color correcting the xl2 in post

[Jonathan Grant]

I was wondering as a basic rule of thumb what correcting in post usually needs to be done with the xl2 both outside and inside. We are using a toned down version of the amelie presets.

From the looks of what we got in editing maybe bring down the brightness and contrast? Up the saturation? Any thoughts or wisdom?

[Alan James]

There is no one right way to do color correction. Its all about the footage you shot and how to make that look the best. My suggestion is to play around with it until it looks good and just use that setting. Sorry for not giving a better explanation.

[Nick Weeks]

Some may argue, but what I normally do is make sure my white is white, if needed increase contrast a tiny amount (lowering the black level), then depending on the picture I'll add some "skin tone" to either the mid-range or highlights on the 3-way color corrector. This usually gives the picture a nice warm feel (I mostly shoot weddings).

I'm using final cut pro 5.0 and an XL1s

But like Alan said, there's no right or wrong way to do it, you have to play around with what looks best to you. I prefer my method because I think wedding videos looks better with a warm feel to it, especialy an outside wedding.

EDIT: the only camera mode I set manually is the white balance... and because I have the XL1s I don't have all the black stretch, skin detail, etc. that you have. Sorry I can't provide more info there

[Dale Guthormsen]

Jon,

Being that you have an xl2 I would practice hard with the prersets using the ones on the list for starters. The better you get with them the less you will have to do after post. When you get more consistant then you will likly have some set corrections that will give you the look you are looking for in the finished product.