My outside snow shots lack umph! Under a 2 pm sunny sky in n.e new england my video lacks eye popping color such as the paint color on a passing snowmobile.
Standing on a frozen lake and shooting across it to a town on the other side, I do not see the bright blue sky that is rendered by my Nikon 990. It is kind of washed out. This is inspite of my having a TIFFIN polarizer filter and +1 f-stop on the AE Shift control. I am shooting on Automatic. Is there something slightly out of adjustment with camera or is it more likely operator malfunction? I suspect it is...

I have really good luck with color when I have done interviews at a ski resort in the afternoon, using a little auxiliary light on top of the camera. The subject's red jacket has come out really red looking and the face is warm and kind of glowing. Again, I have just used the auto setting and without a polarizer.

My main trouble seems to be in getting the camera to produce vibrant color in panoramic snow scenes.

Any ideas? Does this complaint ring a bell with anyone?

tb




Can I boost the color in FCP...not quite sure how to do this?

Color can be increased or saturated in FCP. But in your outside shots, why did you go +1 on the AE Shift control? The +1 adjustment is increasing the exposure (making things lighter). It makes the snow whiter, but generally causes colors to become less saturated. On your next trip outside try shoting the same scene at -1, 0, +1 (bracketing) on the AE shift and see which exposure you like best.

Jeff

I am wondering if my problems are caused by leaving the white balance on automatic? Is this possible? Can I rely on the auto setting or should a always do a manual white balance in bright sunlight on snow?

Anything else I can try?
Tb

In my experience, the AWB is very accurate in sunny conditions. I have found it slightly less accurate under cloudy conditions and when one color predominates a scene for example a women wearing a red dress against a red background. Individual cameras may vary and a manual WB would not hurt. Just remember to continually adjust the WB as lighting conditions change.

Jeff

Haven't had any sun for a while, so what can I try in FCP to boost color on what I have?

The easiest way to correct the color in FCP 3 is to use the Color Corrector 3-way filter. Depending on the speed of your Mac this is a real time effect. Load the footage and select it in the time line. Go to Effects>Video Filters>Color Correction>Color Corrector 3-way. The filter is now loaded as a tab in the viewer (window on the left). Click the Color Corrector 3-way tab to bring it to the front. Rather than retype the manual I suggest you review the manual and post back in the Mac editing forum with any questions.

If the the Color Corrector 3-way seems too much then try the Proc Amp filter. Effects>Video Filters>Image Control>Proc Amp. It will appear in the tab labeled filters. Click on the filter tab, click on the video filter button (arrow) and adjust the chroma control. The scenes will need to be rendered for the effect to be permanent. Real time effects is not possible on all Macs.

Jeff

Found it! Thanks...also found the chapter in "Final Cut Pro, the Art of Filmmaking" Thanks for being so patient and polite! I am on MAC G4733 MG and 1 GB of RAM. FCP seems to run pretty well with this set up.

I played around with things but so far haven't improved much on the original.

Tim