Some nice shots with adjusted constrast/brightness. Your thoughts?

[MatthewC]

I was fooling around with adjusting contrast on video today and I really like what I ended up with as raising the contract brings the grainy noise down a bit.
I like raising the brightness then the contrast. What do you like doing?


I know in the first shot that the house is very dark along with the area surrounding it. That was done intentionally. That part in regular looks quite grainy.

The second shot has a slightly overexposed fence, but its not too bad and I like the way that the gravel and greens turn out.

Is it better to shoot with the Iris open a little bit more, giving you that washed out look(like the images on the left side) that can be adjusted in post, than accidentally shooting it too dark and not being able to brighten it properly?

All thoughts and comments are welcome.


Here's the final video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HpkPZR4XlPU

Here's some comparison shots:

 

[Mark Dog]

what did u use for working on the contrast matt what program do u use vegas ? but u must been reding my mind matt took some video to i raised the contrast also but i aslo uped the Nd filter wich when i looked at i didnt thing i need to i could just left as is raised the contrast and played with brightness im usiin vegas here 6.0

peace n luv

Mark Dog

 

[MatthewC]

what did u use for working on the contrast matt what program do u use vegas ? but u must been reding my mind matt took some video to i raised the contrast also but i aslo uped the Nd filter wich when i looked at i didnt thing i need to i could just left as is raised the contrast and played with brightness im usiin vegas here 6.0

peace n luv

Mark Dog

I was using Adobe Premiere Pro 2. Yeah, the ND filter is there for when the DVX thinks its getting too much light.

 

[Lawsuit_Boy]

first set seems to have a bit too much contrast work, but I'm betting that it was more of an exposure problem than anything. looks like blacking out a lot of the grass and bushes was inevitable.

The second set is the strongest. The extra contrast makes it look much better; more vibrant, and even clean.

 

[bikefilms]

I like what you've done on the first shot. Punchy. The little puff of cloud stands out now.

The second shot looked better before added contrast, I think. I'm a fan of blue sky.

-a

 

[Lawsuit_Boy]

yeah, the second's sky did get a bit blown out. Maybe just ease up a little bit. But I think that it really benefits from having some darker shadows and blacks.

 

[MatthewC]

I like what you've done on the first shot. Punchy. The little puff of cloud stands out now.

The second shot looked better before added contrast, I think. I'm a fan of blue sky.

-a

Holy cow. I didn't even notice that I'd blown out the seconds sky,as blue skys are one of the main reasons I'm shooting these scenes. I was stoned at the time and trying to focus on taking the white grainy look out of the picture. I completely missed that. Maybe I'll lower the brightness/contrast a bit.

 

[MatthewC]

use curves... not contrast\brightness sliders.

it is easier to preserve the highlights.

or if you do use the sliders, use the Scopes. Trust the scopes........

No offense, but your post explained absolutely nothing to me. I have no clue what your talking about, if you could give a little more description to what you mean it might help me out a bit more. Thanks dude.

Also what is everyones thoughts on over-opening the iris
Is it better to have too much Iris, like in all my photos on the left, then adding darkness as needed, instead of not having enough light and trying to add brightness?

 

[MatthewC]

first set seems to have a bit too much contrast work, but I'm betting that it was more of an exposure problem than anything. looks like blacking out a lot of the grass and bushes was inevitable.

The second set is the strongest. The extra contrast makes it look much better; more vibrant, and even clean.

I tried decreasing exposure, and all it did was black out the bushes. I was in a very shaded part and don't think I couldve gotten the bushes around the house much clearer without proper lighting.

 

[TimurCivan]

No offense, but your post explained absolutely nothing to me. I have no clue what your talking about, if you could give a little more description to what you mean it might help me out a bit more. Thanks dude.

Also what is everyones thoughts on over-opening the iris
Is it better to have too much Iris, like in all my photos on the left, then adding darkness as needed, instead of not having enough light and trying to add brightness?

oh shoot sorry.

in your CC selections box. ( maybe under Video Effects) there should be an option for Color curves, sometimes its called Gamma curves. it basically adjusts Contrast and brightness, but it is more precise. you can change the way the curve bends, and choose to highlight certain tonal values in the picture without pushing the highlights into white. ie brighten up the picture, get rid of the Lowcontrast haze, all without pushing the fence into overexposure.

as for the iris, its better to get the exposure perfect the first time. you get more options later.

Try to keep the sky from blowing white, but if its over cast it will happen no matter what. but as a general rule try to keep very little of the image over exposed. even if that means under exposing by one stop or two. cause you cant buy back visual information in over exposed regions. once its white its white forever.