-
DSLR Video doesn’t look as good as it used to.
Hi,
I filmed some 1080p24 video on my Canon 650d, and it doesnt look full hd. It looks better than 576i footage, but still not great… not as good as footage i see on youtube, with the same camera and lens.
Why does it look this bad? It looks fine on camera (but then again it is a 3″ screen), but on my 24″ 1080p panel, it looks bad…Please help?
-
21 Replies
-
I think the main problems are not so much technical but more on the creative side. I will say that the shot appears to me to be overexposed (but still within legal limits) and I think a lot of this is caused by a strong shaft of light coming from screen right and going diagonally screen left crossing the electrical box in front of the wooden wall. This shaft is causing some overall glare. One thing you can do in editing is to lower the exposure of the highlights.
Creatively, the real problem is that the shot is simply boring and much too long – it appears to be a wide establishing type shot showing someone waiting? at a busy street corner.
You have deep focus so there’s nothing that interesting in the frame to capture my attention – I think that’s why it looks like DV video.
I don’t know if you were asking for this kind of feedback but I’d cut this down to 2- 3.5 seconds total for the sequence and think about how I could use maybe 2 or 3 shots to get across this idea in a more interesting way. For instance. what if you had a close up of the waiting man’s hands anxiously flipping the newspaper’s pages, then maybe a quick shot of his darting eyes and head movement to show that he is not really interested in the newspaper at all – but is waiting or watching out for someone. Then you can have the wider shot showing the overall street scene but very short.
Steve Crow
-
I wonder what lens you used? Your overall focus is soft, and the women are more in focus than the man at the left. Are you using autofocus or manual?
Also you are shooting into the sun which gives the scene a hazy look to it. Maybe the lens needs to be closed a few stops to get a better overall focus and depth of field as well. -
i was using the 55-250 stm lens… at about f7.1.
i wanted a little lensflare… to give it that effect.but even when shooting other videos, not in direct sunlight.
it still doesnt look great…
i think i was using af with tracking on him. and on tje camera screen it seemed alright.also, to the guy above. It was just a video to try out the panning skills of the tripod… and to show off my friend’s wheel. so the creative side doesnt really matter.
-
Sounds like you need to manually focus to get a sharp focus. The depth of field can be controlled with the f-stop. Also, what iso were you shooting at? Higher or auto iso can produce a more washed out look than sticking to the low isos. Finally, shots need to be color graded to pop. If you look, you can see pretty heavy color grading on every TV show.
Another thought, is when on a tripod you should keep VR (vibration reduction) off. Another is try another lens to see if it makes a difference. -
i was shooting at iso 100. That is why i had to have the f-stop at 7.1…. even for some shots which i couldnt upload. that were in focus. it doesnt look great. Before colors… my problem is the quality, as in detail. should i use something like cinestyle? and add sharpness in post?
Settings on the camera were…
Sharpness max.
contrast 2 clicks below max.
saturation max.
color tone normal. -
Try setting all your camera settings to standard and do your processing in post. If you set your contrast low, that is what you got.
-
Shall i set them to Standard, Neutral, or Cinestyle?
Also, The reason i set them to my custom vivid profile, is because then i dont have to color correct it later.
From what ive heard, its better to get colors how u want on camera, than grading. -
I set my colors to standard. I use Premiere Pro CS6 to grade. I don’t think it’s possible to get a professional looking video without doing some color grading. Check out youtube videos on color grading. Some people remove the color and contrast first, but I don’t. I’m just adding a bit of saturation and color correction and tweaking the highlights and shadows like I would a photo with Photoshop.
-
ok, ill try that next time…. the only problem now is. that in the uk there isnt much light in the day time.
-
Premiere Pro CS6 has some very good lighting effects you can add in post from spotlights to ambient lights to coloring the light. You can also change the focal length, turn a wide angle into a closeup, etc. Check out some youtube videos on lighting with Premiere Pro. You’ve got good equipment. I think you just need to learn some of the things you can do in post to totally change the look of the video out of the camera. You can’t improve the focus, but the color and lighting and focal length are all adjustable. Good luck.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up