why cant my videos look this good?

[Angelo Mike]

Let me guess-you get a lot of digital noise (visual grain) on screen? That’s a problem with most cameras unless you spend a lot of money on one that can deal with low light without trying to boost the gain.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

[Paul Gilmore]

I have FX-7 it handles pretty well under low light, but yes grain and noise… so to make a video look this good it’s the camera and not the editing software?

[Angelo Mike]

Well, you’re asking a question that needs to be narrowed down. What’s the problem with your footage exactly? What doesn’t look good, and what are you shooting and editing settings? Maybe you just need to do some adjustment on the color curves, color correction, and saturation. I noticed that my videos looked way better after I learned how to use these, and I’m still learning how to make them work best for each video. I had no idea what I was missing before that.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

[Paul Gilmore]

I’ll shoot wedding receptions under very low light.. I have the camera on auto mainly because it’s hard to keep adjusting the settings during the shoot.. editing settings? i was told to keep it on default are the best settings and to use match clip option… as for color correcting/curves I use the color correction and it always looks worse, darker.. as for color curves I really dont know how to use them..

Is there a tutorial u can point me to, so i can learn how to use these options correctly??

[Angelo Mike]

Here’s a basic tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4qVXf2t5pE

But just try it out on footage and see what works.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

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[Paul Gilmore]

cool thanks, any other tips?

[Angelo Mike]

Keep going through tutorials on color correction, color curves, and compositing. There’s a lot of information on the subjects. Keep practicing.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

[Paul Gilmore]

cool thanks

[Nigel O’neill]

They probably shot that on a Sony PDWF800 Professional Camera that cost $50K!

🙂

Although, if you are looking for a cinematic feel, the new NEX-VG20 camera with SLR lenses and a huge sensor can give you the cinematic depth of field look you may be looking for. The sensor is massive compared to traditional CCD/CMOS, hence it is able to provide depth of field. As a wedding videographer who shoots on auto, that might be worth a look. Unfortunately, I do a lot of theatre work where full manual control of iris, gain, focus, white balance and shutter speed is required.

Here’s a review. The author is pretty negative about the NEX-VG20 mainly because of ergonomics and lack of manual controls, but if that does not bother you, take a look:

https://www.eoshd.com/content/3898/sony-nex-5n-versus-fs100-and-nex-vg20-hands-on-comparison

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Dave Haynie]

Yup. There’s definitely some serious production talent there. I can figure out how much of it was done, and probably do similar. Though I see a good week’s work or more there, just editing the cool video-wall effect.

The low-light stuff could well be a digital cinema camera. I could so that with my Canon 60D and a fast prime lens, for sure, but there’s no way on this planet I’d get that low noise and shallow DOF with my camcorders. The reason folks in most of our income brackets found HDSLRs to be revolutionary — even given so many video-hostile aspects to the use of such beasties — is precisely the fast that a ~$1000 device can product that class of video.

Of course, if I was regularly making video that good looking, I’d probably stop looking for a new job in electronics engineering and jump with both feet into full-time video! Like more everything else, you learn to make something that good by doing it worse on your first 1000+ projects.

As I’ve actually had a few video and photo jobs this fall for my current employer (the company is leaving the HW business), I’ve taken an exercise from my musical practice into video these days. When you’re learning to play guitar (and like most instruments, you’re either learning it or not playing it), you find something you can’t do and then just keep trying. Eventually you get close, maybe even right there. Same with video or any other artistic expression.

I’m never going to play “Purple Haze” like Hendrix (particularly on the Martin :-).. but I might learn new things trying to get that much closer. And as an engineer, I put a little of that engineering mindset into figuring out just how it was done. Did he use a weird tuning? I learned to play the Beatles’ “Yesterday” a few years ago, and it’s kind of difficult… I only recently leaned that McCartney (yeah, it’s him and only him, on an Epiphone “Texan” acoustic) down-tuned his guitar.. the song’s in F, but he was playing much easier note patterns in G. Try de-constructing the video, and figuring out how the various things might have been done. There are bound to be “magic tricks” like McCartney’s… only in video/graphics.

-Dave