Noiseless blacks?

Jarek Zabczynski

Jarek Zabczynski

Veteran
I was shooting some stuff for an upcoming music video and was really impressed by the results. I mean it's really nothing to speak of at the moment, I meant the blacks in particular. They came out really clean considering we were shooting at night. It looked really noisey on my monitor while shooting but when I imported everything I was stunned. These are a couple grabs unaltered. There will be effects added in the black spaces on the side.

http://www.jesterpictures.com/dvxuser/hts03.jpg

http://www.jesterpictures.com/dvxuser/hts04.jpg
 
Nice rim lighting. Very nice. I find it's not too hard getting the blacks noiseless (just push the master pedistal down), it's trying to get the rest of the tons clean which is difficult.
 
What monitor were you using?

Also, that guy reminds me of someone...

frozone.jpg
 
DavidBeier said:
Nice rim lighting. Very nice. I find it's not too hard getting the blacks noiseless (just push the master pedistal down), it's trying to get the rest of the tons clean which is difficult.
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Thanks. I believe I keep my master pedistal at -2.
 
Damn. I tend to push mine to at least -7 most of the time and -10 when I'm doing night shoots and really wanna crush those blacks. I take it you were using either Cinelike V or B-press?
 
DavidBeier said:
Nice rim lighting. Very nice. I find it's not too hard getting the blacks noiseless (just push the master pedistal down), it's trying to get the rest of the tons clean which is difficult.
Click to expand...

LOL. The resolution is only 960x720 so he must have exported from FCP to photoshop which apparently doesn't stretch the image back out to its proper size.
 
DavidBeier said:
Damn. I tend to push mine to at least -7 most of the time and -10 when I'm doing night shoots and really wanna crush those blacks. I take it you were using either Cinelike V or B-press?
Click to expand...

Here are my settings... if I don't list it...it's set at "0"

Detail Level +3
Chroma Level +3
Master Pedistal -2
Gamma Cinelike D
Matrix Cinelike

I use that for almost everything...
 
DavidBeier said:
LOL. The resolution is only 960x720 so he must have exported from FCP to photoshop which apparently doesn't stretch the image back out to its proper size.
Click to expand...

I just kept it at its native res.
 
I put the lens cap on, turn on the marker, and reduce the pedestal until the marker shows 0%. Works great.
 
be careful with the master pedastal. It's nice to get as much detail as possible when shooting and finese the blacks in post. When you crush them in camera, if a shot is too dark, you're **** out of luck. It no harder to it in post
 
^
True but, like doing a lot of stuff in camera, if you know what you are doing and know what you want it doesn't hurt to get it right in camera before any compression is applied.
 
DavidBeier said:
^
True but, like doing a lot of stuff in camera, if you know what you are doing and know what you want it doesn't hurt to get it right in camera before any compression is applied.
Click to expand...

although normally I'd be inclined to think that way, DVCPROHD is notorious for having a lot of noisy compression in the blacks and darker colors. For a DVCPROHD project, I'd be more inclined to mess with the contrast in post, whereas on my DVX I always keep the master pedestal to the filmic -7.
 
FatBird19 said:
although normally I'd be inclined to think that way, DVCPROHD is notorious for having a lot of noisy compression in the blacks and darker colors. For a DVCPROHD project, I'd be more inclined to mess with the contrast in post, whereas on my DVX I always keep the master pedestal to the filmic -7.
Click to expand...

I just brought up this thought in another thread.

Getting the look in post with this camera seems a bold feat, to me. THough, the footage posted here looks good.
 
FatBird19 said:
although normally I'd be inclined to think that way, DVCPROHD is notorious for having a lot of noisy compression in the blacks and darker colors. For a DVCPROHD project, I'd be more inclined to mess with the contrast in post, whereas on my DVX I always keep the master pedestal to the filmic -7.
Click to expand...

I don't find any noisy compression in the blacks. When I want something to be pure black it's pure black. The darker colors DO tend to be a bit noisy (don't think that's DVCProHD simply the camera) so I over-expose half a stop or so as Panasonic and others suggest and then bring it back down in post. Either way, having the master pedistal down doesn't hurt since what I want to be pure black will be pure black.
 
The master pedestal on the DVX doesn't seem as aggressive as it is on the HVX. For example, I normally ride around -4 on the HVX, I had to set the DVX to -8 to match the black levels.
 
DavidBeier said:
I don't find any noisy compression in the blacks. When I want something to be pure black it's pure black. The darker colors DO tend to be a bit noisy (don't think that's DVCProHD simply the camera) so I over-expose half a stop or so as Panasonic and others suggest and then bring it back down in post. Either way, having the master pedistal down doesn't hurt since what I want to be pure black will be pure black.
Click to expand...

Are you using Cine-D? Because I'd be worried about blowing out highlights w/o a knee if overexposing with Cine-D.
 
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