Saturation

[Miguel Bunster]

HI,

Whats a good way to pull out the color in video? in camera not in post...Iwill try balancing the camera with different filters...say a Magenta but that will turn the camera toward one color rather than turning it more grey. Any suggestions?

Soon in L.A

Miguel

[David Mullen ASC]

Using white balance and playing with the RGB levels will not do it -- you need a camera with manual Color Matrix controls. On the other, that's no different than doing it in post -- and doing it in post is about the easiest type of color-correction effect so why do it in-camera?

[Miguel Bunster]

Well, I wanted to learn to do it in camera and second I thought doing in it post made the movie loose quality and artifacts appeard. So if I have a camera with a Color Matrix still its better to do it in post?

[Jake Kerber]

Like most things, it's something you should test to see how each approach effects the final image. Some would argue that certain looks are best achieved in camera using lighting, filtration or the camera's Color Matrix because, achieving a similar look in post can create artifacts or other unwanted results. In the 5/04 issue of A.C. there's an article in which Nancy Schreiber, ASC talks about a scene in "November" (shot with the DVX100) where she did not apply in-camera techniques to manipulate the color (because at the time of shooting the scene was supposed to look fairly neutral), but in editing the director decided he wanted the scene to have a color arc like many other scenes in the film, so the effects were applied in post. Schreiber says warming up the image worked fine but when moving into the cooler, bluer shots the image was "very murky" and there was a "real degradation of the image." Just one example.

 

The flip-side of doing things in-camera is that on set, with the clock ticking, the viewing conditions may not be ideal for achieving exactly the look you want and with video, once you get rid of information it's gone. Obviously, waiting until post gives one more options, which may or may not be a good thing.

 

So, the answer is that there is no one answer and one should decide on the best way for them and their circumstances.

 

-Jake Kerber

[David Mullen ASC]

Generally though you can do an overall drop in chroma level in post without creating artifacts -- it's extreme shifts towards one color or the other, or boosting overall color that creates noise problems, etc. Dropping the chroma is just one step less than turning the image into b&w, which usually comes out fine.

 

If you can do it with the camera's Color Matrix, then go ahead.