How to reduce grain on blacks with XL2?

[JD Marlow]

I shoot all the time with my Canon XL-2, usually shutter speed at 1/24, frame rate at 24p advanced, and 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

Even when i'm closed down pretty far, blacks seem to always come in fairly grainy. Is there a way to shoot source footage from the XL2 that doesn't have the grain that blacks almost always show? Thanks in advance.

 

-JD

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Is the gain turned all the way down? Also, why a shutterspeed of 1/24? Try 1/48 and see if you like that look any better :)

 

If you're still experiencing quite a bit of noise in the blacks for whatever reason, try crunching the blacks in post.

[Eric Brown]

I shoot all the time with my Canon XL-2, usually shutter speed at 1/24, frame rate at 24p advanced, and 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

Even when i'm closed down pretty far, blacks seem to always come in fairly grainy. Is there a way to shoot source footage from the XL2 that doesn't have the grain that blacks almost always show? Thanks in advance.

 

-JD

 

 

This may be too late but set your gain to -3. The XL2 can do nearly noise free (to the eye) deep blacks.

It's all in how you set it up and how you set up your lighting.

[Alessandro Machi]

I shoot all the time with my Canon XL-2, usually shutter speed at 1/24, frame rate at 24p advanced, and 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

Even when i'm closed down pretty far, blacks seem to always come in fairly grainy. Is there a way to shoot source footage from the XL2 that doesn't have the grain that blacks almost always show? Thanks in advance.

 

-JD

 

Make sure your viewfinder is calibrated so that you are not underexposing your footage. You can also lift the black level slightly in the custom memories (it may be called "set-up". Lifting the black level just a touch will allow the color to "breathe" better in higher contrast situations.

 

You can always then slightly recrush the blacks in edit. This kind of experimentation is so easy to do and experiment with on higher end analog videotape systems. In my opinion it's a shame that this type of experimentation becomes more mysterious in the NLE world.

 

The -3 setting suggested above is a good idea for your daytime shooting but might cause underexposure issues when you are shooting indoors in lower light situations.