<p>The biggest factor in planning for aggressive grading is your wardrobe and set design.</p>

<p>Eric Escobar gave an excellent speech about this in 2009 at the SF Supermeet, which the MacVideo guys made available online: "<a href="http://www.macvideo.tv/camera-technology/features/index.cfm?articleId=114513" rel="nofollow">Plug-ins Won't Save You</a>".</p>

<p>I know this isn't the technical solution you were looking for, but the nature of contrast and saturation is that they're more dependent on context than on absolute color values.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadptb.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadptb.htm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadpt.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadpt.htm</a></li>
</ul>

<p>As you figured, underexposure will quickly destroy your ability to push your colors around.  Digital cameras love to underexpose the blue channel, so it really helps to have on-set monitoring like with OnLocation, or with a monitor with scopes, to help nail your exposure.</p>

<p>It appears that x.v.YCC (x.v. Color) information will only play through the camera's outputs, and it'll be down-sampled back to where you started if recording to HDV.  This is because the HDV standard is an 8-bit color depth, which can't represent the 16 bits of x.v.YCC.  If you did capture the x.v.YCC stream, you won't get higher contrast and saturation though, since contrast and saturation are more about the distribution of your colors, rather than their detail and accuracy.  It might occaisonaly make your colors a little less brittle, but I doubt you'd ever notice. </p>

<p>I'd shy away from color features in-camera, especially when going out to HDV.  Shoot as flat a profile as you can (grey and washed-out), and you'll have the most latitude in post.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-07-08T17:35:47.670Z
Thanks! This does help quite a bit. I actually saw that presentation back in '09 haha it was a good reminder though. Sometimes we get caught up in the technical stuff and we forget that we are telling a story.

Also, I believe the X.Y feature does not modify the Gamma Curve. From what I understand, it allows for a larger colour gamut. I guess the real question is whether or not this extra information will carry over to FCP correctly. 

Cheers
SeanBlake
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-07-08T21:03:38.673Z
Ahh.  To answer that part of your question, I went back and added a paragraph on what I think your camera is doing with x.v.YCC (x.v. Color).
Clint Torres
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-07-08T15:58:05.807Z
2011-07-08T21:00:27.317Z
2011-07-08T21:00:27.317Z
Clint Torres
<p>I am doing a shoot where I will need to increase the saturation quite a bit in post. You can only really push it so far before you get artifacts etc. so I'm just wondering if there is anything I should be doing with my lighting/camera beforehand to ensure that I have the most data possible to work with. The cam itself shoots in HDV to a firestore (well, the sony equivalent of one) - it's an HVR-S270U (hard drive is an HVR-DR60)</p>

<p>I haven't used the X.Y Color feature of the camera. I'll do some test shots and see what works best, has anyone had any experience with that?</p>

<camera><color-correction><lighting>
Things to do during shoot to prevent loss of quality during extreme colour grading in post?
SeanBlake
# Things to do during shoot to prevent loss of quality during extreme colour grading in post?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-07-08)

I am doing a shoot where I will need to increase the saturation quite a bit in post. You can only really push it so far before you get artifacts etc. so I'm just wondering if there is anything I should be doing with my lighting/camera beforehand to ensure that I have the most data possible to work with. The cam itself shoots in HDV to a firestore (well, the sony equivalent of one) - it's an HVR-S270U (hard drive is an HVR-DR60)

I haven't used the X.Y Color feature of the camera. I'll do some test shots and see what works best, has anyone had any experience with that?

**Tags:** camera, color-correction, lighting


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2011-07-08. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

The biggest factor in planning for aggressive grading is your wardrobe and set design.

Eric Escobar gave an excellent speech about this in 2009 at the SF Supermeet, which the MacVideo guys made available online: "[Plug-ins Won't Save You](http://www.macvideo.tv/camera-technology/features/index.cfm?articleId=114513)".

I know this isn't the technical solution you were looking for, but the nature of contrast and saturation is that they're more dependent on context than on absolute color values.

* <http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadptb.htm>
* <http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadpt.htm>

As you figured, underexposure will quickly destroy your ability to push your colors around. Digital cameras love to underexpose the blue channel, so it really helps to have on-set monitoring like with OnLocation, or with a monitor with scopes, to help nail your exposure.

It appears that x.v.YCC (x.v. Color) information will only play through the camera's outputs, and it'll be down-sampled back to where you started if recording to HDV. This is because the HDV standard is an 8-bit color depth, which can't represent the 16 bits of x.v.YCC. If you did capture the x.v.YCC stream, you won't get higher contrast and saturation though, since contrast and saturation are more about the distribution of your colors, rather than their detail and accuracy. It might occaisonaly make your colors a little less brittle, but I doubt you'd ever notice.

I'd shy away from color features in-camera, especially when going out to HDV. Shoot as flat a profile as you can (grey and washed-out), and you'll have the most latitude in post.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks! This does help quite a bit. I actually saw that presentation back in '09 haha it was a good reminder though. Sometimes we get caught up in the technical stuff and we forget that we are telling a story.  Also, I believe the X.Y feature does not modify the Gamma Curve. From what I understand, it allows for a larger colour gamut. I guess the real question is whether or not this extra information will carry over to FCP correctly.   Cheers  
> **username_1**: Ahh.  To answer that part of your question, I went back and added a paragraph on what I think your camera is doing with x.v.YCC (x.v. Color).  

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