Color matching/correcting 2 different camera
 

Greeting,

This is my first post in this forum after quite a long time being a guest. I will shoot my first wedding in mid of June using 2 different cameras. The first one (main) is 3 ccd panasonic md10000 (PAL format-available only in few countries incl Indonesia), the second cam is Sony TRV33 single ccd to serve as a life insurance.

Obviously color will be problem when it comes to mix the two shots. I gave it trial lately and learn Panasonic gives me cool/blueish color while Sony reveals to be warm/orange-dominant-color and it is obvious on shot by shot comparison.

Using Premiere Pro to match the color (level, hue/saturation, etc), I found it hard to get good outcome.

WHite balance is on manual mode (Panasonic), Sony is on auto/indoor/outdoor setting. AE is locked on auto for both the cam.

Any advise on proper color correction/matching would ease my pain.

THanks so much.

I don't think anyone's going to be able to give you any "cookie cutter" color correction settings regardless of the NLE.

When blending a 3 chipper with a single chipper it's going to be noticeable. I don't care what you do. (That's why we paid extra money for the 3CCD's). With PPro I can change a pig to color "blue" but it's still a pig.

I don't think color matching should be as big a concern as the lighting conditions of the venue when using this single-chipper.

I definitely agree with Rick. There's no way in heck you can color match it, not even the pros in hollywood can. You have a better chance of color matching/blending shots together is if you use 3ccd camcorders. If this is an event you are doing for a family favor or what not, may consider the Sony. But if this is to get your name out there? it would be your first and your last; i'm sorry to say. Good luck to you though, and remember, you get what you paid for.

Using a color chart will definitely help.

The easy way out is to go B&W :)

You can get pretty close (in my opinion, good enough) in matching cameras via color correction.

An example:
http://www.glennchan.info/matching/matching.htm

Resolution differences you can't do much about.

2- Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with PPro to know if you can get similar results. The equivalent to Vegas' secondary color correction is hue/saturation in Premiere Pro. Hue/saturation uses a different algorithm and give you different results... hopefully that doesn't make a difference.

Curves is under the color corrector.

Thanks for the replies....

The wed I will shoot is for a close friend of mine at no cost. Most of the outcome will be composed using Panasonic cam, the rest, with some post editing tricks, will be that of sony. That's my planning.

I'm running on a tight budget, so there is no way to afford the second 3-chippers cam at the moment. Glenn's post hopefully works for me...

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Kinda late, but I figure I'd post anyway.

I'm also using the MD10000 for weddings (2 of them). Great cameras!

I also mix them with 1 chip footage from Opturas (steadycam). It does take a lot of post work, but it's certainly doable matching the two. One of the advantages with the Optura though is the RGB filter - I don't think Sony 1chips have them.

As Glenn mentioned in his page, check your white balance and play with the gray/mid point. That's the bulk of correction right there of it there. Once you've got that right, worry about intensity, saturation, etc.

Mixing ntsc 60i (optura) with pal (md10000) to ultimately produce a 24p dvd - now that's where it really gets fun :)

grey poin/25p/slow mo
 

1. The work around on grey point definitely works! I love the result, though at different lighting condition the outcome still a bit deviates....but there will be less noticeable to the average viewers.

2. On converting to 24p or 25p, I notice some problem (may be only to me); footage is not smooth on computer play back after deinterlacing. I tried to convert 25i to 25p using virtualdub deinterlace smooth filter (plugin) or using fieldskit, both produce the same. Is this normal? my setup is dualcore T2500 laptop 2 gig ram, which is powerful enough....(i guess).

3. suppose this is different thread, how do you guys normally achieve beautiful slow mo? in post (shoot 25i or 30i) or using 24p / progressive cam? doing it in post takes lot of time....sometimes too much....

thanks for input

Twixtor. (all in post).

Yep - best there is.