-
Confused about color in Pro-Res HQ
Hi all,
I have a project that was shot with a Panasonic HVX 200, 720p 23.98fps. The finished product will be close to a 4:3 video for the internet. (I actually mean close to 4:3.. I just found out that the size they need will be 296 x 222 rather than 320 x 240)
I knew that I was going to be doing a lot of Pan-n-scan in the edit, so I decided to drop my clips into a 640 x 480 timeline. This was a perfect choice for the moves I needed to do in post. I had read that using Apples Pro Res HQ was a fast way to edit since the rendering speed is very quick. After testing a few different sequence settings, I agree that the Pro Res HQ gave me good quality with fast rendering times.
But now I am done editing and ready to output a master, that I will then scale and crop for the client.
I have a couple of questions/comments.
— I notice that when playing back the Pro-Res footage in the timeline, the colors fade considerably in comparison to the rich colors I see when the playhead is stationary.
–I also notice that the colors of the reference movie I output is faded as well.I am at the point in the project where I need to color correct and sweeten the footage, and I am confused as to why the Pro-Res timeline is showing me such faded colors.
Any help is appreciated.
MattTalkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617 -
5 Replies
-
[Matthew Abourezk] “I notice that when playing back the Pro-Res footage in the timeline, the colors fade considerably in comparison to the rich colors I see when the playhead is stationary.”
That’s a monitoring/settings issue, not an issue inherent with ProRes.
How are you monitoring? What are your video playback settings?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
-
Hi David,
Since this is to be a web video for kashi, I am monitoring in the canvas. Keep in mind that I have dropped the DVCPRO HD 16:9 footage into a Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) timeline at 4:3. This means that any clip I drop into the timeline needs to be rendered.
When the playhead is sitting, the footage is saturated and beautiful. When the playhead is moving, the footage is unsaturated and the colors shift a bit. Exported movies all have the same bland color saturation as in the canvas.
The sequence settings are as follows:
General Tab> Frame size 640 x 480 NTSC 4:3, Quicktime Video Settings are Apple ProRes 422 HQ with Quality set to 100%.
Video Processing Tab> I have tried all of the sequence precision rendering options (RGB, 8 bit YUV, and the 10 bit options. All look the same.
Render Control Tab> everything at 100%, Codec set to “Same as sequence codec”, Always use Best Quality when rendering movies” is checked.The RT Tab in the timeline is set to Full Quality playback.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks a bunch.
MattTalkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617 -
Hi again,
I just performed a test that again points to Apples ProRes 422 HQ as the culprit.
I dropped a DVCPRO HD clip into a new sequence and allowed to sequence to automatically set to the clips settings.
No rendering, played just as saturated as it looked when not playing.
Added a text layer which forced a render, still looked good playing.
Changed the pixel aspect ratio to square and the frame size to 640 x 480, still good playback.
Changed the Quicktime Video Settings to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) and the playback became unsaturated again. I don’t know if it is a combination of multiple settings above, but the problem most definitely occurred only when I changed the sequence to ProRes.Talkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617 -
Okay then,
I am getting a better picture of what is going on. The problem relates to a combination of Apple ProRes422 (including Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) in a frame that is 4:3. Doesn’t matter what the pixel aspect ratio or any other settings are. If I drop a DVCPRO HD clip into a timeline, change the frame size to any flavor of 4:3, the playback and exported clips are unsaturated. If I change the frame size to anything but a 4:3 ratio, the playback is fine.
Talkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617 -
It’s possible that your RT settings are set to dynamic, and so the picture quality is dropping down in the canvas because your hard drives are not able to play ProRes. Try changing te RT playback quality setting to “High” and set the framerate to dynamic and see what happens.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up