Would you suggest when trying to find the right image

[Gary Douglas]

To get as close as possible to the look you want on the shot with the camera then working with what you have in post?
As opposed to thinking about post first and altering your settings acordingly, working backwards to your final image?

What about making room for how much brightness you lose in the capture?

[Tripp Woelfel]

I'm having difficulty understanding your questions. From a general perspective I always try to capture the best quality image when recording. While I try to shoot with the edit in mind, but I do not tweak from what I deem optimal image settings.

Recording the best images will give you the best options in post.

[Mike Hardy]

The correct answer lies with TRIPP. The less you have to do post production, the better, more resilient and less degraded the quality of footage will be. You should always aim to achieve your desired effect in the CAMERA, not in your NLE.

[Tripp Woelfel]

Mike... I generally agree with you. If you know the look you want for your finished work and can tweak the camera to get it there, then do it. That will give you the best result.

However, I shoot some footage without knowing what the finished product will look like. In those situations, I'll shoot fairly flat with a little boost in color saturation. (The XH A1 is notoriously flat and desaturated compared to other manufacturers equivalent cams.) This will let me take the footage anywhere I need to, within reason.

The HV series cameras default to a much more saturated image than the XH. If anything, I think it's too saturated so I run down the custom color setting to get closer to matching my XH.

[Mike Hardy]

[QUOTE=Tripp Woelfel;1141572]Mike... I generally agree with you. If you know the look you want for your finished work and can tweak the camera to get it there, then do it. That will give you the best result.

Are you a lover of Presets, Tripp?

I am shooting a commision in a couple of Wild Animal parks, and find that PANALOOK gives a pleasant image, (the old one, I haven't tried the newer versions). That said, I also am taking an increased liking to NATURALO. I find that with both of these, I need make no adjustments in post. Then again, I hate to do too much correction in post simply because of the much larger file sizes and render times it produces.

[Tripp Woelfel]

Originally Posted by Mike Hardy

Are you a lover of Presets, Tripp?

Not really, Mike. While they can be very helpful if I know what the final product should look like, I am often not that certain or need to match the footage with other cameras that don't have the option of presets. Consequently, I only use custom presets about half the time.

I must admit that I am not familiar enough with the more esoteric presets out there and since most of what I shoot are non-repeatable events, I don't have the luxury to experiment. For me, a good general purpose preset that will work even when matching to other cameras, is PANALOK2. Beyond that, I've used a small handful of others and got burned shooting autumn foliage with a preset that oversaturated reds and other colors so badly as to make it broadcast illegal in several realities.

Live and learn, right? It keeps it interesting.

[Michael Rosenberger]

Originally Posted by Gary Douglas

To get as close as possible to the look you want on the shot with the camera then working with what you have in post?

We used to shot a look in the production, but with so many high level color programs available anymore we shoot everything even and kinda flat exposure wise, then correct in post (what used to be the ultimate no-no lol. Fix it in post!). There are a few occasions I've blown out highs, crushed blacks, or changes other settings for one take type shoots that go to output without fiddling, but even those usually get touched in post anymore.

I think that is what you were asking.