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Why is the Footage that I Load so different from My Camera?
Last week, I was shooting outdoors with a Panasonic DVCPro HD camera. Because it was so loud, I asked if we could shoot indoors. I was a little concerned that I didn’t have a light with me, but when I saw that my subject seemed well lit enough under one of the lights inside, I thought we’d be cool. When I imported to footage from the P2 card, it looks too dark however, but it looks great when I play back the footage on my camera. What gives? (I’ve included a pic of what you see on my camera display and what you see on my Final Cut.) Is there anyway for me to import the footage with the exact same look from my camera? I’ve tried color-correcting the footage on Final Cut, but it doesn’t look as nice and as natural as what plays on the camera.
Any advice?
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6 Replies
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After playing around with the equipment, I think it’s just that the rental camera had a much brighter display, which in the end sucks for me.
Here’s a new question: I’ve tried using FCP’s color correction to have the image look as close to what the camera display has, but it tends to wash everything out as I lighten the shot. Does anyone know of a good program that would be better at emulating the desired look similar to the pictured camera display?
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I’m sure this is going to open up a huge discussion, but suffice it to say that either of the monitors you’re viewing your footage on are not reliable gauges of color or luminance. Each are calibrated differently, have different response curves, etc. The only way to know for sure is to use a properly calibrated broadcast monitor with scopes.
Did you have any scopes running during your shoot? Trusting the LCD of a camera is a pretty dangerous way to live! 😉 The LCD’s on most (if not all cameras) tend to be pretty cheap and a poor representation of what the sensor is actually getting (especially if you dialed up the brightness setting on your LCD). If you have a histogram, vectorscope, or waveform it would show you what is actually happening.
Have you looked at the footage in anything else besides FCP?
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
Yeah, I outputted some of the footage and played it on my Samsung flatscreen. It looks the same. I’m trying my luck with color correcting the footage.
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Stay with it: you will get good results with the 3-way color corrector if you take things one step at a timne. If you don’t have much experience at using it, there is a free online tutorial here on the COW by Rich Harrington:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/harrington_richard/final_cut_color_corrector.php
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Thanks so much! This is helpful.
Matt
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[Matt Paco] “After playing around with the equipment, I think it’s just that the rental camera had a much brighter display, which in the end sucks for me.”
Lesson to learn: ALWAYS bring a reference monitor with you. ALWAYS use a reference monitor (not computer monitor) to view your footage when editing.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group
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