Skin Tone Help

[Jim Rogalski]

Hi all. My first post here. Thanks for the great forum. I recently purchased an EX1R and am still learning what I can about picture profiles. I'm using the following profile, but as you can see, the skin tone is too orange. What do you suggest I adjust in the PP?
Thanks much.
Matrix: on
HiSat
Level: 0
Phase: 0
R-G: 75
R-B: 0
G-R: -18
B-R:-27
B-G: 13
Color Correction: Off
Whirte: Off
Preset White: 3,200
Detail: On (Defaults
Skintone Detail: On (Defaults
Knee: On
Auto Knee: On
Gamma Level: 0
STD4
Black: 0
Black Gamma: 0
Low Key Sat: 0

Photo:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/...e603-jim2.html

[Chris Medico]

I personally don't run skin tone detail. I don't like how it looks. Personal taste here though.

What lights were you running? Did you WB from a card or dial it in?

[Chris Medico]

Oh, and welcome to the forum! :)

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Jim Rogalski

What do you suggest I adjust in the PP?

Have your R-G...B-G settings come from lining up with a colour chart? Using somebody else's settings in this section can be like wearing somebody else's spectacles. Copying Picture Profile colour settings is often the quickest way of putting a colour cast on one's camera. I'd start from zero, and tweak using the best, most trusted monitor you find - after looking at good quality material for a while. Or go for consistency and tweak in post if you're a preditor.

As far as Detail, yes you can (and for chromakey, definitely should) turn detail down a bit (Alister Chapman has the full SP on this and I'm still learning). Note that you will have to add some sharpening BACK in post, but it's of generally better quality.

Using AutoKnee with the Standard gammas will see some fluctuations in gamma - like the subtlest auto iris ever. I tend to use CineGamma 4 rather than the Standard Gammas, as this shuts the Knee off and does it all with nice curves. I've found Knee at any settings can lead to slightly unnatural skin tone highlights.

Cine4 gives you an extra stop in exposure, but it does that by pumping gain in the shadow areas, so it's one of the noisiest settings. If you're reducing the final output down in size (and therefore softening the boil) it's a great setting, but that noise (alright, 'grain') can be a bit of a pain when writ large upon the screen.

But you're testing, and that's exactly what we all should do. :)

[Les Wilson]

Bill Ravens spent considerable time and effort tweaking and testing the EX1 with DSC charts. The result is a set of profiles for True Color... the philosophy being capture the truest image possible and sweeten it it post.

You might try the original True Color 1 profile to diagnose your problem. See post #120 in the Picture Profile Sticky for the XDCAM EX here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...tml#post819378

[Jim Rogalski]

Thank you all for your valuable feedback. I'll be testing away and reporting my results.
BTW: For lights, I'm using multiple soft boxes each with 500W tungsten bulbs. I white balanced off an 8.5 x 11 piece of standard white typing paper.

[Chris Medico]

Hey Jim,

I'm local to you over in Efland if you want to get together sometime and go over some of the picture profile stuff on the EX1.

[Jim Rogalski]

That would be great Chris. Who knew you were so close? What's your availability Tues-Wed next week, after 5 p.m.?

[Chris Medico]

Drop me a note and we can work out a schedule. trackgeeks at gmail.