Blacks, Knee, etc... - For those who like to experiment

[David Evans]

Hi,

For those who like to experiment with different configurations in camera and create presets (I own a XH A1s), how do you choose the detail in black and white areas? And what Knee option? For example, do you prefer to stretch or press blacks? I know it depends on how you want it to look, but what would the best circumstances be for each preset for getting a good looking scene? Theoretically, stretching blacks would give more detail in black areas, thus making it more filmlike, but since I started shooting video I've learned that theory is not always what happens in reality. Can anyone share your opinions and experience about this?

Thanks!
David

 

[Cassius]

I pretty much always try to keep blacks crushed in cinematic work. If film were the goal, it would still be the way to go because digital reads detail in shadows differently. It looks... I don't know, wrong. Too grayed I guess. I think that's less true with modern HD cameras than it used to be, but I've always had a very strong preference from dark shadows. I have the same style preference in everything else; photography, paintings, whatever.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I pretty much always try to keep blacks crushed in cinematic work. If film were the goal, it would still be the way to go because digital reads detail in shadows differently. It looks... I don't know, wrong. Too grayed I guess. I think that's less true with modern HD cameras than it used to be, but I've always had a very strong preference from dark shadows. I have the same style preference in everything else; photography, paintings, whatever.

If you look 'closely', almost no film shots have vast areas of 'black', but there is sufficient highlights on something to get the area textured. I'm convinced this is why there are so many 'rainy' night shots, when the action is located in Los Angeles... that is to say, they wet the streets down so there is the glisten of water to give texture to the otherwise blank black surface...

In interiors, often 'black/deepshadow' areas have something which has a highlight to break up the blackness... whether it is furniture, stuff of some sort, or architectural elements, with some sort of polish or shine.

I only got Adobe's On Location set up on my laptop recently to 'study' the various settings and their effects while viewing the 'near' realtime monitors (since I don't have a broadcast setup... like everyone else has...)

And unfortunately, I only have a SD camera with Firewire... otherwise I'd have to import clips in to Premiere to view the monitors...