Color Separation on Highlights

[Ethan Turpin]

I'm finding this odd (and frustrating) occurence with whites sometimes. The tones/color appear as separate gradients, rather than on continues transition. So there may be a hot white spot with a yellowing stripe around it and another around that, or highlights on people's faces are so intense that they look weirdly reflective. I want to be able to over-expose a little, but this is not cool.

 

[ryan brown]

There's a difference between "over exposing", and completely blowing out your whites. With a blowout, you lose all data... it's just white, and you don't want that. Work with your zebras and with a little practice, you'll get the exposure you're after.

Also, what is your "knee" setting set to? may want to check it out, and possibly adjust...

-brown

 

[Joshua Provost]

If your white balance isn't spot on, this can happen to your highlights. You can imagine if the WB is a little off and the image is a bit cool (blue levels too high), then the blue will begin to clip while there is still green and red detail, giving you yellow around the highlights.

The knee can also contribute to this since details are handled differently once they hit the knee. If one color channel is hitting the knee and the others aren't, you'll get weird effects.

So, you have to watch your white balance and exposure very carefully. I'm not sure why you want to be able to overexpose (is it an asthetic choice?), but video does not handle overexposure well (even a little), but it handles underexposure better. It sounds like you need to stop down. Use your zebras to check if you are actually overexposing or not.

If the facial highlights seem too reflective, you may need one or two or more fixes: better makeup to keep shine down, some diffusion between the light and the talent, a polarizing filter.