I think most of us designed our settings in HDV, so switching from 24 to 25 won't make a bit of difference in colour reporoduction or exposure.
The colourspace of standard definition is a little bit different than HDV, but that still shouldn't affect your exposure too much.

Thanks Tim, little concerned that with scenes designed for NTSC might not look the same on PAL? I don't currently have the option of 'painting' scenes via a top end monitor so rely on the generous help offered on this site - there doesn't appear to be the same HD100 community in the UK, on the net at least.

I find the truecolo(u)r 3 file works pretty well in SD PAL.

I use it as a base most of the time, switching in black stretch/crush and tweeking the knee as seems necessary.

If you are shooting urban settings, with a bright-overcast sky, chances are you will get some overexposure in the sky unless filtered. Best to keep an eye on that zebra and perhaps add some black stretch or lift the lower midtones in post if they work out a little dark.

If you are shooting interiors that are not specially lit and/or windows gelled down then it is almost guaranteed that some windows will be blown out, on almost any medium you shoot.

If you can choose your time, you could pick an late afternoon where the light outside would be less intense, or an overcast day- but unless the interior is lit with daylight balanced lights you will still have top contend with the mixed light: cold-outside/warm-inside and choose which, or where in-between to balance for.

Come to think of it it might be possible to mask and selectively correct blue windows in post.

lesh

Modified TC3 for green screen
 

Some time back I had asked if anyone had come up with a good scene file for doing green screen work (another thread) with the HD100 with little feedback, so I did my own testing and tweaking during our last full production shoot. I'm posting here since this was the first place I looked originally for these setting, and still nothing to date has been added for this that I could find. I hope no one minds.

We found that by starting with Paolo's TC3 and making a few changes we got the best results with the HD100, when going to post from a well lit talent and screen. For reference, we chose to start from TC3 simply because we prefer to produce our "look" in post giving us the most flexible process, however using TC3 native we found the colors to be just a little too saturated overall for green screen work. The most trouble coming from the the red levels, but the tweaks got us there in the end, so it was a great place to start. I'm not claiming that this is the end all for the HD100 and green screen work, I'm only sharing what produced the best results for us that day with our HD100 and a modified TC3. Thanks for the head start Paolo!


I'm only going to list the settings that we changed from Paolo's original TC3

Detail = -3
This was brought up from "Min" just for that day (we keep it at Min for everything we shoot normally) but as it ended up softening the talents edges a bit much to pull a clean key, we faired better with -3 to 1. Any higher and we risked a more typical and slight ringing of the edges.

Gamma = Standard
Not sure exactly how this helped (perhaps Paolo can explain) but it did bring the color to a more suitable level. Our DP was switching back and forth between Standard and Cinelike comparing and the result was obvious enough on the monitor to change to Standard.

Gamma Level = Normal
Again, our DP's choice but it looked right.

Color Gain = -1
This helped bring the levels down just a notch and kept colors from over saturating.

Red Gain = 2
Dropping back 1 on the red gained helped a fair amount but even still the JVC tends to show blacks with a slightly red hue for us with most everything we have shot. Reducing the red gain a notch was a fairly obvious change for the better with a large green screen involved.


For the most part that was it. I know this is no longer "True Color" but we have it saved as "True Key". At least now we have something to work with and maybe it will help someone else later down the line.

Peace!

Daniel, thank you for that wonderful post. I needed that for sure. I did chroma-key shots for 3 long scenes 2 weeks ago and I wasn't very happy with what I did. I will definitely save this scene file for future projects.

Daniel P:

I didn't see any change in the color matrix of TC3, but just to be sure: would that scene file work with blue screen as well as green screen, or is that setup only for green screens?

Sorry, not tested, so I can't say for sure. We have only used green in the local larger studio, as well as our smaller in-house setup. But simply from the perspective of a slightly lower overall saturation, I would "guess" the answer might be yes. Regardless, it might be worth doing what we did... start with TC3, tweak it, and test the key then and there. It could be nailed down far more than our little tweaks, I could have spent a full day (and more $$) doing just that.

Thanks Daniel for sharing the info.

Loading SCN Files
 

I am sorry, I read through the post, but I'm not too clear on how to go about actually loading one of these scn files onto my camera. I had thought I could just plug in a firewire cable and pull it off my mac. So I need to load the Scn files onto an 3rd party SD card reader ? Can anyone suggest a card reader?

Thanks,
Tommy Davis

Other settings for Paolo Ciccone's True Color 3
 

Hi, I was inputting Paolo's recipe into my HD100 the other day and notices that it didn't speicy some settings like: v/h balance, H Frequency, V Frequency, white paint. Should I worry about it? What should be the settings? I also looked at other recipes and they don't specify these either. Thanks.

Hi Rati. No I don't change the defaults for those settings.

You're very welcome.
Just an overall observation via the WFM seemed to me to lead to a more balanced gamma. TrueColor tries to achieve both accurate color rendition and maximum latitude. BTW, the emphasis in TrueColor is on skin tones so that explains the red levels as red+yellow are the main components of skin tones. While I think that the red level is where it's supposed to be in the VScope, it could be that it's not the optimal for GS work. It would be interesting to see how it works with a blue screen.

Take care.

@ Paolo
 

I used your TcV3 in a short film I made this year. Worked really nice. Credited you in the film.
Cheers,
Jon Jaschob

http://www.fotgfilms.com/OnceUponATimeInTheCampsite

Thank you Jon.

Stephen Noe's - Zipped .SCN Files
 

Is anybody else having trouble downloading the zipped .scn files for "dark interior"?

Best,
Tommy

Yes, you need an SD card reader in order to move scene files.

It makes absolutely no difference which one you choose, as long as it's compatible with Secure Digital flash memory cards.

Christopher Doyle
 

I've read a few interviews with the Austrailian/Asian cinematographer Christopher Doyle recently (having watched a batch of the excellent films he's been involved with).
On 'The days of being wild' (Wong Kar-Wai) he talked of using 4/5 filters for certain scenes. Would this kind of technique be necessary with the HD digital video camera's? I can see why we would use ND filters etc but having scene file manipulation within such camera's would this still be relevant?
Part of the reason I've posted this is because I want to try and achieve a similar look to his films...that green hue but with 'violent' reds:
The film 'Dumpling' is a good example (the colours to me appear to be a more aggressive 'Amelie' setting)

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fal...ges/doyle1.jpg

2046 another example:

http://filmbrain.typepad.com/filmbra...s/2046_wkw.jpg

Slightly off the topic...I've recently used Paulo's tru colour 3 setting for a corporate video - this worked really well (thanks Paulo). Mostly shot as exteriors - if I were to carry on shooting for the same project but indoors (in say a darker exterior) would I need to make any alterations to this setting...use another setting perhaps (but still matching the 'look' of the exterior shots)?

Cheers.

I have a question about Paolo's True Colour settings. Does V3 render V2 totally obsolete or there are still situations where V2 or even V1 would be recommended over V3?
Does V2 have a wider dynamic range or something? Would any of them be recommended to shot a low key lit with lots of shadows night shoot show?

Why do we use these scene files? Can't we have these effects in post with After Effects or something?

Yes... but using the on-board processor BEFORE the mpeg2 compression or downsampling is applied can give you more range of control.

If you are capturing with an uncompressed card, then definitely attempt to optimize the maximum latitude possible for your scene and manipulate the image in post.

Version 3 is an improvement from V2 so I encourage you to use the newest version.

It depends, TrueColor is meant to make the work in post easier and more precise. It's also intended to give you the widest latitude with your camera. If you crush your blacks because of a uncalibrated camera, there is no amount of post that you can do.
I am against using "camera looks" with digital cameras except in specific cases, the use of a scene file is meant, in my workflow, as a tool to keep the camera calibrated to the widest latitude and to the most neutral settings. If you think that that would be the default from the factory, well,m think again :)
DSC made a whole business based on the fact that cameras usually come out of the factory un-calibrated.

Thanks Paolo.

So it seems TrueColor is much like the so called “digital negative” way of shooting that F900 DPs talk about.. You use it to get the cleanest image possible and work on it in post to achieve the look you want. That’s basically what most DPs shooting the F900 for narrative do. Get the cleanest and widest latitude possible and work on it in post. Good stuff.

Isn’t that what TrueColor is made for anyways? At least according to Paolo.
About capturing uncompressed, judging by Taylor’s experiences posted on this boards and his ShowReel article, it seems in the case of the HD100 and the component out, there isn’t much advantage in capturing uncompressed really. Maybe with the HD250 and SDI, but with the analog component doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble or expense. The results Taylor got in post when manipulating the HDV signal was amazing. I don't remember exactly now, but I think Taylor even used TrueColor, didn't he?

Yes, regardless the camera, the F900 is very high-end but the same is valid for all digital camera, your latitude is currently more limited than with film. By avoiding creating a bias in the digital negative, and by carefully calibrating the camera, you obtain the most complete digital signal that the
camera can give you. When you bring that signal inside your compositing/NLE suite you can use the massive processing power and precision of modern computers to do the kind of manipulation that you need and you have the advantage of the "Undo" function. Also, things like stacking copies of the same clip using the blend mode are not achievable in camera.

That's exactly the reason for it.

Actually I disagree on that. It's not always needed, one size deosn't fit all :), but the use of 4:2:2 instead of 4:2:0 has advantages. Background noise is one of the biggest problems of HDV compression and uncompressed component out addresses that.

What do you mean?

This is something you do in programs like FCP or After Effects. Say that you need to brighten some clip. You can use color correction of duplicate the clip, stack the copy on a track above the original, set the blend mode to "Add" and then set the opacity to, oh say, 30%-40%.
You have to see it in action. Very easy trick to add more detail to dark clips without shifting the colors and very easy to adjust by playing with the transparency level.

Hi there, I'm eager to download Steven Noe's Panamatch-scenefiles, but the forum says I'm not allowed to open that page. Anyone knows why?

latitude and TC3
 

Hey Paulo, have you measured how many stops of exposure you get with your tc3 scene file?

It's about 6.

Paulo, Could you comment on applying your scene file to the HD200 series?
My feeling is that it isn't a direct translation after looking at comparision footage. I realize you may want to take some more time before releasing a 200 series scene file with your name on it, but some hints would be really appreciated!

Hi Sean.

No, the HD100 color settings cannot be applied to the HD200, the 14-bit color matrix is not compatible with the 12-bit version of the HD100 and the resulting colors will be totally wrong.

I just finished arrangements with JVC during NAB and I will receive a HD250 from JVC soon. I take the opportunity to thank Marion Ciliberto of JVC for the cooperation and for making this possible. As soon as I receive the camera I will work on a version of TrueColor for that camera. This version will also sport even more accurate configuration thanks to the ChromaDuMonde chart provided by DSC.

I had a long conversation with David Corley, founder of DSC, at NAB. Truly one of the highlights of the event. David has forgotten more that most of us will ever know about color and cameras and he is very a very approachable person with a passion for education and sharing.

If you have the chance to go to any of the trade shows where DSC shows its product please stop by and take the opportunity to take a look. Very likely you'll learn something new about your camera. BTW, DSC has a new backfocus chart that solves the issue of adjusting back-focus when the lens is in wide-angle mode. Defintely worth consideration: http://www.dsclabs.com

If everything goes well I should have an HD200/250 version of TrueColor in 3-4 weeks. I will keep you posted.

Hey Paolo,

Thanks for taking the time to do this, you do awesome work. Also thanks to JVC for the loaner.

Will your new color files for the 200/250 be for SD and HD, or just for HD?

Thanks again,

Carl

I calibrate the cameras strictly in HD mode.

Take care.

The reason I asked is that I use your T-3 on my 100 in DV-SD and the picture is great.

Thanks

Awesome. Thanks Paulo. You confirmed my suspicions, since I had put in yours and tried some others scene files, and results were different from those I had seen online. I don't have good color charts, or a proper calibrated monitor yet, but I don't want to compromise the footage I acquire.
Sorry if I was pushy on this, since for some reason I thought you had mentioned you already had a 200 series camera to work with.

Thanks also to JVC USA and DSC for assistance here. This really is a win-win situation for all concerned!

I'll also be very interested for your input on the picture noise that can be intermittently troublesome on the 200 series when you get yours. This might even be from some of us abusing the scene parameters - possibly even by trying to use 100 series settings (which I was guilty of doing).

I bet :)
The difference between 601 and 709 color spaces is minimal so I'm not surprised. I just wanted to make sure that I don't do any verification or test in SD.

Take care.

Hello All,

Since the DVinfo server share is D.O.A. and I get the request often enough, I'll post the "Panamatch" recipe here in screenshot format.

Click here for Panamatch Recipe

Enjoy! and Keep Shooting!!

How can I get Stephen Noe's scene files
 

please help. I'd love to check out Stephen Noe's scene files. Can anyone help? I tried to download them from the links but they don't work.

Thanks!

Scene Files
 

Hi Folks

Have had a good look through the forum, but may be missing the answer.

THe scene files that Paolo and Tim have put up, especially the true colour files, do they work on the PAL versions of the 101 and 201, and also in SD mode or only HD mode.

regards
Dean Lomax

Panamatch version True color III
 

What are some of the qualatative differences between these two settings? They seem similar but panamatch seems to a more comprehensive list of settings.