Color registration correction using VV4 tools?

craftech wrote on 5/18/2003, 7:48 AM
Has anyone (BillyBoy maybe...hint hint) used the tools in VV4 to remove the improper color registration which can occur under the stage lighting of night scenes in plays.
I am ABLE to remove it and/or it is barely noticeable in the DV master. It's in the VHS dupe where it really shows. VHS cannot handle the color saturation that DV, digiBeta, and particularly film can. However, I refuse to accept that almost all color must be removed from the master in such scenes to avoid this phenomenon in my dupes.

The effect is a ghostly shadow next to an actor's face and body particularly when wearing anything in the red family. The histograms, scopes etc. seem irrelevant in rendering a pleasing and colorful effect in dark stage scenes (without spotlights). The majority of the waveform must be to the left under such conditions which cancels out the use of scopes. It seems that it has to be eyeballed on an external monitor, then a prerendered loop section sent to VHS via firewire and then played on 3-4 different TV's to evaluate. And that's for each minor adjustment. I sometimes spend 50-60 hours of such experimentation for a 5 minute scene and either accidently get it right of settle for something ALMOST acceptable due to frustration.
The vast majority of my business is a final product in VHS. A very limited amount is DVD. Much of that has to do with the fact that stage productions are primarily what I shoot. Rarely do I get cooperative directors or choreographers who will let me make lighting decisions. In order to keep my customers I have to then spend endless hours trying to make "artsy" lighting look good on video.....or in many cases NO LIGHTING, or a singer's head with a 10,000 watt spot on it while the rest of his body is in the dark.
For all my complaining, my results are actually pretty good, but I am still really having a tough time with the original problem I stated above (before the ranting).
Can anyone give me some very specific steps to solve this problem? Remember, the problem is in the dupes and not so much the DV master.
And yes, I am using S-Video and good duplication decks, and good cables, etc etc.

Thanks in advance.,
John

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 5/18/2003, 9:01 AM
Hi John... not really based on anything actual that I can put my finger on before I had my mandatory 3 cups of coffee minimum and really wake up, just more along the lines of a wild guess. I think it is more the limitation of VHS tape itself not being able to accept the same fully saturated color levels you can use with other mediums, so cranking back on saturation probably is you best post production fix.

Ah... since you're in the business, maybe you would like an early short working vaction maybe?

This is kind of off the wall, (had first cup of coffee) hmm...is Sunday right... a few days ago someone asked was I a colorist? Well no, not really, just a fussbutton about color. Got me to thinking... So I asked around. Maybe this is old news, maybe not.

There is a place to learn more about the art of color, regards to video, etc.. Pricy yes. Perhaps you, others are interested, I'm kind of interested myself but the the current offering conflicts with another project I got going.

This place is called the The da Vinci Academy in Florida,

They offer some serious in-depth training for the colorist and telecine engineer. If money is no object, they can come to you for one on one. If the course would help you John, or others, I don't know, but they do have a web site (below). I got this info from a friend in the business who swears you learn a lot. Anyway they have some intertesting stuff on their web site, I'm going to read it myself.

http://www.davsys.com/training.htm
craftech wrote on 5/18/2003, 10:30 AM
Thanks Bill,

That sounds really interesting. I have gone to DV workshops and conferences at the Javits Center here in New York. Perhaps they will come here at some point. I think I will write to them.

Regards,
John
mikkie wrote on 5/18/2003, 11:19 AM
Might be worth it to check out photogenetics, or rather the prog it's morphed into.