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Scene appears too dark on DVD
Occasionally I find the darker scenes in my footage look very dark on the final DVD, although the scene was adequately lighted at the time and looked fine on the NLE (Final Cut).
I use tungsten lights, however sometimes incandescent lights are also present in the scene. Could this be the problem? Could it be that they are confusing the camera? But is is strange that it only shows up on the final DVD. Maybe it is a compression issue???
Or something completely different?? -
7 Replies
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How are you monitoring the video when you edit.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
[Rich Wells] “I use tungsten lights, however sometimes incandescent lights are also present in the scene.”
Not that it makes any difference, but incandescents are a kind tungsten light.
How did you monitor your footage in FCP? Were you connected to a video monitor? If so, you probably would have seen the darkening on your video monitor. Also, are you looking at the DVD on a TV? It may play back darker on a computer than on a TV.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
[Rich Wells] “Occasionally I find the darker scenes in my footage look very dark on the final DVD, although the scene was adequately lighted at the time and looked fine on the NLE (Final Cut).”
Although improper luminance levels can be a byproduct of MPEG video compression, I serously doubt that is the case Rich. More likely, in your case, it would be that whatever your method of monitoring when editing in FCP, your monitors are not properly calibrated. So, when you’re viewing a DVD played back on a TV using a set top player, you’re really seeing a much closer approximation of the luminance levels of the original video than you’ve been seeing throughout the editing process.
Check your calibration for luminance by taking a known set of color bars throughout your typical post-production workflow. The three bars in the lower right hand corner, “the pluge bars,” are used for properly establishing calibration of video luminance levels. When a monitor is properly adjusted, the rightmost pluge bar should be just barely visible, while the left two should appear completely black.
You need to make certain that your monitors are set so that the rightmost pluge bar displays exactly the same at every stage of post. So, whether you’re monitoring it on the timeline in FCP, or on your on TV after creating a DVD, that pluge bar should be the same and just barely visible. If it is, then you can be certain that your luminance levels are set correctly on all monitors. If you still have issues, then youi can begin to look at other variables, but I hightly doubt your will find any other variables are causing this problem for you.
[Rich Wells] “I use tungsten lights, however sometimes incandescent lights are also present in the scene. Could this be the problem? Could it be that they are confusing the camera?”
Nope, that’s probably not an issue…
David
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.
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[Rich Wells] “although the scene was adequately lighted at the time and looked fine on the NLE (Final Cut). “
What you see on the FCP monitor, or on any computer monitor being fed directly from your GFX card, is not an accurate representation of what your video looks like.
-A
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Hi guys. I did not make my question clear enough. Yes, I understand that every monitor, TV, projector, etc will show images slightly differently.
The question is why CERTAIN (darker) scenes will project VERY dark, while ALL the other scenes in the movie appear perfectly okay on whatever monitor, TV, projector is being used.
Somehow the darker scenes are ending up unusually dark (I have not used gain). Thanks
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[Rich Wells] “Hi guys. I did not make my question clear enough. Yes, I understand that every monitor, TV, projector, etc will show images slightly differently. “
Yes we under stand that. But our question still remains. How are you monitoring your video while you edit? You cannot trust a computer monitor to show you what the end video will actually look like.
So again.
How are you monitoring your video while you edit?
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
[Zane Barker] “How are you monitoring your video while you edit?”
And I also want to repeat my question to Rich, are all of your monitors calibrated to display luminance as similary as possible?
While some codecs do have slight effects on gamma, contrast, and color saturation, we’re not talking about going from good to completely unacceptable, as Rich seems to be implying.
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.
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