how to make t2i,60d,7d footage at its best?

When it comes to h264 compression in the shadows, which is imho the biggest problem in postproduction I can really recommend you guys this tool - Neat Video (www.neatvideo.com). I can guarantee you, that once you use it, you will use it every low light scene. As a matter of fact Canon should add a tool like that to every dslr thay make, the h264 compression applied in those cams is terrible. I did a small test on some quite clean footage that was still a lot improved, you can check here (watch that yellow can, or walls) http://alanuran.blogspot.com/2010_02_14_archive.html
 
Snapper123 said:
There's really so many steps!

-Download two picture styles called Marvels Cine and Kodak Portrait, I personally find Marvels Cine to be the most realistic looking "flat"style, while Kodak Portrait really gives my footage the "best" looking real-life look - it's more contrast based. I've tried many others but none of them really suit me like these two do, maybe they'll work for you too. Also, make sure to dial the sharpness all the way down on any of them you choose.

-Truly make sure your exposure is correct and never trust the camera's meter. To get the "best" exposure on-the-go, switch you camera to manual photography mode and choose possibly evaluative mode or center-weighted average (these will only work when you use the viewfinder for the shots, not the live view mode). Expose with the meter using these modes, and when you get your ISO and Aperture correct with your shutter on 60, go type that into the movie mode. The meter will then be a few notches off from what the photography mode told you, but it's more trustworthy IMO.

-Always trust your eye, if something just doesn't look right on the LCD, change it to where it plain out looks better to you - make sure your LCD brightness isn't playing with you, though.

-Wide angle shots in video mode just don't look good with DSLR's. While it may not be the worst in the world, DSLR's, because of their aliasing and moire issues, are best for shooting "close-up" work, where the details of the shot are larger than the pixels and the invisible moire issues. Simply put, if you shoot a wide angle shot that is all in focus, it'll look like crap. Shot detail with these cameras really gets destroyed even if you don't get the rainbows and lines that make the reasoning behind it more obvious.

-Take a chance renting a Nikon lens to see if it works better for you. While I'm not sure if the test was truly accurate (I almost want to suspect the shooter messed up and just used a sharper picture style for one result), I saw a test once where a Nikon lens made a huge difference in sharpness on the Canon cameras, compared to many Canon lenses, and many people report that they prefer Nikon lenses for video work.

-Sacrifice some things to keep other things looking better - say you have a subject in a shadowy room, and there's a window behind the subject. Don't be afraid to overexpose the window quite a bit to get the detail for the subject; blurring the background window using your aperture will make it still look good. Or you can choose to have an extremely dark and blacked out subject with a less-bright window behind them, it's always better to be creative and sacrifice certain details in favor of other good things.

-Remember to use a ND filter for outside work - the lack of aperture will really start to make those outside shots look very crummy and camcorderish. Restoring some depth of field will be a miracle, and again, always remember that these cameras don't handle wide detail shots in video mode well at all, you generally have to keep a "head shot" mentality when dealing with it.

-Lastly, things like Light Compensation and the like tend to create noise, and if you have the 60D or 7D, there are certain ISO's that reduce noise best of all, and I honestly have to say that a lack of noise is pretty darn important with video mode. I like filmic noise just as much as the next Black Swan fan, but it's not something that electric cameras do well - noise really degrades the quality with these cameras, and it also is very color based noise instead of something you'd see with film. Keep the ISO around 100 and 200 at all possible times!
Click to expand...

Very nice!
My .02 on the iso.... give 320 a try. Even 640 doesn't have a ton of noise. I do 80% of my low-light shooting in 320 or 640 and am very happy (let the 'native iso' debate begin)
 
Shoot lots of tests

Learn the basics of photography

watch what others are doing to see what's possible

There is a wealth of info in these threads by now. Just simply clicking through you can find so much.

For example there are a ton of threads on how to load a picture style. Do searches for questions. In addition to searches you'll find solutions to problems that might come up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top