[FCP-L] Re: Differing video levels on camera monitor and captured video

I have never seen camera LCD monitors used as a reference at all. In fact, they are about as untrustworthy as you can get.

First: They are small. The smaller your monitor, the better your picture resolution looks. So details you saw in the monitor didn't really exist.

Second: They're not set up to any reference. And, since you cannot turn off individual "guns" you cannot set them up to SMPTE bars. They have no analog in reality.

Third: What got put down on tape is what is real. Always do a test recording when you have a subject that may be blown out by brights or crushed by blacks. Try to take your shot and look at it before you try to produce with it.

Fourth: Cameras may not have their iris set up correctly. When a camera is in auto-iris or has exposure set to auto when on the right subject then set to manual for the full scene, those adjustments may be too high or low. Cheap consumer or prosumer camcorders cannot be adjusted but real video cameras may be. Don't trust auto-Iris unless you have looked at it on a scope.

To set up for a face in a shot like that, zoom in and expose for the face, turn off Auto-Iris and zoom out. You'll probably see that the monitors wil be blown out. But if you exposed the face correctly, the scene will be fine and the monitors will be clipped (or you can clip them in FCS's Color). You can also lock down the shot and shoot it twice, with the people exposed and then with the monitors exposed. Keying the correctly exposed monitors (or compositing them in Motion) may give you the look you are going for.

--- In FinalCutPro-L@yahoogroups.com, Kerry Soloway <ksoloway@...> wrote:
>
> I received a couple of tapes last week from a shooter of a host in front of
> a bank of television monitors. This was standard def, shot on miniDV.
> Although tape playback looked beautiful on the camera LCD, the video, when
> captured, of the skin tones where very low. So low, in fact, that when
> raising the gamma and chroma, the face lost most of its detail.
>
> I realize that data is data and that the video looked the same no matter
> what camera it was played back on. Could it be that the television monitors
> in the background were so bright that the ratio of the image was correct but
> the camera LCD displays a wider range?
>
> Thanks,
> Kerry
>
> -------------------
> Kerry Soloway
> http://www.NightingaleEditorial.com
> 201-247-4110
> ksoloway@...
>
> Fred Friendly Seminars' "Minds on the Edge: Facing Mental Illness" is airing
> in October. "Consuelo Mack/WealthTrack" airs weekly. Both on PBS. Check
> your local listings.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

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