Outdoor Shoots - Frustration Ensues

[sbryan]

Hello,

I'm not sure how to remedy this situation...

The DVX100a performs admirably indoors under various lighting conditions. The color reproduction is beyond what I would expect from a standard resolution camera. So let's take the camera outside for a change of pace...

A nightmare for me. It's 98 degrees out, bright, and sunny. Even though I'm not shooting in the direction of the sun, I'm having nothing but problems. I white balance the camera, I run through various combinations of iris, ND filter, and shutter speed, and whatever I do, the image I get is tinted blue.

The colors are washed out (minus the green landscape, which surpise, suprise, is fine). A gravel road is very close to solid, blown-out white. The skyline in the middle of summer looks the skyline before a winter snow storm. Skin tones? Tan, sunburned, or pale, they all look they same washed out white. Something tells me this problem is outside the healing effects of color correction, but we'll see.

I'd like to know how to take the camera outdoors with my wide angle lens, and not be afraid of the results. As stated, I've been fighting the good fight using every combination of settings and I couldn't get results that satisfied me.

I'm at my wit's end. Is a matte box required for this scenario? All I know is that outdoor shooting poses a serious challenge, and nothing irks me more in modern movies than the film that takes place entirely indoors.

Sunlight and fresh air will do the body good, but for the DVX... it's kryptonite.

[andy_starbuck]

Have you set the white balance? That sound typical for having the white balance set to the indoors preset or setting inside and then walking outside.

To set the white balance, make sure that the white balance switches are not in preset, but is in the "A" or "B" position.

Zoom in on something perfectly white, like a piece of white paper. Fill the screen. You don't want any color (like someone's hands) in the frame. And press the small black button under the front of the camera beneath the lens. Its on the left side of the lens if you are facing the camera awary from you. Don't press the button and hold it, or you will be setting the Black Balance. Just press it for a second.

If that doesn't work, the next step is to check your scene settings.

[ryan brown]

Get a polorizing filter. That'll help a lot with colors.

Not sure what exactly your shooting, but I'm in pre production on an outdoor shoot here in TX, and I can only wish it was only 98 degrees ;)

For your subjects, use PLENTY of bounce (I'm using giant bounce boards appoximately 8 ft long, and placing them as far away from my subject to diffuse it a little) It definitely helps with skin tone and getting the shot, but the downside is that it's blinding my actor, and it's difficult for him to not let it show.

Don't let the gravel road blow out. It'll draw all the attention to it, and it's impossible to fix. Take it down a notch, and use your levels in post to correct for the darker image. Get some other filters and play around (gradient filters for blue sky, etc.)

The polarizer WILL help immensely.

Post some grabs of what you got, and I'll bet we can help.

-brown

[sbryan]

I'll get some pictures when I'm back in town later this week. I'm on my underpowered tablet PC at the moment -- no editing software.

[master151]

1. Use a polarizing filter.

2. Use MORE lighting. If you can't strike a balance between over and underexposed (which is usually hard to do outdoors with video), use your iris, ND filter, and shutter to expose for whats too hot (like the sky), then throw some lights on anything that is consequently underexposed.

[andy_starbuck]

Sorry. Now I see in your post that you are white balancing. I was replying in my sleep.

I recall I had something similar right after I got the DVX.

What happened in my case was that somehow I had GAIN turned on. I don't remember if it was something in the menus that was
bypassing the switches, or whether I'd just bumped the GAIN switch. I think I had the GAIN set to +12db or +18db in the menus.

So everything in the camera was reacting properly and then the GAIN was just blowing out the picture. Indoors it could deal with the extra GAIN, although it was a noisy image. But outdoors it totally blew out like you are describing. Once I fixed the setting I didn't have the problem again.

Hope that helps.

[jonnyh1968]

With no grip or lighting.. it seems shooting between 11am and 3pm is a bad idea especially for human close ups. Foliage blows out it's highlights, heads have the sun spot, etc. etc. You need grip and side lights for those times. I say just get up early or wait. You can't do anything wrong in late late afternoon.

[craigbowman]

Here are samples of great DVX100 outdoor footage.

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/snoqualmie.html

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/marymoor.html

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/magicalfall.html