Video Settings for 5Dmk2

[L.J. Morelli]

Can someone share a popular picture profile for the camera? I find when I'm indoors shooting a wedding, colors are almost too saturated and the blacks are almost too black where almost all detail is lost. Thank you very much

I know you asked for picture profiles, which I just set to Neutral... but here are other settings on the camera, which you probably already know.

Peri feral illumin off
White balance kelvin
Color space adobe rgb
Picture style : neutral
Highlight alert disable
Auto power off: 8 min
LCD bright manual, 4 or 5
Sensor cleaning, auto/enable
Live view function: stills +movie
Movie record size 1080 24p
IMage highlight tone priority disable
Image auto lighting optimizer disable
Image high ISo speed noise reduction disable
50 shutter speed always
160, 320, 640, 1250, 1600 ISo only

[L.J. Morelli]

Actually I don't know a lot of them. I really can't do 24p, as there's lots of movement in weddings, and just too blurry for me. Would you agree? 50 shutter speed though? I thought it should be 30. Can you explain that a bit more? Thank you for your input.

[Jon Fairhurst]

In the US, you should use 1/60 shutter indoors and may use 1/50 outdoors. 1/60 will ensure that you don't get any flicker, especially under fluorescent lights.

Regarding the Neutral setting, the typical adjustment is
- Contrast: minimum
- Saturation: One or two ticks below middle. (Though on a toddler video I used one tick above middle for the desired style.)
- Color Tone: middle
- Sharpness: minimum

You can also consider using CineStyle (a free download) when the most interesting information is in the dark and bright areas. When shooting dark skinned people in white clothing, CineStyle is the way to go. I don't like CineStyle for close shots of light skinned people, since that generally puts the most important information in the middle of the range where CineStyle is weak.

Note that CineStyle lifts the black level to level 16. I recommend doing color correction in post on all video (if only to match clips), but it's especially necessary with CineStyle and other flat picture styles.

As an example, my son recently shot video at a lighting trade show. I believe that he shot all of the b-roll with Cinestyle (to get the bright lights in range) and all of the interviews with Neutral (to optimize light skin tones). With simple correction (generally using tone curves), he was easily able to match clips.

[L.J. Morelli]

Hi, thanks for that lead. What's the reasoning for 1/60 indoors and 1/50 outdoors? Not following. I always used 1/30, and have been pretty happy. Is the general consensus not to use 1/30, and why? Thanks again.

24p looks "strobby" to folks who have shot a lot of 30p or 60i. It is more "filmic" though. 24p progressive was the hot thing added to the Panasonic DVX100 back in 2002. Though it was standard definition the frame rate was the same as film, historically, and was not interlaced, that is, potentially "jaggy" and "videoish". Sorry for all these adjectives. Running the shutter at 50 is the closest you can get to matching the frame rate, 24. If you could set the shutter to 48 that would be ideal. DSLR cameras don't allow that. Some video cameras do. The shutter speed closely approximating the frame rate has something to do with shutter degree angle and sharpness. Imagine the degree angle being something spinning and the frame rate being the number of times something is exposed. Degree angle making an opening at the same time exposure is allowed makes for a sharp image. Back to 24p. Lots of folks doing weddings today call themselves "filmmakers" or "cinematographers". The main thing is the end user has a huge HD TV at home and they want their wedding to look like the last BluRay they popped in, right? Well, some folks I know only shoot 720 60p for smoother motion and the ability to use slow motion in post. Even 720 60p spread out over 30 frames per second is glorious 50% full speed action. RANDOM: Panasonic does 1080 60p and dropping into a 24p timeline yields 40% full speed action without use of Cineform or AfterEffects. There's no code to this stuff, but only what has given you consistent results and clients seem happy and keep materializing.

[Jon Fairhurst]

The "normal" shutter speed for film is "180 degrees" or half of the frame rate. This is a compromise between blur (1/30 - or ~300 degrees - can be soft and mushy with too much blur) and judder (1/100 - about 90 degrees - or faster shows the gaps between frames.) Like Baby Bear's porridge, 180 degrees is just right.

So, yeah 1/48 would be a perfect 180 degrees. 1/50 is as close as you can get with the 5D2 and nobody would every notice that it's not exactly 1/48. However, 1/48 or 1/50 will strobe under 60 Hz lights. Shoot 1/30, 1/60, or 1/120 under lights in the US. But outdoors, you can shoot closer to 180 degrees (1/50), so why not?

The only time I use 1/30 is when the light is low and there is very little camera and subject motion. Otherwise, I find it mushy and sloppy looking - especially when there is significant camera motion.

A faster shutter speed can look great with fast, frenetic motion. Use it when you want to add urgent energy to the scene.

When shooting in bright daylight and you want shallow depth of field, you will either need to use a fast shutter or you will need to cut light with an ND filter. A kit with a 0.9 ND (three stops) along with a circular polarizer is a good place to start.

[L.J. Morelli]

that took about a week to sink in, thanks. Additionally, can you tell me what a LUT is, in conjunction with cinestyle settings?

I used Cinestyle settings this past weekend for part of a job, and brought it back to life a bit using only the 3 way color correct in FCP. In viewing some YouTube clips, it's suggested I also try Magic Bullet Looks, which I already own, and playing with the S curves. And what are S curves, just a way of adjusting brightness and contrast? Thank you