Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier (w/ ca. blonde) at DVinfo.net

Alex Plank · June 8th, 2008, 01:04 PM

I went down to the Santa Monica Pier and walked to Venice Beach with my XH-A1. Here's some great footage from the trip. I used the TrueColor preset for everything. Music is California Blonde and Hot Sexy Girls (California Remix).

Some of the locals thought I was from channel 9 news for some reason.

http://vimeo.com/1137835

Alain St-Amour · June 9th, 2008, 04:05 AM

Hi Alex,

Great looking stuff! That roller-coaster shot going round-and-round at the beginning is fantastically smooth.

Doug Davis · June 9th, 2008, 04:28 PM

The autofocus seemed to defeat some of the clarity of your shots... It seemed to pulse in and out... Whatever you rendered to appeared to degrade some of the quality of your shots as well...

You had some great shots in there, but I found myself imagining what the 'real' shots looked like... : )

Alex Plank · June 11th, 2008, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alain St-Amour

Hi Alex,

Great looking stuff! That roller-coaster shot going round-and-round at the beginning is fantastically smooth.

Thanks Alain. I actually shot all of this handheld since I couldn't bring my tripod with me to california. I applied the image stabilization in post.

Wayne Dupuis · June 13th, 2008, 07:03 PM

I always love to "see" location material like this. Never been but now would love to visit; after seeing this footage. Thanks for that.
IMHO it could use a bit of post for contrast as it comes up just slightly flat looking on my (calibrated) Viewsonic. Great grabs though. I enjoyed it.

Alex Plank · June 14th, 2008, 01:37 PM

I agree about it looking flat and it is actually the result of me applying some gamma correction in post due to an inconsistency in final cut pro.

I have displays calibrated to 2.2 gamma and couldn't figure out why things looked fine in Final Cut Pro and then looked washed out when I exported. Well, after some research it appears that final cut pro assumes your gamma is set to 1.8 and darkens the gamma in the canvas to compensate (even if your gamma is correctly set to 2.2).

The only workaround I found was to calibrate the displays to 1.8 gamma and switch to that color profile when I'm working in Final Cut Pro and switch back to the 2.2 profile for everything else. I recently tried using this workflow and the end result looks perfect.

Wayne Dupuis · June 14th, 2008, 07:07 PM

Thanks for the reply Alex. Good to know. Within the last year I converted from CRT to LCD. Didn't like it much until I bought a Spyder. What a difference. Shades are back. I feel good about colour looking like it should, and work is transferring well to CRT with consistency to LCD. Took some getting used to, but am hooked now as I am mostly working HD and have come to trust my gear again.
The Pre's help. -3 rules, and Panalook2 ... my "go to" presets.

June 8th, 2008, 01:04 PM	#1
Alex Plank Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 46	Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier (w/ ca. blonde) I went down to the Santa Monica Pier and walked to Venice Beach with my XH-A1. Here's some great footage from the trip. I used the TrueColor preset for everything. Music is California Blonde and Hot Sexy Girls (California Remix). Some of the locals thought I was from channel 9 news for some reason. http://vimeo.com/1137835

June 9th, 2008, 04:05 AM	#2
Alain St-Amour New Boot Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Ottawa Ontario Canada Posts: 20	Hi Alex, Great looking stuff! That roller-coaster shot going round-and-round at the beginning is fantastically smooth. __________________ In Solidarity, Alain St-Amour

June 9th, 2008, 04:28 PM	#3
Doug Davis Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Birmingham Alabama Posts: 259	The autofocus seemed to defeat some of the clarity of your shots... It seemed to pulse in and out... Whatever you rendered to appeared to degrade some of the quality of your shots as well... You had some great shots in there, but I found myself imagining what the 'real' shots looked like... : ) __________________ "The only thing the camera sees is light..." http://www.GoWildOlive.com

June 13th, 2008, 07:03 PM	#5
Wayne Dupuis Regular Crew Join Date: May 2008 Location: Victoria BC Posts: 29	The beach I always love to "see" location material like this. Never been but now would love to visit; after seeing this footage. Thanks for that. IMHO it could use a bit of post for contrast as it comes up just slightly flat looking on my (calibrated) Viewsonic. Great grabs though. I enjoyed it.

June 14th, 2008, 07:07 PM	#7
Wayne Dupuis Regular Crew Join Date: May 2008 Location: Victoria BC Posts: 29	Gamma Thanks for the reply Alex. Good to know. Within the last year I converted from CRT to LCD. Didn't like it much until I bought a Spyder. What a difference. Shades are back. I feel good about colour looking like it should, and work is transferring well to CRT with consistency to LCD. Took some getting used to, but am hooked now as I am mostly working HD and have come to trust my gear again. The Pre's help. -3 rules, and Panalook2 ... my "go to" presets.

June 14th, 2008, 01:37 PM	#6
Alex Plank Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 46	I agree about it looking flat and it is actually the result of me applying some gamma correction in post due to an inconsistency in final cut pro. I have displays calibrated to 2.2 gamma and couldn't figure out why things looked fine in Final Cut Pro and then looked washed out when I exported. Well, after some research it appears that final cut pro assumes your gamma is set to 1.8 and darkens the gamma in the canvas to compensate (even if your gamma is correctly set to 2.2). The only workaround I found was to calibrate the displays to 1.8 gamma and switch to that color profile when I'm working in Final Cut Pro and switch back to the 2.2 profile for everything else. I recently tried using this workflow and the end result looks perfect.