Here's My Fav Scene File/Camera Settings

John Froton said:
I think it works great for outdoors :) It basically gives some saturation to the colors, balances the detail settings to look more filmlike and deepens the darks and blacks to make for a more vivid picture overall.

I am wanting to try using these settings and just switching the gamma to Cinelike-D instead of B-Press and see if the Cinelike-D has more of a filmlike gamma look to it. Without comparing the two, I do think that these settings give a great film look that seems clean and sharp, like a high quality film stock.
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Yea, Thanks man!
 
Steve McClean said:
would you recommend these settings for a outside shoot for a film?

I'm filming a short film this summer and not really sure about shooting outside yet.

does it have a good film look to it?
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After doing a few more shoots, I can say that I still really like these settings, but when shooting people in bright daylight or having shots in bright daylight, or any well lit, brightly lit set, that have a considerable amount of skintones, switching the gamma from B-Press to Cinelike-D will give a more filmlike luminence value to skin tones. However, for low light and night shots, I think the B-Press really shines for giving a cleaner brighter grayscale.

Also, depending on the subject matter in the shots, such as vivid green grass .. etc, you might need to turn down the Chroma Level (color saturation) with any of these settings. You really need to be aware that as the subject matter changes, it can call for some tweaking to your scene file settings to continue to get optimal results. I am all for doing test shots on professional shoots and spending some time comparing results.
 
It looks like the Knee kicked in on the flamingo's feathers. If you look at them you can see that there is barely any detail in the highlights. This is one of the dangers in using B. Press because Knee is mandatory. Even if you stop down to make the zebras go away you never know where the Knee might be in effect.


Marco
 
It looks like the Knee kicked in on the flamingo's feathers.
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I agree.

Cinelike-D probably would have preserved more of the detail on the flamingos. I've been finding some instances where I like Cinelike-D over B-Press because of a more true to life gamma curve with the compression in Cinelike-D. I like the Cinelike-D for human skin, but in moderate light it unfortunately introduces a lot more noise into the picture.

As much as it would be satisfying to feel I can have one great preset for everything I shoot, it's not the way to get the best shots every time. For any camera op, it's really important to allow ourselves to view and modify settings as the elements in the shot's composition change.
 
Hey John,

Do you have any accessories on the camera itself. Like a mattebox especially? Or do you just use the camera as is?

Sean
 
anomaly_7 said:
Hey John,

Do you have any accessories on the camera itself. Like a mattebox especially? Or do you just use the camera as is?
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I have a mattebox and follow focus attatched to the camcorder most of the time. Also, in bright sunlight, i usually use a Schneider polarizer filter in the mattebox.

You can see a picture of my camcorder with the accessories on the previous page of this thread.
 
Hey John,

Sorry to be a pest but I recently purchased an HVX200 (last year) and I am looking to pick up a couple accessories. I would like to get a mattebox as well as a follow focus. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Sean
 
No problem Sean,

I haven't done any searching around for products lately but I would recommend checking out the IndiFocus line of products here http://www.indifocus.com/products.htm

The follow focus I have is an earlier model of IndiFocus that used a foam padded gear assembly. The new IndiFocus pro looks good and is the same price I paid. Their matte box and rails look good as well and are at a nice price.
 
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