Exposure on the HVX200

[Barry Green]

[Catama Productions] “but I find that 100% looks way way way off in the LCD. I lose definition in the whites WAY before it “Zebras” at 100%.”

Then your LCD isn’t properly calibrated. Trust the zebras, not the LCD. The LCD is only vaguely accurate and cannot be used to 100% reliably judge exposure, whereas the zebras are mathematically accurate. If you have your zebras set to 105%, and no zebras are showing, then you are *not* clipping detail and you’re not losing definition in the whites, regardless of what the LCD shows. If you see zebras in the 105% area, you probably are clipping.

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[Harryd]

I’d think this would be a good practice in any shooting situation. the zebras work, and no production monitor can be trusted – remeber the acronym for NTSC? Never The Same Color?

Back in the analog days, i’d never shoot to 100%, and that was even knowing that if something was “blown out,” you maybe get back a bit of it because analog could go to maybe 120%. not so with digital. when the signal hits 100%, that means 255 in 8-bit, and that’s it (unless the cameras are calibrated for 100% to equal 235, of which I’m not aware). no bringing it back from white. which is why i try to shoot no greater than 80-90%. It looks great than way, gives me some latiude to play with it in post, and I keep headroom.

didn’t i hear a rule of thumb somewhere for digital video to shoot 1 stop under?

hd

HarryD

[Gary Adcock]

[HarryD] “didn’t i hear a rule of thumb somewhere for digital video to shoot 1 stop under?”

that is a really, really bad idea with the HVX200.

Under exposure of the image seems to exacerbate the compression noise when working with the HXV.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Chicago, IL

[Bill Paris]

I’ve been shooting with this camera for a few months and have found having white elements in your scene just touching 100% using zebras is a good exposure. For example if your shooting a landscape with white clouds, expose the scene having zebras coming on in the brightest parts of the clouds. Portions of a scene that pass 100% will be blown out with no detail. The same holds true for most video cameras, but especially HD. During a Sante Fe workshop at USC we shot an interview with the Sony Cine Alta bracketing the exposures a stop at a time (4 under and 4 over) We then took the footage to a color correction facility and ran it through a Davinci 2K to try and fix the scenes. Using the Davinci we were able to “fix” the scene at least 3 stops under exposed, but lost detail immediatly on the first stop over. The lesson? Don’t over expose HD unless you “intend to do it”. You will loose detail in the highlights even slightly over exposed. If I find myself in a situation where I’m not sure if the picture is a little hot, I may back off the expose a 1/4 stop or so until the zebras appear in the very brightest part of the scene. You can usually pull the detail out from the dark areas if needed later. If your concerned about “Crushing the Blacks” try bringing the setup/blacks up a bit to make sure your capturing the detail in the shadows. Hope this helps.

Bill Paris
Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television

[Chip Mcallister]

I have a question about Zebras.

OK, here are the shooting parameters:

I am shooting a movie, desperately wanting it to look as much like film as possible.

I know that if I were outside I would set the 85% zebras to barely show up on the the whitest white part of the clouds in the sky.

However, where should my 85% (or 100%) zebras be set in a tan living room where the brightest color is the white of a person’s eye? Should I still make certain that there are some 85% zebras in the whites of a person’s eyes or anything that is the brightest thing in the room (even though tan may be the brightest color)? Please let me know. Thanks.

If you don’t mind answering another question . . . how do I “Crush the blacks” to make my film look better? Thanks.