Crushing Blacks, Deep Colors

mjdorris

mjdorris

Well-known member
Hey all,

I have a director who wants what she described as "blackest blacks, high contrast, and rich colors."

I suppose for this it would be helpful to turn the master ped down a fair bit, and turn the chroma up a little.

My question is, with the master ped way down, does it behoove me to use black press or not? If so, should I turn the detail down to maintain a softer filmic look?

Any hints or tips greatly appreciated.
 
Do it in Post.

Go part of the way with lighting, propping, location at the shoot keeping a Post effect firmly in mind.

If you overcook it on the shoot you will be dealing with fixing it in Post
 
i forgot to mention that it's for a 48 hour film fest, so we're looking to achieve a certain look in camera, as to not have to mess with color correction in post. normally i'd be with you 100% of the way.
 
That considered I still think ... that applying a quick plugin effect (eg Bleach Bypass) may be quicker ... and could be the difference between Gold and Silver prize .

Guess it depends on your editing hardware/software/'puter
 
Tiffen's (used to be 55mm) beach bypass is excellent... if you shoot with that level of crunched blacks you're stuck, but with plug-ins in post you can dial in the look you want and change your mind later...
 
I think you can get some nice results by using B-Press and using moderate lowering of the mastrer pedestal and boosting of the chroma levels. I have shot with these settings in order to get a finished look without having to do color in post.

Here is a link to a sample scene file setting with pictures of how the footage looks farther down in the thread.... http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=132271
 
Thanks for the info guys. I think I'll probably go with bpress and maybe a -4 ped and a +3 chroma.

i'm not much of a post-guru, so i'm going to talk with the director and see if she has someone lined up who can color correct--if that happens, is it best just to (obviously light well) and shoot with the settings at all 0s to let the post person do whatever they want?
 
I would still do it in post with an easy S curve in the "curves" to get the right look. Boosting chroma may give you something ugly in camera if you haven't done it before.
Have you tried some of the looks Barry created for the custom scene files?
 
mjdorris said:
Hey all,
I suppose for this it would be helpful to turn the master ped down a fair bit, and turn the chroma up a little.
Click to expand...

Yes on turning down the master pedistal but I wouldn't mess with the chroma too much. The HVX (and most of panasonic's cameras) are already known for having very vibrant colors on their factory defaults. I have a friend who often has to mix panasonic and canon and he says he always has to up the chroma a ton in the canon to get it to match up. I've found that turning the chroma up in the DVX or HVX just makes things look too wacky and you start getting some blocking issues.

My question is, with the master ped way down, does it behoove me to use black press or not? If so, should I turn the detail down to maintain a softer filmic look?
Click to expand...

Personally, if I turn the master ped down, I never bother doing further crushing in the computer. It's really up to you when you want to crush the blacks but I like doing it in camera and then leaving it alone after. As for the "softer filmic" look, that's totally preference. In the cine-gamma modes, the detail level really doesn't do a HUGE amount of edge enhancment the way JVC or even Cannon does. It's pretty subtle. Some film is very sharp and some is rather soft. Messing with the detail I don't think is going to help a big amount one way or the other as far as the film look goes. That said, it can increase your noise quite a bit so I'd leave it low in low-light situations.

Any hints or tips greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Get an HVX200 and just play with it. You'll get tons of advice from lots of people here but no one can tell you what kind of footage works for you. When I first got the camera, I spent weeks doing tons of tests and experiments. I've had it for about two years now and feel very comfortable with it. I know what kind of look I'll get when I do something. I'm working on a film of my own now and I was actually offered a chance to rent a RED but I decided against it because I felt much more comfortable with my HVX and because I didn't know how much the more complex workflow would slow us down.
 
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