more NOISE

[CHAD1]

I have read past threads about this issue, and have followed the recommendations. Yet I haven't found a satisfactory solution to my problem since i have gotten my camera. I filmed a guy in a black suit in a well lit room. Yet I still see a lot of noise flickering in his suit. I have set everything to 0 to avoid detail underexposing etc. Perhaps I am missing something. I understand noise in low light situations, but this isnt one of them. What troubles me is I see footage posted here by you guys and it looks very clean and sharp. I hardly see noise in their clips, as opposed to similar scenes i have filmed. Could it be a camera issue? Before anyone asks it looks grainy in all formats i have seen. My computer screen and television set.

If anyone can be so kind as to provide me a common setting for this scene. A guy in a dark painted room, yet still has good lighting. This noise thing is screwing with me.

:)

CHAD

[Drew599]

Well what are the settings your using?

[Hans Moleman]

its about time we get a "No More Noise" sticky going.

[CHAD1]

All my settings are set to 0 across the board. Cine Like V matrix cine like knee auto.
Mid gain high gain all 0db.

I pose this question. If you were going to film someone in a dark black suit what settings would you use in the camera?

[Hans Moleman]

I pose this question. If you were going to film someone in a dark black suit what settings would you use in the camera?

I'd go with all settings to zero except coring at +7. Maybe take the chroma level down, and have the MPed at around -6 or -8. Cinelike_V (as long as contrast is your goal) and throw enough light on him that the face registers about 70% on the zebras.

[PIMP]

I agree. We need a sticky post on this issue

[TedRR]

If you can post a still there are some in here that might help.
Your settings don't sound far off, (from my limited knowledge).
What was his suit made of? Wooll, silk, smooth, textured?
You say well lit, what do you mean?

[fantasticfilm]

switch off anything that has the word "auto" you are probably making it harder to find the issue this way.

try-

-raise the master pedestal
-gamma : use B.Press
-matrix :normal1

[anchoryanker]

edit

[Matt Sconce]

Also, try black press settings instead of Cinelike V if you are trying to avoid noise.

[PIMP]

Has anyone encountered blocky fragments in underlit areas of footage? I noticed it this week because i had a character walking down a hallway that had light only in certain sections. and when my actors stepped into darkness it gave a blocky fragmented look.

[TedRR]

What format were you shooting in?

[ksteiger]

What monitor are you using? By any chance is it a.....

DELL 2405?

Just asking...

I really don't encounter much noise in well lit situations except in bright cherry reds. (Using a Samsung 42" plasma display...HD SWEET !!! SD YUCK!!...which is why I keep my Sony CRT)

[PIMP]

i was shooting in 720P.


The fragments look weird. Is this normal?

[DavidBeier]

Shooting with everything at 0 is just the wrong way to go plain and simple. You need to finese the settings much more to get a good image.

As for the blacks, you're biggest issue is that you probably have the masterpedistal set to zero. With MP set to zero, not even pure blacks are going to be pure black and since more noise appears in darker areas, it's going to result in a lot of blocky and noisy blacks. Sorry.

A good way to detrmine the starting point on the MP is to put the lense cap on, turn on the marker, and keep lowering it untill it reads 0%. This'll ensure that pure black will be pure black. In all my tests and everyone elses I know, this endds up being -4 MP so you need to make sure to set it to AT LEAST that. Personally, I like to set it to -7 myself. It crushes the noise and darks down a bit more and gives me what I find to be a more filmic image.

[Overlook]

I understand the suggestion to crush the blacks in order to reduce noise. Does this create "illegal" black? Online editors insist on the pedestal being a certain value. Will they want to raise the pedestal and would this reintroduce the noise?

I make colors, whites, blacks look they way I like while editing in FCP. Then I output, usually to a DVD or to Quicktime or MPEG1. I get away with all kinds of "illegal" settings.

But what if I were going to present the program to a broadcaster? Will they have an issue with a pedestal setting made while shooting that may look great but is illegal for broadcast?

[Lenilenapi]

David Beier is 100% right. The blacks need to be between -4 and -6 depending on your gamma . It is even a little different in SD. Of course we are assuming a set-up of "0" not "7.5"
This is the same on the DVX100's. At 7.5% set-up the pedastel is correct at "0" though, but you shouldn't use that normally. I have always been annoyed at Panny for this and am stunned at how many people shoot with milky blacks.

You can use a waveform to be exact, but David's suggestion is a fast efficient way to get it right. A waveform might drop your settung one point.

The noise issue could be the monitor though and Dell 2405's are notoriously noisy.

- Lenny Levy

[mico]

But what if I were going to present the program to a broadcaster? Will they have an issue with a pedestal setting made while shooting that may look great but is illegal for broadcast?

There is a broadcast safe filter in FCP to help with this. And you can use the range checker option on individual clips to make adjustments.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303801