Idea to fix graininess footage?

[frozone]

Hey guys. I'm shooting video for our funeral home and our chapel is 75 ft. long. I'm using Barry Greens setting "Color", but I've also tried "Lonoiz". I'm getting some graininess to my pictures. Any ideas as to some things that could help out? Here's a screen capture. Thank you!

 

[David Jimerson]

It's underexposed, which will increase noise. You've still got some room to iris up, so that should help some. If there's a way to decrease the light on the background or increase the light in the room, it'll help even more.

 

[frozone]

So I played with the Iris today. I feel like it's opened all the way and the f2.8 value on my screen does not change at all when operating the Iris dial. Light is maxed out in the room... Any other ideas?

 

[David Jimerson]

Then you're at full zoom, right? You can get more out of it at a wide angle (camera moved forward).

Even at full zoom, that seems awfully dark (do you have an ND filter on for some reason?). You need to find a way to get more light in there. That's the only way to bring up the exposure and lower the noise. Unfortunately, there's no magic noise-reducing button or setting. It's all about exposure, and having enough light to bring the image out of the noisy darks.

There are post tools like Neat Video which do an admirable job of noise reduction, but that's not without compromises. By far the better thing to do is get as little noise as possible when you shoot.

 

[Michael Carter]

With the HMC, make sure to black balance every day - preferably every time you power up.

In that frame grab, I'd try to get more light on the guy - it's really bright behind him. Plus, when I owned an HMC, I found it hard to get a sharp look wide open and tried for F4 or so.

Play with your master pedestal - sometimes you can bring up the blacks a little in camera (which can in some situations make noise more apparent) and then crush them back down in grading (which tends to "clog up" the noise and lessen or eliminate it). This is something to test - whether the noise boost from master ped followed by noise reduced by crushing... is greater or less than the noise you'd get shooting without lifting the blacks. It's the kind of thing you can play with for a few hours and get a feel for.

Your color balance looks pretty warm - get that dead on in camera and you won't have to grade as hard (which always seems to jack up any noise). Unless you're going for that look. Looks very saturated & red/orange to me.

And yep, Neat Video is worth every penny (though whenever you use it you have to ask yourself if it's worth the rendering time). And while you're shooting, if you think there's the slightest chance you'll use neat... grab some footage of a flat, neutral wall or something with your current WB, gain, scene, etc settings. Neat video needs a decent sized block of perfectly flat footage to build a noise profile (to do its best work anyway). You capture the profile and save it as a preset, and then use that on all the clips with that setup. You can use neat without a custom profile, but it does its best work with one.

And when using neat, play with the noise and sharpening settings - you can push it into "plastic land" when a light touch may be all that's needed.

 

[ELN614]

I would think (and this may be not the answer you're looking for) if you used a single chip camcorder with a large chip. (let's say 1" or larger) You should be able to reduce your noise issue.
I agree; a proper dead-on (pun intended) white balance will help. Along with a light on the speaker.

 

[Greg Smith]

The problem that jumps off the screen at me here is that the lighting is much brighter on the light colored background than on the speaker. That forces the aperture closed so as not to blow out the back wall, but you lose detail and gain noise in the darker area in front. I would start by reducing the light in back, then, if possible, add some at the position of the speaker/podium/easel in front. White and black balance a must, of course. (Is that back wall really white, or some kind of pink/coral hue as it looks in this sample?). Is the light on the speaker even the same color as the light on the back wall?

- Greg