I am shooting a golf course with a Panasonic DVX 100. I have the camera set up so the screen on the camera looks great. Very rich colors. When I capture this into FCE I lose all this richness and get a desatured look (Apple flat screen monitor). I want discover what's going on before I get too far along. Any ideas/solutions? Thanks.

Grant McClintock

How does the image look if you connect the camera straight to a monitor?

Jeff,
I ran the tape through a TV monitor and it didn't look much better. It is much flatter than in the camera. Grant

I asked this question to an editing formum but thought I would post it here as well in case I am doing something wrong related specifically to the DVX 100.

I am shooting a golf course. I set up the DVX 100 to give very rich, saturated colors. I have shot tests, and they looks great on the camera LCD but flat and unsaturdated when I play the tape back through various monitors. Any ideas?

Thanks, Grant McClintock

The LCD screen cannot be used to judge color saturation as it shows an oversaturated, limited color palette. You have to have properly calibrated broadcast monitor to setup the camera to make settings

Additionally, saturation can then be tweaked in post.

like stephen said.. most LCD will always look a lot "better" than on ntsc monitor. usually they have higher contrast and saturation.

i can't comment specifically about the DVX because i have only shot with them a few times, but if you light the scene well (or in this case, shoot on a well-lit sunny day) you could get good contrast and saturation, which can then be enhanced in post.

What settings were you using during recording? Any of the custom settings?

Two words: polarizing filter

This could be very useful to get richer color, at least through the lens, on a sunny day.

Of course you can also tweak the chroma settings. But you -will- need a good production monitor on the shoot if you really need to monitor color.

Thanks very much for these replies. I understnad that I need a monitor to set the colr. What is the proceedure. Do I shoot tape, play back through the monitor and then adjust the setting until the playback looks right? Thanks for fielding these novice questions. Grant McClintock

I have used some custom settings in order to get the look I wanted on the LCD. I now understand that I must calibrate the color using a monitor connected to the camera. I am assuming I go through the same proceedure except instead of trying for good results on the LCD, I want to calibrate it to look right on the monitor --apparently these two can be quite different. Grant

You may have also adjusted the LCD to get the look you want also. Be sure to set the LCD back to factory default. Then feed a known signal (like color bars into a monitor. Adjust the monitor to view the bars properly. If unsure how to do this do a search, this has been discussed in the past. Then adjust the LCD, via it's controls, to match the monitor as close as possible. Now shoot some scenes and compare what you shot with the image on the LCD and monitor. they should be fairly accurate. If there are big differences in the scenes compared to the viewed tape, you have misadjusted some of the cameras controls.

Thanks Jeff. I have not found anything specific to this question with my search. Probably using the wrong search words.

My problem is that I am working on a project which has a deadline, so I need to get something right for this and then I can adjust in leisure after that. This will be a DVD viewed on TVs for the most part. Can I simply adjust the camera setting on a hit and miss basis until they look right when played back through a TV? I Thanks Grant

Do you have access to color bars? If so, calibrate your TV (monitor) to the bars, search monitor color bars calibration, for posts with information on how to do this.

If you don't have access to color bars to calibrate your monitor and LCD, then just shoot it in auto. when you have time to learn your camera and it's controls you'll have time to experiment. It will be easier to fix it in post if you have properly exposed video to begin with. If you shoot with your camera adjusted wrong, you may not be able to fix it in post.

Here's one way to calibrate your TV or monitor http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

Since nobody said, "I second that!" to Ken's point I will. Anybody who's got experience in photography realizes the incredible benefit of polarizers and once you start using one you almost can't go back. For outdoor shots a polarizer is indispensable.

Your final image will look MUCH better if you get one! With a polarizer you can choose to have your water-hazards reflecting sky and appear blue, or if they use Aqua-chlor or some other colorant (sea-green water-hazards) then you can turn the polarizer to bring that out. Grass and leaves can either reflect sunlight or absorb it with a simple turn. Do you want the grass to appear shiny or DARK green? Or somewhere inbetween?

I'd say bite the bullet and get a GOOD polarizer that isn't really dark. B+W polarizers are really light so you can use 'em and you're only adding like half a stop. If nothing else you can get a pitch black cheapy and use it mainly on sunny days.

Any photo you've ever seen with a sky that fades to cobalt blue was shot with a polarizer. When I shot video of Lake Michigan in Chicago it came out looking like I was in the tropics! (Green water and cobalt sky... much better then reality... and the look I wanted.)

This polarizer topic is interesting. I remember those from Physics class in college. My professor told me that polarizers mearly pass natural light into one plane.

Also, concerning getting a light polarizer. According to the equation for a linear polarizer, the iradiance of light passing through it is always halfed. So this could only be useful in very bright scenes?

In practical usage, does a neutral density filter perform a similar function? Can/should they be used together? If no to both questions, then why don't the prosumer cameras include them?

Very interesting,

Polarizers typically reduce the light by 1.5 stops to 2 stops of light. The saturation of colors is a result of reducing reflections from reflective surfaces. The shinny surfaces create polarized light and degrades the image. The polarizing filter prevents the polarized light from entering the lens, thus giving the effect of saturating colors. Use of polarizing filters indoors is usually not recommended due to the light loss.

Additionally, no, neutral density (ND) filters do not serve the same purpose. ND filters simply reduce all light through the lens. They do not polarize the light.

I haven't seen the B+W polarizers. Are they actually lighter? The filter factor is the same as for a Tiffen. Grant

I have two. Honestly, I can't technically confirm that but they do appear a bit lighter than my Tiffen. However, it's largely a moot point, as you would be using it in bright sunlit settings anyway.

Are we talking lighter as in weight (B+W is probably heavier they're made with brass mounts) or optical density? The optical density is not an accurate gauge of their effectiveness.

I guess I wouldn't be totally concerned about it, but when I said the B+W polarizers are lighter... I meant less dark. The construction is super solid.

With such a BIG lens 72mm it's a bit of a job to clean a MC filter properly. I use some stuff called Formula MC that I got from www.2filter.com and it works pretty good.

B&H has the best price on polarizers... I coulda' saved close to $20 if I'd have bought mine from them.

The one I'm using now is called an FPRO. It's a B+W multi-coated job and it's significantly less dark then the Tiffen's I've used in the past.

The reason I care about having a lighter polarizer is 'cause I use mine indoors to eliminate glass also. I should post some frame grabs from Shed Aquarium in Chicago. There's a few shots where I had to turn the polarizer while shooting and it goes from a window reflecting some young ladies... to what looks like a huge fish floating in mid-air.

Of course I wouldn't get bent on paying the highest possible price for a polarizer either... they all work and I don't know if I could justify exactly why I like B+W so much... but I do.