color correction

[Ryan Tate]

how do i set up the colors to look right before shooting
or set up colors in camera???
thanks

i hope i explained that right

[Glenn Chan]

Are you talking about adjusting the camera settings to give you a particular look? (If so, what camera do you have? Settings and what you can achieve vary from camera to camera.)

[Ryan Tate]

hi glenn,
im using the dvx100a. iwas told you should set up the color bars every time you put in a new tape or something??? i just dont understand i guess.
thanks

[Glenn Chan]

You can record color bars onto the first segment of the tape if you want. Refer to the manual if you don't know how to do this.

Sometimes people do this so that:
A- When you ingest a tape, you need some pre-roll before your footage starts... otherwise that footage is difficult to ingest.
B- Some tape errors will occur at the very beginning of a tape.
C- In some cases color bars are useful for setting levels. If you are transferring digitally, it's not that useful (since the levels never go out of calibration). In analog environments, equipment will drift in their calibration so color bars can be helpful in aligning equipment/levels.
Color bars can be somewhat helpful as they can indicate if the levels on the tape are non-standard.

[Waldemar Winkler]

If you are referring to recording accurate color, you need to set the white balance of your camera ... as the mix of red,green, and blue primary colors is white (black if you paint).

Setting white balance is done one of three ways for most cameras.
First is the camera's auto setting. How well this setting works will vary from camera to camera and lighting situation to lighting situation. It can often work quite well, but only experience will tell when to use this setting, if at all.
Second is to use one of the camera's pre-determined settings, which will be something like "daylight, shade, cloudy, incandescent, flourescent, etc." each of these settings is set to a particular color temperature for typical lighting situations. Again, experience will teach when to choose these built-in settings.
Third, and most accurate, is to manual white balance, which will only work as long as the light in your particular shooting situation does not change. Be prepared to white balance your camera OFTEN if you are doing live event shoots.

Constant vigilance to lighting conditions and constant attention to white balance while you are shooting significantly relieves stress when you get deeply involved in the editing process. Most quality NLE editing systems contain very useful color correction tools. They are extremely helpful in making slight adjustments. Extreme adjustments are not only difficult, but require experience and skill.

There are also hand held meters for measuring light levels as well as color temperature levels. While useful, they are expensive accessories, and have their own learning curve for successful integration into a shoot.

As always, video is easy. It just requires knowing a lot. part of what makes it so fun.

[Ryan Tate]

thanks a lot
very helpful hints i appreciate it.