HVX test SHOOT: i need some help

W

watson

Well-known member
I'm getting ready to shoot my senior thesis film and we did a test shoot on the HVX the other night. It was the first time any of use have shot with the camera (altough i have clocked about 500 hours on my DVX). We were testing out a few things, lighting, workflow, camera, etc. Below are our results.

We had one major problem. While shooting the footage looked great on the LCD and and the view finder, but when i inputed the footage into my computer, it seriouly looked about 2 or 3 stops under. The footage below has been CC to bring up the midtown and the hightones, but the footage before the CC was so dark i didnt know if it would be useable. Has anyone has had this problem?? My main question is, has anyone shot at night / or in low light and have had this same problem? I'm getting worried because the whole film takes place at nightime and now i'm not sure how to judge our exposures. any suggestions? (or then a HD monitor, becase i dont have it in my budget to rent one and my school doesnt have one yet).

Here are the scene settings:

HVX TEST
720pn (24 fps. 60 fps)
Shutter = default

Detail -3
vDetail 0
Detail Coring 0
Chroma Level -4
Chroma Phases -7
color temp 0
Master Ped -8
A. Iris 0

Cinelike V
Knee - Auto
Matrix - norm
Skintone - off
v Detail - Thick

i have to admit that i made the mistake of not playing around with the scene settings much and i think this has a lot to do wiht our results. I didnt notice that the master ped was set all the way to -8 and i think this has to do with losing details in the shadows.

So in short, check out the footage, let me know if you have any suggestions about shooting at night or really anything else. Like i said this was just a big old test shoot so we were trying a bunch of different stuff. Thanks, and please leave some feedback so we can figure out how to fix our problems.

LINK
http://www.andrewdavidwatson.com/hvxtest.html


Andrew Watson
www.andrewdavidwatson.com
 
You might want to calibrate your lcd screen (or whatever you're using to monitor) with some color bars.
 
good point, the HVX belongs to my school, so i never know who used it before me or what settings they could have changed that i'm not even thinking about. I def learned that i need to pay really close to attention to all the settings on the camera and see what might have been changed.
 
First off never trust an lcd, at the very least use the viewfinder, but ideally you really want a calibrated field moniter. Keep in mind its video and you have little latitude so you gotta really watch it...if you can get a waveform too thatll help you.

anyways it doesnt even look bad haha, i think your blacks are too deep (thats the neg 8 master ped) but other then that looks nice...maybe you had to bring it up alot though...doesnt really show though so good cc. Oh and is your moniter calibrated on the computer? maybe its too dark as well.


and yea look at your settings cine like v = harsher contrast and deeper blacks and then ontop of that -8 master ped! those are some supppper deep blacks and a lot of your picture that would have detail in it is falling off to black...its been recommended by a lot of people (inclduing myself) to just shoot with more detail and if you want to crush the blacks do it in post....gives you a lot more flexbility as if you shoot with detail you can always crush the blacks later, but if you dont, your stuck. Honestly I would shoot the whole picture as netural as you can thats what i have begun to do....chroma level 0 or in the pluses and color temp/phase netural master ped like +2 you can always desaturate but saturating the picture more is tough and color can all change in post.


good luck
 
jake, your on here!

watson, i just got an hvx and have been having the exact same problem. Ive just been over exposing footage a little to compensate
 
THoff - i used auto knee on my DVX and never had an issue, would there be anything different between how the two cameras use that mode?

On my DVX i used the standard F5 setting for most of my work and was always pleased with the result. I'm thinking i'm just going to set the HVX to the same settings, does anyone shot on the HVX with the old F5 settings?
 
come on... i didnt put this up to show people, i put this up for some feedback. anyone got any more advince?
 
While shooting the footage looked great on the LCD and and the view finder, but when i inputed the footage into my computer, it seriouly looked about 2 or 3 stops under.

This is why I use the zebras.
 
First off, your footage looks pretty nice.

That said, you should remember that -8 on MP is much harsher than the same setting on the DVX100. Barry says -4 on the HVX is closer to -8 on the DVX. Also, make sure to use zebras and look in the viewfinder. Finally, remember that THIS IS WHY WE DO TESTS. Don't get discouraged.
 
mircobob and David, thanks for the advince. I'll def try using zebras next time. also good to know the fact that master ped is much harsher on the HVX. i never know that. And yes, i'm really glad we had a chance to do a test before the shoot.

Anyone else have any comments or suggestions?
 
can anyone explain the marker tool or point me towards a link?

So my plan to improve my footage:
Bring a monitor (non HD)
Use a much lower Master Ped
Dont use cine like v
use the zebras
use the marker tool (once i figure it out, hard to do without the camera)

Thanks, i feel much better now going into the actualy shoot.
 
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