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Video not as sharp as photo
For some reason, I can’t seem to get my video as sharp as my photos, using the same camera, lens, and settings.
Obviously there’s a big difference in resolution, being that the photos are around 6000×400 (24mp) and it shoots video at 1080p which would be less than a third the size—but even if I reduce my photo to the size of the video the photo is still much sharper…
For example, here’s a photo:
And here’s a still from a video:
Is this just “how it is”, or can I make further adjustments to get sharper video? -
3 Replies
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H.264? It’s whatever the Nikon shoots natively… Only difference is I’ve installed the Cineflat profile.
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Cineflat codec is just a tool for achieving a wider dynamic range in a video than you would get in using the normal picture profiles – you have to then edit the footage to increase or decrease contrast, sharpness, saturation and color values the way you prefer. It’s for capture not for export. While you can bump up the perceived sharpness of video somewhat in post – it is what it is and the photograph is going to have much higher resolution and pixel density so even if you resize the photo down to the dimensions of the video it’s still going to look sharper to you – that’s where video technologies like 4K, 8K, etc etc come in.
Still, according to an article I found online: “4K resolution is either 3840 x 2160(UHD) or 4096 x 2160(DCI). This resolution works out to about 8.3 megapixels per frame.” So compare that to a 24MP still image – of course the still image is going to be sharper no matter what. Video is always going to be somewhat “soft” – I think that’s part of the attraction to the more “dreamlike” characteristic of a movie vs a still image but that’s just my personal opinion.
https://alphauniverse.com/stories/-cinephotography—pulling-stills-from-4k-video/
Steve Crow
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I may have made a mistake in referring to “pixel density” – I was just trying to make a differentiation between the frame size of an image or video still and the amount of actual data captured within it. Obviously you could take a still frame from a standard definition video (640 x 480) and if you increase that say in Photoshop to 1920×1080 it’s going to look like crap because you haven’t increased the amount of actual data in that image – just “stretched it out” if you get my drift
Actually, “down-rezzzing” that camera still photo to HD probably made it look even sharper ☺
You can try not filming with the Cineflat codec and get closer to what you are hoping for out of camera. You can’t make it sharper though, not really. Some pros prefer to film in “flat” or “log” format because there’s more room (dynamic range) to play with in editing – but it’s much harder to focus using one of these “cinema” profiles as I’m sure you discovered. It’s all about tradeoffs right?
Steve Crow
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