White Clip

[Jerry Doran]

A question about white clip. I understand what its function is, but what leads one to set it at 100 vs. 109? When you're shooting something for NTSC broadcast, should you set it for 100? If not, what happens to the info between 101-109 IRE? Is it simply lost? Or is it better to futureproof the master and shoot with the white clip off?

[John Ealer]

A question about white clip. I understand what its function is, but what leads one to set it at 100 vs. 109? When you're shooting something for NTSC broadcast, should you set it for 100? If not, what happens to the info between 101-109 IRE? Is it simply lost? Or is it better to futureproof the master and shoot with the white clip off?

 

It really depends on the post production pipeline and what color correction, if any, will be done later. If you're shooting news, I would say you're best leaving it at 100, since it's legal and will have to go on air right away.

 

But for other venues, I generally think it's worth to keep the extra dynamic range above 100, gives you a little more detail in the whites that you can pull back in later. For broadcast distribution, most shows will get pushed through some sort of legalizer to check black and white levels and clip off anything above 100, anyway.

[Michael Nash]

This has become a pet peeve of mine, when it comes to HD-originated material on DVD (or over any digital distribution, for that matter). Movies shot on film generally get transferred and posted with whites at 100%, as has been done for decades with the old analogue system. But HD is now often shot with whites above 100, and those levels get passed on straight through to DVD. Then people wonder why HD footage doesn't look like film, but all harsh and electronic instead <_< . Duh.

 

I've taken to clipping my whites at 100% when possible for material that will only live in a digital environment. You'd be surprised how much more "graceful" and film-transfer-like your highlights can appear, because they're the SAME levels as a film transfer...

 

Of course if you're shooting for filmout you probably want to use the full luminance range, and for broadcast I'll go by whatever engineering specs the client prefers.