What is going on here?

J

jmfox

Active member
This is a clip (enlarged 200%) from a clip taken in 24p and captured with FCP using DV NTSC 48 Advanced setting. The shot was outside, in the shade, with a shutter setting at 1/120. Scene settings are typical of F6.

What is causing the vertical separation and general lack of sharpness. Is it possibly a limitation of my 17" Apple Studio Display, or what? jmf

344%3A582%3B23232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2346%3D34%3B%3D924%3DXROQDF%3E2323%3A%3C3%3B%3B88%3B5ot1lsi
 
I enlarged it to exaggerate the problem.

What is normally done to avoid this phenomenon, besides banning red? Is there a camera setting? Will this magically disappear when I print to tape?

I applied a desaturation filter and the clip improved quite a bit, is this how it is handled?

jmf
 
If you're desaturating the red channel, or with selective desaturation it will probably even out the colors a little better.

J.D.
 
You're seeing the effects of 4:1:1 color sampling. The codec handles pure red and pure blue in a much lower resolution than it does mixed colors. You can try a chroma blurring filter, it may help some.
 
Yup, and if you watch the movie "November", which was shot with the DVX100, you will spot one scene with red that has the same exact problem. It's a dead DV giveaway for a movie.

I wonder if it's better to adjust the chroma and/or phase in camera for shots that are going to include red?
 
Red's a tough thing to handle, and so's blue. And it's not just the DVX that has trouble with it, it's all DV cameras, because of the way the color sampling works.

I'd say you're probably better off trying the chroma blur filter (Nattress makes one for Apple, and Sony Vegas includes one on the PC); I've seen other examples of red jaggies where the chroma blur made a big difference.
 
I've logged many shoots and this is my first lesson in red. I believe it is not just red but the color of the light, combined with other colors. My experience in retrospect, suggests that reds are not an issue if they are not competing with other colors and primarily fill the shot. It seems that the further away (at wide angle) and with the addition of other rich colors (say foliage green), the more noticeable the red problem.

jmf
 
Red directly bordering on black is even worse in my experience. I have 3 rules for attire in my productions (which my zombie crew didn't want to follow) and that's no big logos or wording on shirts, no tight patterns (moire), and NO RED.
 
MattinSTL said:
Red directly bordering on black is even worse in my experience. I have 3 rules for attire in my productions (which my zombie crew didn't want to follow) and that's no big logos or wording on shirts, no tight patterns (moire), and NO RED.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good rule to me :) The first thing I shot when I finally got my DVX100B was a scene with a red blanket that has a black border, and I thought there's something wrong with the camera.
 
John_Hudson said:
That would be the phenomenon of the color RED and Digital Video.
Click to expand...

lmao :thumbup:

"phenomenon"

There are some great filters that can help with this problem built right into FCP. Try chroma smoothing or selective desaturation (if you can afford to lose some of the shirt's color).
 
korimickster said:
Try chroma smoothing or selective desaturation (if you can afford to lose some of the shirt's color).
Click to expand...

Hm, where is selective desaturation? Can't find it in the FCP manual.
 
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