brighter on your computer than your ntsc without filters. you have the luxury of calibrating your computer to smpte color bars. as i stated, i am calibrated for print which is close to most monitors out of the box. perhaps that is why both barry and i are seeing clips darker than your bright monitor.

regardless...that means my original post is still too dark for most people...but david....with your monitor, how does my clip look....dark for you too?

[David Jimerson]

Dark.

[antomic]

bummer.

it looks fantastic on my powerbook and my television.

back to the drawing board.

[Young-H._Lee]

the lighting of the whole train shot would suit well to foreshadow an impending doom or danger....thats just my feeling

[Mino]

Dark on my system, Viewsonic drinking from a p4. The clouds did look nice though, Were you using a polorizer?

[antomic]

no polarizer . i had the darn thing in my case, but didnt put it on. I just got the 100a the week before that trip last april, and was just learning all the whistles and bells. i did have a uv filter on, and bluespider, i dont recall if the nd was switched on or not. like i said, i was shooting into the sun, so everything got backlit.

sorry it looks dark on the web. great lesson learned though.

i posted elsewhere that i did a helicopter tour over the canyon with about 5 minutes of usable footage of a 25 minute trip.

had i known then what i've learned since...shutter speed was at 1/24th...thought i knew what i was doing. everything is slightly smeary. live and learn.

[dillonculp]

dude I loved the Industrial sound!! I could have sworn that you put something subliminal in there like a woman breathing seductively. Either that or I've just watched "Crash" one too many times.

[antomic]

pure sound, right from the on camera mic.