Posterizing issue
 

I am using the PAL version of the DVX and I have it set on 25P and scenefile F6. All other settings are on default.

I have noticed that when shooting a subject outdoor in sunlight, the parts of the skin that are being directly hit by sunlight become very very bright and almost look whiteish when bringing the footage on the PC. I believe it is similar to 'posterizing' an image in Photoshop. It's almost an overexposed look. I could show some samples if that would help. This also seems to happen indoors with a direct light source in areas where light has the most intensity on.

I have also noticed that although all colors look the way they should, the sky tends to have a gradial from almost a purplish/blue to light blue when brining the footage on the PC.

One other thing is that the footage looks slightly darker than under the same conditions shot with a VX2000. (Indoor with natural light, no direct light on the subject).

Can anyone suggest any tips to solve these issues.

Without seeing some screen grabs, it may be related to Cinegamma. See Adam Wilts info (top of this forum) for details on why highlights outside are tricky with cinegamma turned on.

thanks man. I actually read some info on here and on 2pop and found that indeed cinegamma is the problem.

I confused gamma with matrix so I put both on cine.

Now I will try normal gamma and cine matrix and maybe up the ND 1 step outside.

Thanks
Eman

Stephen--I've also noticed this problem, though figured it was just something I was stuck with for the "cine" look. Do you recommend not using cinegamma when outdoors? If I turn it off will I no longer have the "cine look" . Thanks!

Peter

You can use it outside, but set you Zebra's to 70-90% because cinegamma has no shoulder for the highlights. If you expose over even 1 IRE, it's blown out and no detail will be recorded. Increasing overexposure will create the artifacts.

Either use Normal Gamma, or use Zebras + ND filters to shoot outdoors. A polarizer can be helpful in controlling bright reflections and highlights as well as cutting light intensity down.

Don't be afraid of those underexposed shot with Cinegamma. It also has no knee, so you get that detail back in post.

Thanks stephen. I've been trying to underexpose enough to keep the zebras out, and as you say a polarizer is helpful, because when you overexpose and loose detail, it looks pretty godawful.

Peter