I just want to know what you think, what you feel when you see this clip I've made with the XL1.. Opinions please!

http://www.fernbrant.com/andreas/saltomortalez2.mpg

Andreas

The look and feel is really cool, but the whites from the sun looks to be clipped. I 've never shot the sunset with a DV camera so I don't really have any suggestions except maybe put on more ND filters. Otherwise keep up the good work.

Personally I love it. Nice work!

Andreas,

Very good job! Loved it.

Would you like to share the specifics --camera settings, post manupulation etc.?

I concur, Andreas. Very nice. I'm interested in what Stylianos asked about also.

Nice clip, I really like the look.

Hi all, thank you for all the nice replys!

Ok, I'll try to break it down easy.

First off I used interlaced mode (no frames) because I can't do slowmotion with frames.

Gain = +0
Whitebalance= Sunpreset (yeah I know;) but it works!
LENS ND = ON
Polfilter = ON
UVFilter = ON

I did contrast and colorcorrect (pulled up the reds on midtones)


Akos, I agree with you but I don't know how to not get the sun clipped.. Perhaps you have some pointers? I believe that Lens ND + Filter ND would be too much...

Thanks for the support!

/Andy

gorgeous. I like that the sun is burning on the image.

Sorry, I don't have any pointers at all, film has a lot more latitude so it's easier. Maybe someone else knows how to remedy the clipped sun situation on DV.

Andreas, I too thought this was beautiful imagery.

One way to have avoided the clipped whites in the water would have been to set the tripod lower and eliminate the ocean entirely. I know this seems like sacrilege, but the image would have still been strong graphically (the grass silhouetted against the sky rather than the ocean). This would have brought the sun itself into the frame, but assuming that it would have still been above the figure, you could have used an ND hard grad (.6 or .9) to knock down the sun a bit as well as create a vignette look to the top of the frame that would visually mirror the darkness at the bottom.

This is all just conjecture, because to be honest I don't mind the blown out sun reflection either.

One thing that might be worth looking at is going to a more severe matte like a 1:85 or more, i.e. increasing the size of the letterbox. It might be cleaner to eliminate the half-sun at the top of the frame.

Charles,

Thank you for the kind words.
I think the TV will matte out the sun for me (safeframe)
I just did this really fast to see how it would look.

Thank you for the pointers, I will try to put on a ND next time!

/Andreas

Nice... and I don't even see the wires! :-)

Nice saturated colors.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

What's not to like? Its beautiful! As a point of information, you are probably not getting much effect out of the polarizer, other than knocking down the image a half stop or so. I just don't want people thinking they need to use a pola for sunset shots. I don't think the picture would be nearly so effective if the water was not burned out. Its those differences between light and dark that make pictures interesting. Nice job on the color correction. It would be interesting to show the original, uncorrected footage for comparison.

Wayne, My thoughts where to use the pol to get more detail in the clouds. More diffrence might be a more correct term when I think of it. But actually I just let it stay on because I used it in the shot before.

www.fernbrant.com/andreas/dvinfo.html
(but the site is down right now. I hope for it to be up soon. Host problems)

There you can find a "before" picture and a picture that takes me to a new problem. I get a kind of aura around or on one side of some objects some times. The aura is most often white. I don't quite know how to minimize or get rid of this unwanted effect.

What pointers do you guys have for me there?

Also, I think the resolution is to low for my tv.. The picture is better then analog video but still not super high resolution.
I know I get a resolution knockoff when I use widescreen and frame mode.. I use both:( Any pointers there to even it out? I can't add resolution but perhaps I can use some filter to get it better? Post production perhaps?

Rather than use the 16:9 mode, just shoot full frame and letterbox later.

You could use software like Magic Bullet to alter the frame rate without the loss of resolution of Frame mode, assuming you can deal with the rendering time!

The only way you can add resolution is to use a 16:9 anamorphic lens adapter. This way the camera will use the full resolution of the CCD chips.

Your server is still down so I couldn't look at the picture.

Server ok again!

www.fernbrant.com/andreas/dvinfo.html
Perhaps you could help me with the ghost aura thing..

/Andreas

Hmm... Looks like it's because of the clipped sun, I think that the cameras ccd chips just cannot handle the contrast ratio between the absolute white and black in a smooth way, so you get a blown out edge compared to the dark subject. If you look at on the right side of your enlarged image it seems to be before the subject is in front of the sun.

More ND is needed I guess. Where is that enlarged image taken from, I saw the glow on the subjects back, but couldn't match it with the enlarged image, also, is it over the whole footage or only in front of to the sun?

nice! Very nice! All of it!

Good work !

It's so easy (and hard) to go back on your work and change something. That can also take away from the shot and make it look to "cookie cutter".

Personally I like to break the rules, and do something that is not common, or even try to do something no one has done.
IMO you accomplished that with a very simple clip.

Also, to be honest, by a complete fluke, I shot the ending to our film we are working on now in a shoot last year. Again by a complete fluke it is very similar to what you have here.

There is no way I could recreate again due to the clouds and the contrast in the sky, position of the sun, and the reflections that day.

So in effect, I like it.

Very nice indeed! I was wondering how you moved the camera?

Rob, I used a cheap trick I made up in my head..
I never attended any filmschool or anything like that. I just have a genuine interest and use every hour I have to figure out nice and fun stuff. I bet this is a common fact in the film/video industry but as I said, I did't take any classes so I don't know..

What my thought was if I move my tripod as far away as possible and zoom max (instead of zoom in or out I zoom max) and then pull the camera back so I get the frame I want. When I pan way back there it feels more like the camera is gliding along on a dolly. If I move closer to the object and have no zoom it would feel more lite a pan with a tripod. I wanted the glide effect.. This was actually the worst camera operation clip (I have 2-3 more with more fluid camera action) but the vault was best in this clip. I don't know what I choose for the final cut.

/Andreas

I found your colouration quite delicate for the situation.

Quite interesting.

" When I pan way back there it feels more like the camera is gliding along on a dolly. If I move closer to the object and have no zoom it would feel more lite a pan with a tripod."
Excellent, Andreas. Very perceptive of you to pick up on this.

"This was actually the worst camera operation clip (I have 2-3 more with more fluid camera action) but the vault was best in this clip. I don't know what I choose for the final cut."
This even impresses me more than the above. If you actually made a choice based on performance, you are way ahead of most aspiring directors. A very wise DP told me many years ago, "First the actors, then the camera, then the lights." Burn that in your brain, Andreas, and you will have learned volumes.