Just a couple filters in Vegas...

:)

Made my footage go from "good" to... "Reallly good"

http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc11.jpg
http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc12.jpg

http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc31.jpg
http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc32.jpg

Heh... I think you can figure out the original...

Just a suggestion to V1/FX7 owners... try doing some color correction... I know the frames aren't exactly the same, but I was using VLC player to grab snap-shots...

I think the cc11 and cc31 look better then the other two... but maybe others have different opinions?

And the snapshots are nothing like watching the video.. if someone wants me to post a comparison... I could do that

Feel free to post some video and the techniques you used to achieve the result!

Hi, a lot nicer for sure, however, i did notice some of your brighter whites are now being blown away, maybe the contrast levels are set a little high? Might be more noticeable in these photos than the actual video.

Maybe a bit too much contrast... regardless... I prefer that look over the original

http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc.wmv

First clip is original, 2nd is modified...

It's just Color Corrector (In Vegas 7.0e) Studio RGB to Computer RGB, then another filter I made myself (Basically a modified Color Corrector Secondary - Studio RGB to Computer RGB)

Applied both filters ontop of eachother.. that's the result.. I'll probably tweak it some more but this is a lot cleaner... blacks look like blacks... not greys :)

File not found...

Oops, fixed it :)

Joe, weren't you shooting paintball with a HV20??

If so, what differences are you seeing with the V1 versus the HV20 as to
image quality??

and please feel free to add any other observations between the two cams too.

Nice work BTW

I think the originals look better... closer to film-like. CC31 details in the highlights are especially blown out on his shirt which isn't the case with CC32. Blown highlights scream cheap video... something I would see from a 1CCD handycam. You have to watch out for the increased contrast.

Watching on TV will naturally add contrast so adding in post typically is not needed for the desired effect, unless the end video is destined for the web or for print.

It's meant for web...

I don't care about film-like... that looks like crap to me...

Nice job, Joe. That'll create some eye-pop on the web, no doubt.

I'll definitely lower the contrast some... but the blacks look blacks... reds look reds... yellows look like yellows... doesn't have that weird grey overlay...

http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc2.wmv

Right side is original, left side is modified (not as much as before)

You honestly think the right looks better?

I'll definitely lower the contrast some... but the blacks look blacks... reds look reds... yellows look like yellows... doesn't have that weird grey overlay...

http://www.lousyheros.com/pics/cc/cc2.wmv

Right side is original, left side is modified (not as much as before)

You honestly think the right looks better?
I'm with you on the corrected version - it looks great on my LCD monitor, which is what you're likely to get for web distribution.

Biggest gain - the blacks look black. We can talk all day about how much color information is "right", or what's more film-like, to me it looks good so it is good. And I think this subject begs for the colors to pop... and the sunlit exterior provides motivation for the contrasty look.

Hi Joe -
some killer footage! I would go with the blacker blacks - there was a thread on CC a while back that suggested using color curves and levels in conjunction with the scopes in Vegas to bring the highlights down to prevent blowing them out - I'm still playing with these, but learning to make video look much better in post!

You might want to try pulling the exposure back on the FX7 just a tad - I think somehow Sony tends to overexpose a bit - you can set the AE to -2 to -4 from my experience. Or use the control wheel to adjust exposure as needed - I've got the camera set to show what settings it's at, so you can see the results in real time...

It seems to me like the HV20 tends to a more contrast-y Picture "out of the box", while the Sonys need you to tweak a bit either while shooting or in post to get the same strong contrast.

Joe

I'd vote for the uncorrected footage. After watching the clip a couple of times I think it works better. The adjusted colors pop more but the original has more of a dirty "fog of war" kind of look, which definitely suits the subject. I've found that after sitting in front of the monitor for a few hours I need to really watch myself when adjusting levels. My eyes get tired and my inclination is to want to push everything. fwiw-
One thing I thought frustrating was with some of the closeups of guys shooting. You see them furiously pulling the trigger but nothing coming out of the barrel. I'd play with the edit on those.

Nothing you can do, balls are going 200mph out of the guns... shutter can only capture so much :P

I'll look at the exposure too, It's pretty much "stock" besides adjusting WB, Gain, and shutter...

300fps/200mph...but with a fast enough shutter, you'll capture them. But were it me, I'd only capture a few shots at high speed shutter for slow motion sequences/cutaways. For delivery to the web, I like the contrasts you've set up; removing gradients and keeping a hard contrast in your frame means that your encoder has less work to do. For delivery to broadcast, it would be a different scenario.
[edit for bad math.]

300 fps is 204 mph ;)

It was 1/2000 shutter for most of the video... some shots were 1/60 because I didn't know how to lock it (first time out with the FX7) but I think all of that video is 1/2000

You should be able to slow some of that down, if you want to see paintballs coming from the barrel. 1/2000 should slow nicely. Looks like there are particles from the compressed air, or maybe dry lubricant from the paint balls too? Might be a sexy cut?

it looks great on my LCD monitor, which is what you're likely to get for web distribution.

That's why I don't like LCD monitors. Everything except for very contrasty scenes look horridly grey.

Here's my take on it. I pushed the oranges in the mids and the blues in the blacks, then pushed the saturation and twiddled with the mid level to get rid of the fog without blowing out the whites (Final Cut Pro 3-way CC):

http://www.yafiunderground.com/Images/cc12-cm.jpg

That looks really yellow... and the aspect ratio is off...

Sure you uploaded the right file?

That's why I don't like LCD monitors. Everything except for very contrasty scenes look horridly grey.

I'm using an FW900 24" Widescreen CRT and a Princeton 19" LCD... Both calibrated properly, the footage looked bad... now colors look right...

only file I have of it, I deleted the originals...put a hand on either side of your head and squeeze...that's what they did before they invented anamorphic projectors. ;)

Um, I used quicktime export to make it a jpeg, I didn't change any settings, so it probably defaulted to 640x480.

Could push it more towards red and away from orange a bit..I found that much more overwhelming than the yellow sunny look. It also made the reds blend in and the whole image just became monotone.

Technically, you could push it anyway you wanted, I was mostly showing that you could get rid of the gray wash in the mids without sacrificing your whites to the 100% monster.