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Varicam and white cyc
My first attempt at shooting talent on a white cyc with Varicam (ala current Mac vs. PC ads) resulted in slightly misty or smokey looking images. Can anybody recommend a setup that will keep the talent crisp on a white cyc?
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3 Replies
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Jennifer,
My guess is that you used 500% dynamic range in film rec; this will result in the look you describe. You can either process the playout through a hardware film gamma corrector or use that feature in the 1400 vtr. Otherwise I recommend a less agressive setting of 200-300% and crushing the gammas to .55 or .60 to get a more wysiwyg look. There is still the chance that agressive color correction on a Da Vinci or Flame will restore the look you’re going for.
It’s quite likely that the Apple commercial you’re imitating was shot on a green screen and the white background composited in in post!
JS
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What kind of lens are you using? Top quality? Any filtering? Sometimes even a clear filter might add to the blooming.
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
This has been covered in detail before.
I certainly agree with Professor Sharaf about the VariCam settings; lower the Dynamic Level a bit to give less detail in the highlights.
The three most important things, to me, are: Lighting, lighting, lighting!
There is a very delicate balance between the BG level on the white cyc and the FG level on the talent. If the BG is too hot, your FG talent will look like burned matchsticks. Go the other way and you’ll have a dingy BG.
I like to light the BG first, adjust my iris so that practically wide open it goes just into clip, and then light the FG for the perfect balance.
Good shooting!
Leo
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