Mei Lewis

I've noticed the same sort of color and contrast differences for video podcasts and other downloaded videos, not just my own footage. Still not sure what to do.

Why do so many people call Avid editing software "_the_ Avid"? I don't edit photos using "the Photoshop" or write email in "the Outlook", so what's going on? It grinds my gears like a butcher's apostrophe :-)

I'm missing why so many people are excited about this camera. Apart from RAW what advantages does does it have over say a 5Diii?

The histogram isn't an accurate representation of the image in many cases. For example if you have a mostly very dark image with an important point of bright detail such as a face, then sometimes the histogram won;t show the bright detail ata ll because it's too small. However if you exposed every image so that the histogram didn't go beyond the third bar you'd end up with a lot of underexposed, noisey images with little detail in the blacks.

Wow that's noisey. Have no idea what film is supposed to look like but that looks like ISO6400 or higher on my 5Dii.

I'm using a PC laptop with a calibrated screen and I've noticed that the same video can look quite different between different player applications. The difference is most obvious when looking at footage shot on a 5Dii with the cinestyle picture profile. I think the very flat image is really showing up how the different players handle video. Windows media player looks the best and most contrasty straight away, but it's a very false view of how the footage was shot. I guess WMP is doing some kind of automatic contrast/exposure 'enhancement' that can't be turned off. VLC has less contrast and I think it's closest to what the footage looks like on the camera, Quicktime Player seems overly flat. WMP, VLC and Quicktime all seem pretty close on color rendering despite the difference in contrast. Premiere is close to VLC in terms of contrast but renders color quite differently to VLC,WMP and Quicktime, most obvious on the reds of the hat and dress which are visibly less orange. Does anyone have any idea of what's going on? Which is closest to the 'correct' look?

Another aspect of 'dirty' in this case is the mix of color temperatures in the lighting.

Thanks Brian. I just melted a gel having it too close. Now I know better!

I've just bought three cheap redhead lights and I'm trying to figure out how to control the output. AFAIK there's no power control on the lights because dimming them would cause a color shift towards red. The proper way to lower the output is to use ND gel? Where and how should I mount it? I don't want it catching fire or melting!

I know this is primarily a forum for cinematography, which is something I'm only just starting to learn about know. The first big realisation I had when shooting stuff was that I was shooting stuff to be editied i.e. to be cut up and sequenced into a cohesive whole. If I didn't know what the purpose of the film I was shooting was I'd have no clue what to shoot or how to shoot it. Shooting and editing seem to be as closely linked as shooting and lighting, maybe moreso. I know most shooters at a certain level don't edit their own stuff, but they must understand editing pretty well anyway? Thanks.

I'm really interested in this, if you send me a DSLR clip you have I'll try to work out how to do it. mei@missionphotographic.com

Related to this I've sometimes watched foreign language films without subtitles. You still get the sound but the words don't help you follow what's going on - though the emphasis certainly does. Another adjunct to your research maybe.

In the cinema I can see some of the more mainstream films from the last few months, at times I'm told to watch them. At home I can see films from the entire history of cinema up to the last few months, whenever I want.

That would be good...

I use 5D2s at the moment mainly for stills and starting to do video. I wasn't paying that much attention to this camera because I didn't think it was going to be a massive leap and it's not, but now it's out it seems to have just enough good stuff to make it worthwhile. The headphone socket should be very useful to help me shoot on my own, and it does 60 fps which will make for better slow mo. I'll probably get one in a few months when cheapish viewfinders are out for it - essential.

Phil, the link to your video no longer works. Has it been taken offline?

It was monochrome prints I was asking about. Thanks for your answer, I never knew that!

This is a bit of a tangent but anyway... was any projected film historically ever sepia colored? I'm asking because I've often seen sepia colors used on TV to suggest age, but as I understand it sepia is a result of a still photo being printed on paper, which of course doesn't happen with movies.

I've been using cinestyle partly because I thought it was the only one (apart from the defaults) with official Canon input and because Technicolor are so respected I assumed they know what they're doing. Tonight I've done a few test shots in my bedroom, head and shoulders of my brother and my cat against a black sheet, very simple stuff. Shot some cinestyle, some neutral with the setting recommended above, and some the standard profile and I'm finding it very hard to make the cinestyle look as good when graded as the default picture style does out of the camera.

The specific accent that prompted me to post this was Jaime Murray's on series 2 of Dexter. And she's English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Murray

Why do almost all British accents in American TV sound fake, like they're put on? Even the real ones. Maybe it's psychological and they just sound out of place next to American voices in a way they don't next to all the other British voices on British programs, but maybe there's some sound recording style to blame? Maybe in the US they tend to balance voices differently?

So it needs to look like the films they used to make in 1844?

This is something I've thought intuitively. If you have a flat style with pixels in the range say 10 to 200 RGB and have to pull them back out to 0 to 255 then there's going to be banding. Phil, I've watched the video a couple of times. Are there specific settings and a style you recommend?

The purpose of law in a democratic, non religion-controlled society is to allow that society to function in a way that reflects its peoples' ideas of right and wrong. The large number of people who themselves violate copyright law leads me to think that current laws are out of line with the will of the people and will probably be changed soon. Bigger shifts in law have happened before.

Exactly, according IMDB he has 2 of the 10 highest grossing films of all time and several more in the top 30 and he can't get a film released!???!?!?