DSLR footage always seems over saturated to me

A

andrew00

Well-known member
Hey,

I wonder if anyone else feels this - DSLR video footage is always too saturated to my eyes. Even on the lowest saturation setting it's still much too colourful, to the point I have to majorly desaturate in post and just generally kick things down to a more normal level.

Now I should admit i like a desaturated look anyways, but still they seem much too much.

I wonder if my eyes are just weird, if the cameras just do that naturally, or if it's a camera conversion thing - i.e. when it converts to JPG/H.264 from the raw image it makes the image too saturated.

It was the same on my D90 as on the 5dmk2 and it's well annoying.
 
I thought the D90 could get a pretty good desaturated look.
The Canon has loads of color, and even being a fan of saturation I can only go to +1 before it's too much, but I think it's better to have that info there and pull it back in post, rather than need to add it if you want to brighten a scene.
 
Yeah I agree it's always good to have the flexibility, but at the same time I feel it's pushing it too far and risks making the image noisy because of it, like it's going much too far the image quality is getting affected.
 
I don't know the Canon cameras, but I've never had that problem on the GH1. I know that when I had a Canon photo printer I had to be careful because it wanted to pour more saturation into the reds than I wanted it to before I figured out how to change the profiles.
 
Never had that issue on the GH-1. Not on the 7D or 5D either. Can't remember if I had it on the D90, though.

I'm always using neutral profiles dialed all the way down. That gets pretty flat, to me.
 
On another post (about shadow noise) I was ranting about exposing to the right getting lots of light and peoples regular failure to do same

Here Im going to rant about people constantly over exposing these cameras and getting too much light !

The zone I call 'transition to blown' where one channel is clipped generally looks horrible - over saturated in the other colours

In 0-255 the high numbers look bright if all three are high 240-240-240 or saturated if a channel is blown 240-240-255

I think what you are seeing is over exposure in a channel

Control of contrast helps controlling exposure while keeping shadow noise under control

The best way of controlling contrast in a scene is to place a something in front of the sun - like a cloud or a huge scrim if you cant find a cloud :) and stick to kinos not direct red heads !

S
 
andrew00 said:
Yeah I agree it's always good to have the flexibility, but at the same time I feel it's pushing it too far and risks making the image noisy because of it, like it's going much too far the image quality is getting affected.
Click to expand...

I find I have a little less noise when shooting in BW on camera. But I never do it, because I need the flexibility to change stuff afterwards.
 
There are Picture Style options in the 5D that can adjust the saturation. In fact, less saturation and a flat contrast is a good starting position for post color grading. I've seen lots of work done with a flat picture style, and grading in post using Magic Bullets. IMO, the end result is fantastic.
 
The lowest color setting is B&W. I doubt that black and white is too saturated.

Andrew. Shoot the look you like and make sure to experiment with your camera settings more.

There are no right answers.
 
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