VariCam color correction

[Leo Ticheli]

Are you setting up your camera with DSC charts and a vector scope?

How are you monitoring?

[Bryan Maslin]

Hi Leo-

I’m using the camera’s factory setup as a chroma baseline. I’m not using a chart or a scope currently, just seeing what the range of color reproduction is using a Panasonic BT-LH900 monitor set to the default chroma/phase/contrast/brightness settings. The color bars look great, but the images seem not to change much as I adjust the color correction settings. I do see the change when using the “high color” setting- I was hoping for more saturation.

[Leo Ticheli]

I believe setting up a VariCam without charts and a scope is all but impossible. Further, I’ve not found the factory settings to be optimal, at least not for my eye.

You have myriad choices; Film Rec, Video Rec, all the knee settings, not to mention the color correctors, and many others.

I strongly advise you to buy Goodman’s Guide to the VariCam and a set of DSC charts. You’ll need a vector scope as well. Then block out a great deal of time to setup the camera and test your settings in the studio/field doing the kind of work you do. Having an experienced camera engineer along is a very good idea.

If you choose not to setup the camera yourself, hire a good VariCam tech to help develop the settings for you.

Good shooting!

Leo
Director/Cinematographer
Southeast USA

[Bryan Maslin]

Thanks for your replies, Leo.

I have the Goodman’s Guide. I’ve read it pretty thoroughly, and have used it to create many of the settings that you refer to (Film Rec, gamma, etc.). I have the gamma, detail, and other functions where I want them, and can see changes when using the camera menus. I also firmly believe in using a scope and charts to create a “baseline” look for the camera, which can be saved and modified from job to job.

I still don’t understand, once that baseline look has been created, how I can virtually max out the color correction saturation settings and see very little change to my image.

[Mariusz]

Hi Brian,

There is lot of diffent menu settings that kind of rely on each other. You may have color correction off for that particular switch gain position.
Contact me if you still have a problem adjusting camera.

Mariusz Cichon
AbelCine Tech NY
mariusz@abelcine.com
212.462.0100

[Leo Ticheli]

It might come down to personal taste; you could have settings that are optimal to most, but not pleasing to you.

On the other hand, there could be some problem with the settings or an actual electrical/mechanical problem with the camera. Without seeing it, there’s no way to judge. Perhaps you could take the camera to the local rental house and ask their camera department to take a look. Perhaps Panasonic in NY could send someone to check it out for you.

Good shooting!

Leo
Director/Cinematographer
Southeast USA

[Bryan Maslin]

Thanks Leo.

Mariusz actually cornered the problem for me. I was using the color correction settings to enhance chroma. He suggested using the matrix adjustments instead. It worked.

I thought that the matrix was supposed to be primarily used to bring up one particular color or bring down another, and that the color correction was supposed to be used to enhance overall chroma. According to Mariusz, it’s the reverse. Seems to work for me.

[Tony]

Leo’s suggestion to find an experienced video controller or DIT is highly recommended when playing around with the internal menus on any camera.

You need to understand why it is you want to change something, or it is you can accomplish it, and what the end results (positive or negative will be as a result of the change.)

Without using the proper instrumentation as well as monitor you can create major issues later downstream in post production.

The best piece of advice I can offer is always have a scene file saved which allows you to return to your original starting point so you can compare what you have done as well as get out of a major mess you may have created.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

You need to understand why it is you want to change something, or it is you can accomplish it, and what the end results (positive or negative will be as a result of the change.)

Correction to the phrase above I meant to say the following.

You need to understand why it is you want to change something, how it is that you can accomplish the change, and what the end results will be (positive or negative as a result of the change.)

Tony Salgado

[Tom Krohn]

Seems to me that blacks and gammas have a lot to do with color saturation, and that the VariCam factory settings for these two items are set pretty high. Lower gammas and blacks seem to equal more saturation. I havn’t done any film-out work–most of my clients expect to see in post, what they see in the field. I’ve had pretty good luck, sat-wise, with blacks 0-5 IRE and gammas 60-70 IRE. Though I am pushing some of the matrix and CC numbers toward their upper limits. Like others, I wonder how you really know without a waveform and a chart.

T.Krohn