Scene file settings vs post color correction

D_DUB

D_DUB

Member
Ok, I've had my HVX for a while now, but when I'm out toying with different scene file settings, I don't always get the desired result compared with what I'm seeing on the LCD monitor. I know the LCD monitor is terrible for measuring the quality of your HD footage, I understand that. Sometimes I use a scene file setting that pushes up the color saturation of the image (what I'm hoping for) according to the LCD monitor, but when I come home and check the footage on my HD TV, I see a lot of noise in some areas, or too much contrast in others. It's difficult to judge this in the field. I run into similar problems in low light situations with different scene file settings.

Is it not simply safer to just set all the scene file settings to zero and then do color correction or color grading in post? Aside from eliminating the render time needed for color correcting your footage, is there another benefit to using the scene file settings instead of simply doing the CC work in post?:Drogar-BlackEye(DBG
 
For the highest quality HD image... do all color grading in post.
As a digital DOP, your job is to shoot a properly balanced color image, where shadows, midtones and highlights are neutral and which uses the cameras full dynamic range. i.e. flat, without a "look" (you still use light to create depth and form, but lose the high contrast or super saturated look in camera) .
The warming, cooling, contrasty, saturated technicolor, ect. looks should all be done in post.
This is the counter to what we know about film, but film is highly pliable with massive dynamic range abilities. Digital is not.
If you create extreme looks in camera you will almost certainly blowout detail in any one of the color channels or even highlights.
For example... You shoot a scene of Firetruck on a hot summer day. You decide to create a warm look in camera giving an overall warm feel to the shot as well as making the firetruck pop. The red looks super saturated and on set it might look great.
Now... back in your edit bay looking at the footage. The overall look of the film has been decided. The director wants the world of his film to have a cool desaturated look. Just wait till you desaturate that red channel and find that there is no detail because it was peaked. It looks terrible.
So always shoot flat and add contrast and saturation in post.

On a slightly different note, this illustrates the changing needs in skill for DOP's in the digital age. And a willingness and a desire to be part of post production.
 
Thanks Seejay. Your thoughts are similar to mine on the subject, but I'm a newbie to the HVX, and need all the help I can get.
 
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