Color question

E

EvenEnt

Member
I have an hvx200. I will be shooting outdoors in sunlight. The subject being filmed are horses. Bays (brown) and greys (white). I have to be careful to not over expose white. The footage will be viewed on the web and also DVD.

I would like the colors in the test footage below to be a little more brilliant. I would like to see the girl's purple sweater and green foliage pop out a little more.

http://vimeo.com/11055093

I used the Filmic scene file below to shoot the test footage in the link. Should I be using a different scene file or should I make adjustments to the filmic file, or should I leave it alone?

Thank you,

<F6>
SCENE NAME :FILMIC
00005000: 7 ; DETAIL LEVEL: -1
00005001: 12 ; V DETAIL LEVEL: 4
00005002: 6 ; DETAIL CORING : -2
00005003: 8 ; CHROMA LEVEL: 0
00005004: 10 ; CHROMA PHASE: 2
00005005: 8 ; COLOR TEMP: 0
00005006: 6 ; MASTER PED: -10
00005007: 8 ; A.IRIS LEVEL: 0
00005008: 1 ; NEWS GAMMA: OFF
00005009: 5 ; GAMMA : CINELIKE D
0000500A: 3 ; KNEE: HIGH
0000500B: 3 ; MATRIX: CINE-LIKE
0000500C: 1 ; SKIN TONE DTL : OFF
0000500D: 0 ; V DETAIL FREQ : THIN
0000500E: 1 ; OPERATION TYPE: FILM CAM
0000500F: 34 ; FRAME RATE: 60 FRAME
00005010: BE026801 ; SYNCRO SCAN :
 
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try using the scene file called "COLOR". I have been using this recently and with a few modifications to the file it produces some stunning results.
 
Wow that does make the color pop. If the sun comes out today I'll try and shoot more test footage.

Thank you!
 
That scene file will make all the colors in your footage more vibrant and saturated. Be sure to do an accurate white balance first. If you want only certain colors within the scene to stand out (or as you put it "pop") then you would need to apply selective color grading to your footage in post.
 
On page 258 of the hvx book Barry says "To get full effect of these scene files, set the camera in manual white balance mode and use the auto iris feature to establish your exposure settings."

I would like to have the camera in Auto mode but I would like to be able to set the white balance manually. To enable manual white balance mode do I go to menu 4.Auto SW and set ATW to OFF?

I would like to shoot with the camera in auto mode but be able to set my white balance manually? I will be shooting outdoors in sunlight. I'm still learning the camera and I don't want to accidentally bump the iris setting while shooting in manual mode and mess up my exposure.

Or outdoors in sunlight should I set the camera to the 5.6k preset and go with it?

Thank you,
 
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EvenEnt said:
To enable manual white balance mode do I go to menu 4.Auto SW and set ATW to OFF?

Or outdoors in sunlight should I set the camera to the 5.6k preset and go with it?
Click to expand...

The ATW switch in the Auto SW menu only affects how the auto tracking white will operate when you are using your camera in AUTO mode. If you turn it on, then whenever you're in AUTO you will engage the ATW. You can still, with this switch on, change to MANUAL mode and use manual white balance. You can assign ATW to one of your white balance presets. I assign mine to A, use B for manually balancing, and leave my PRST for quick 3200 and 5600 switchable.

5.6K is generally decent for bright outdoor shooting, but I would prefer to manually white balance the camera with a card near the subject for better results.
 
You know for exterior (daylight high contrast) high-saturation you can prob get away with shooting DVCPRO flat and dialing the sat up in a color grading program. Interior and low-light will obviously have more CCD noise, hence noise will pop too during grading.
 
EvenEnt said:
In what situations do you find yourself using ATW the most?
Click to expand...

If you are in an environment with rapidly changing lighting conditions, ATW may be easier and more practical unless you are able to white balance at each occurrence of lighting change. It will attempt to adjust the white on the fly and generally does a pretty good job, though not perfect.
 
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