hmc150 and highlights

[Andy Tejral]

Last summer, I shot a lot of footage. Now, time to edit and I find that I have a lot of footage where overexposed areas--sky and clouds have a greenish or at least non-natural bluish tint. No, I don't know what settings I was using--one of the cinema gammas I believe.

Has anyone else experienced this? And more importantly any easy recipe to correct it? My efforts so far have failed.

[Blake Cavett]

I have not experienced this. I would suggest playing with your 3-way color corrector or download NewBlueFX to make your white balance just right.

[Andy Tejral]

Thanks for the response.

No, the important areas of the picture are fine. Only the almost blown out areas are mis-colored. I've messed with the color correction but actually I think I got closer using curves.Guess I'll post in the Vegas area.

[Richard Lacey]

Is it all of the hightlights? Or just where they meet the darker portions of the frame?

Could be some odd form of colour fringing...

[Andy Tejral]

There is a still here: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-hap...tion-help.html

Not sure what caused it but I doubt its color fringing.

[Andy Tejral]

(sigh) Watching a AG-AF100 demo by Jan, I discovered the problem. I was using the Cine-D preset totally improperly. Wrong setting for the job and improper execution of it too.

See guys--don't go out on an important shoot with a brand new camera you don't fully know!

Live and learn...

[Russ Ivey]

For my own information, what was "improper" about using it in your case?

[Andy Tejral]

I guess it was really just the dynamic range stretch portion of the Cine-D that is the problem.

Rule 1: only use it when you REALLY need to use it. It will add noise to scenes that don't really need it.
Rule 2: when you do use it, UNDERexpose--Jan said 1/2 stop but I'd go more. Then bring it back up in post.

Rule 3: Buy Barry Green's book? Dunno if this is covered or not...

For my purposes, I think I can salvage the video--it won't look nearly as nice as it could have.

[Russ Ivey]

I have Barry Green's book. It doesn't go into detail about what the bad side is of running that particular setting. So, you're saying if you were filming cinematic style movies, then you'd do it on the normal setting and then using the NLE software to give it the look of cinema?

[Andy Tejral]

No, not at all. The dynamic range stretch is just one component of the preset. Is it the big difference between cine-v and cine-d? dunno. I don't have the camera anymore so I can't compare 'em.

If you have a high contrast scene that you want to try to preserve the dynamic range, go for it. But if the shot does not have a high contrast, the DRS will try to do something and the result isn't pretty.

And really, in the still I posted, DRS is appropriate but I should have irised down quite a bit. Then, in post, all I would have had to do was raise the white level back to an suitable level rather than all the mucking about with color correction.

The more complicated the tool, the more you really need to know what its doing. And the 150 is a fantastic tool with its share of bells and whistles. There is no substitute for shooting a lot of material, keeping notes on what you've done, and then critically viewing it and keeping notes on what you like and don't.

[Russ Ivey]

Good point. That's good to know. Thank you for your input.