dealing with tvs...

[Sean Nelson]

It is a pain when you color correct something and it looks good and then when watching it on a tv via dvd it looks like crap. I know there is no solution as every tv will look different.

Any horror stories of a couple watching it and it looking like crap and blaming it on you?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Sean

Brides are a lot less fussy when it comes to technical quality than we are. I always watch my end result on DVD thru a fairly new 32" LCD TV and as long as it looks pretty good I have no issues.

Remember that if the couple do have a 15 year old CRT TV with a red cast cos one of the tube guns is failing, they are used to it because everything else on the TV that they watch will also look as bad.

Just satisfy yourself that you have done your best and you will be fine..I have shown a few brides over the year my demo DVD and it has looked awful on their ancient TV BUT they said nothing AND booked me too!!

I must admit I'm not into radical colour correction..I white balance whilst filming so the raw footage is dead accurate 99% of the time. If it looks good on your TV and whilst editing then you have done all you can.
It's pointless trying to "adjust" for someone's out of wack TV...when they replace it the DVD will then look twice as bad.

Chris

[Sean Nelson]

Hey Chris thanks a lot for all of your feedback.You have given me a lot of useful advice in my various threads. Much appreciated. So you have been doing this for many years?

[John Wiley]

One thing I've noticed is that most of the new LCD/LED Tv's seem to have much more extreme default settings out of the box. I suppose most people do not even notice and they get used to a lot of what they watch having blown out whites, crushed blacks and hyper-real colours. My guess is that 90% of people never adjust the brightness/contrast/saturation on their new TV.

[Chris Harding]

Hi John

The general public seem to expect the TV colours to be bright!! If there is grass then it has to be really green not the insipid colour that it really is!!! TV manufacturers set the default chroma level fairly high to satisfy the general public and I very much doubt whether the average man in the street (or bride) would even bother to go into the menu and change it to something more natural.

Hmmm maybe I need to up the chroma level on my camera profile files ... brides might like some extra bright colour depth????

Sean, I used my first video camera in the 80's It was a Panasonic WVP100 single Saticon tube camera that went to a portable (yeah right they weighed about 10 lbs) VHS recorder slung over my shoulder.

However I started as a wedding photog (using film cameras !!!) in the 70's so yes, I do go back a fairly long way.... Don Bloom also has a long and experienced career so also heed his advice well!!!

Chris

[Claire Buckley]

Sean.

Imagine the broadcast chain colour balancing for its viewers or subscribers with poor quality TVs... They simply do not do it. Like your audio - would you judge the audio using a pair of tinny 4 inch speakers and then wind in more bottom end to "improve" the bass response because the client has told you the bass reproduction is rubbish? However, for audio there might be a justification here for "consumer compatibilities" but they are predicated on Standards and Standardisation like video.

If you are offering a professional product then you will be assessing the quality using a monitoring system of known quality - colour correcting to a known reference and at the recommended IRE levels. So you will have spent quite a sizable amount of your capital expenditure on a good and stable professional monitor, know how to use a vectorscope and WFM and the means to colour balance that reference to the correct configuration (Spider 3 for example). Anything else you do to the general grading of the video is simply for style or effect - warmer or cooler etc. I'm not a colour casting stylisitc producer myself, as like another post mentions here I tend to balance as I shoot and prefer the colour ambience as it was on the day. Clients know my "style" and have hired me on that basis.

Then when you have produced your video and taken care to standardise the balance and quality you KNOW that the video is correct and can feel confident that if the technical aspect of your video is judged critically you can show the client their TV is the problem, not your work.

:)

[Chris Harding]

I guess if you KNOW the client has a really rotten TV you can take out a decent portable DVD player. In fact a lot of stores here have 21" LCD TV's with a built in DVD player that are pretty cheap...that way you can confirm that your demo has pristine colour and sharpness.

Claire, I'm much like you...I watch my colour balance throughout the day and end up with natural colour and the clients love it. I have been tempted to go "cinematic" now and again and really push the colour and contrast envelope but that doesn't suit my documentary style and I think unless you go totally artistic brides just may wonder why the sky is green...besides, it's not really my thing anyway...I prefer the normal, sharp, correct colour look (admittedly, my cam scene file profiles are pushed towards "cinelike" in some parameters but the video still looks "correct")

Sean, just make sure your final DVD is shot with a well balanced camera and you should have no real issues with colour.

Chris

[Dimitris Mantalias]

Once, after we delivered a DVD, a bride calls us and says:

-The colors are all wrong. This is NOT my makeup!
-But this can't be. We color corrected very carefully!
-I doubt it. My makeup and lips are totally different to what I had that day.
-Just wait a minute then. Are you in front of a computer?
-Yes, why?
-We are sending you right now a picture.
-Yes! I see it! That seems perfect! Why didn't you give it to me that way?
-We gave it to you that way. It's a snapshot from the final DVD.


So, what we learn here, is that we have to inform our clients about their by-default oversaturated brand new TV sets they bought.