TrueColor configuration for XH A1

[Bill Busby]

Originally Posted by Dennis Wood

Definitely look at using NR1 in your preset, or adding it to this one. It will have no effect at all on color, exposure, or WB. Don't use NR2 unless your subjects are motionless.

Actually Dennis, you've got it backwards. It's NR1 that causes ghosting... in all three settings. NR2, I believe, can be just as destructive if set above the 1 setting. Anything higher & it's similar to applying skin detail on the whole frame.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Dennis Wood

The XH-A1 in low light is noisy and is at 12db, in my opinion, terrible.

Just a note, all HDV cameras show quite a bit of noise in dark situations, the compression at 4:2:0 creates a lot of "dancing pixels". This is true for cameras that costs several times the price of the A1, like the XDCAM. Gain, IMHO, should almost never be used. In fact I completely disabled the gain on my HD100 since it was too easy to flip the external switch by mistake and have the footage ruined.
If you are shooting something fairly static, last week I taped a user's meeting, basically talking heads, and there is no way of adding lights of your own, you can use slower frame rates, 24fps instead of 30, and drop the shutter at 1/24. The easiest way of getting clean "boosted" signal. Be careful with those pans :)

[Luke Ross]

I finally got to try this preset out, and it has become my new favorite. Low light was great. Also, I did not notice the issue with the Blue as others have mentioned. I did a short shoot last night, indoors and outdoors in overcast here in Portland and it looks wonderful.
Thanks!!!
Luke

[Paolo Ciccone]

Hi Luke, glad it works for you.

[Brandon Freeman]

I find that I still prefer leaving Gamma at CineGamma 2 for projects that I like to treat as film (I use Gamma 1 for "film footage" going to someone else for their project, as Gamma 2 does require some correction for tv viewing). I also leave the master pedestal at 0, as I don't want to risk clipping -- but do have the set-up level down to -4, and sharpening at -4.

However, what I glean from this preset is the colors themselves. I have never seen such great looking footage from this camera as I have when using these colors. True to form, no exaggeration -- I believe this IS the film look; natural colors. Video is infamous for exaggerating reds and blues, and this gets it just about right.

For me, that is the attraction of this preset. No need to tweak anything, because I want real colors in the first place. Any tweaks in color I want I'll achieve with color temperature adjustments in white balance and lighting.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Peter Jefferson

So which preset is the one without the blue cast?

There is only one version and it doesn't have blue cast, not in my tests and in several people's results. I don't think we have found why some cameras show that phenomenon. Skintones are actually the reference point for TrueColor, see my description of the process in the 3 articles about the HD100 version. Regardless the type of camera the procedure is the same for all versions and it starts with setting the skin tones as a reference (red and yellow chips in the vectorscope). Natural skintones are probably the strongest feature of TrueColor.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Pat, the white balance should be set using the usual method of manual WB with a white card. There should be no compensation for blue as TrueColor is meant to be neutral. White balance is not affected by TrueColor so that is something that has to be adjusted shot by shot.

[Christopher Neville]

Paolo, is there a color or two in the preset I can adjust to try and get the slight blueness out I'm seeing? I'm not sure which ones to even try to experiment with. I really like this preset, btw. If I could work out the slight blueness, it would be my go-to preset.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Christopher, did you WB balance the camera using a neutral card?

[Christopher Neville]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

Christopher, did you WB balance the camera using a neutral card?

I used the white area of a Photovision One Shot Digital Target to manually set my white balance. I zoomed in enough for that area to fill my entire view.

[Juan Diaz]

A question for Paolo. Could you tell as you were setting up the preset if the Knee, Black, Pedestal, and Setup parameters had any effect on the preset's color?

I know these parameters *should* only affect luma and not chroma but I don't necessarily know that that's the case. The reason I ask is because I'm very interested in the accurate, neutral color of your preset but would like to tweak it for more dynamic range (Black stretch, low Knee etc). I would test this myself but I don't have accurate charts.

Thanks in advance.

Juan

[Paolo Ciccone]

Hi Juan.
While the pedestal and knee usually work only in the "extremes" of the luma, extreme adjustments will affect the colors. For example, setting the knee too low will affect skin tones and colors that are in that range, like beige.
For the pedestal you risk to wash out the image when you go too far. Part of the film look is the richness of the blacks, that is my bias in setting these scene files.

[Kees van Duijvenbode]

Paolo. I'v been playing around with your preset for several days now and like many other people I like it. But I also notice the following:
I am trying a few tweaks via shooting, capturing, rendering, burn it to DVD and look at it at my LCD TV. Result: Pictures on the LCD screen of the cam look bad, pictures on my copmputer screen look very good, playing the DVD on an old CRT screen looks to red and playing the DVD on my LCD TV looks good for the colors but a little to dark. I would like more brilliant pictures and it could be somewhat softer for my likings. Newscast on that same LCD TD look very brilliant and naturally. What should I do?

[Christopher Neville]

Originally Posted by Christopher Neville

Paolo, is there a color or two in the preset I can adjust to try and get the slight blueness out I'm seeing? I'm not sure which ones to even try to experiment with. I really like this preset, btw. If I could work out the slight blueness, it would be my go-to preset.

Does anyone have an idea of how to deal with the slight blue cast? I really have no idea of what settings to even try to experiment with. Should I just use it as is and try to warm in post? Any suggestions of how I might begin adjusting the preset?

Also while I'm at it, any thoughts on the Black and Knee? Are the current settings looking good for most people?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Phil Taylor]

When I use the True Color preset I don't get a blue cast. I really believe in order to get such a blue cast you are either not WB correctly or often enough. I know id you are shooting outdoors the color of light changes continuously and you have to stay after the WB. I mean really stay after it if you want correct or perhaps consistent colors in your video. I don't know a lot about these presets bt this True Color one is simply great for me, always consistant and allowing post changes to be applied uniformally to all video shot using it. As for the crushing of the blacks, I just don't see a big difference when adjusting this preset as some have suggested. White balance is a friend and will save you a lot of grief if you use it often.