Getting More Latitude with HDV

[Zev]

I'm shooting an upcoming project on a Sony HDR-FX1 HDV 1080i camera. I have done the lighting on many projects that have been shot with this kind of camera and am very dissatisfied with the lack of midtones and overall latitude.

For my upcoming project I hope to capture more midtones and emphasize the cool colors within the frame (forest greens, dark blues) Is there any way I can accomplish this?

 

[filmsforever]

What Camera are you using?

What Camera are you using?

did you change cameras?

 

[QzarBaron]

I'm not 100% comfortable with the FX1 and its image settings but the best way to do it is by plugging your camera to your computer using a program like Adobe OnLocation and then slowly messing with the on camera settings until you get something that gets you good results on the histograms and color monitors. There are some good tutorials online on how to read those monitors and what to look for in order to have a flexible image. I shoot on a Canon and there are some great Gamma settings that give you some serious latitude.

The thing that is important to keep in mind is that what you see in the monitor shouldn't be what you need to expect from the image. If you look at the settings I have on my camera you would probably think my image looks dull and colorless. However I like to keep my settings very neutral so I can capture the full range of color information and then decide on my look in post. Even though your Greens and Blues might seem dull there probably is a lot of information on the image that you can pull out in color correction.

COLOR CORRECTION IS YOUR FRIEND!