I have been using SF for several years, and got on the Vegas bandwagon when it first became available. I do audio recordings of my choir and videotape my kids during their High School plays and their Christmas programs. I'm pretty sure I'm missing some fundamental information. Does anybody have guidance, suggested reading or any tips?
Audio I can somewhat grasp - throw up a stereo mic and some soloist mics, take direct feeds from every instrument out there, mix down to 8 channels and record them to hard disk with Vegas 5.0. Easy. Mix according to taste. Sounds good. (Behringer MX3242X -> presonus Firepod@96kHz sample rate -> homebrew desktop) It would sound GREAT if I could isolate all the instruments from the vocalists, but this is LIVE recording and so I won't do that. I make the choice and accept the consequences.
Video is going to kill me. I have a "somewhat older Sony Digital 8" TRV 120 (not sure of the number) My results have been depressing. I have spent the last few weeks trying to learn how to "color correct" using the following plugin chain
"HSL Adjust" "Levels" "Brightness and Contrast" "Color Corrector"
The problems are myriad - but I think they always occur in the same order.
LIGHTING PROBLEMS
(1) Most scenes have something that is too white. it might be the white frock worn by the actress, or glare off of a piece of set painted light yellow. Cothes and set pieces are my worst enemy here.
(2) All that white looks burned out and I panic - so I try to find an "autoexposure" setting that brings things into better "balance". You see the result in the lcd monitor and the captured footage - click (hmm thats not good one) - click (hmm that is worse) - click (hmm that looks better) - click (nope I liked the previous one better) - click (OK thats the keeper ----- But there's still too much white! - try the manual exposure control) - click (getting better) - click (hey that looks really good - whites are not burning out completely!!!)
(3) Next scene - everything I set previously is subject to change - perhaps this scene is played totally in front of the BLACK curtain - or worse, in front of the GREEN curtain! As an example, in the last show I did, there was an 18 ft. high wall 20 ft wide in the center, with black on either side (15 ft on either side). Half the action was on either side of that glowing yellow wall, and the rest in front of black. (The lighting is so bad that over the years I took over the lighting - but we don't have enough equipment to properly light everything nicely. I am curious how I would light these scenes so I could tape them well)
(3) Capture the video (THANK YOU BATCH CAPTURE!!! I can't tell you how many other products would not successfully batch capture for me, between 1997 and 2000)
(4) Gee - the beginning of each scene shows every CLICK I made (I guess it has to right??) I tried color correcting with that plugin chain I described above. I ended up keyframing all those correctors FRAME BY FRAME whenever I did a "click" (1to 5 frames per click)
(5) I plow through the troubled scenes for days, only to come back to it later and get disgusted, starting all over again.
It might be my imagination, but in the process of kocking out the overexposed whites, I'm underexposing everything else? What are the cures or workarounds for this?
I am resisting the urge to "rob a piggie bank" and locate a much nicer video camera. The reason is because I'm not sure it would help me get better footage. I'm not sure what problems that better camera would be able to avoid, and I'm not sure I would know how to use it to avoid those problems.
I HAVE pleaded with the set designer and director to STOP putting white clothes on the kids and STOP painting sets so reflectively. They cannot stop. The sets look OK to the average theater goer. In fact, this high school is kind of famous for their sets. I'm the only one with a problem.
I've read about "setting the white balance" but my camera doesn't allow that adjustment. And besides, if the lighting is different between scenes (and even during the same scene) what good is a white balance? Which scene is getting balanced for white?
My shows SOUND great because I use that stereo mic at stage level, record to minidisc and then sync to the video during post. If I could throw this video nonsense away I would, but everyone wants video first - they don't seem to care as much what it sounds like. They want to see their kids on stage.
Am I the only one that struggles with this? How can I video more effectively in this (somewhat chaotic and always rushed) environment? More education? Different equipment? Different lighting stragegy?
The SF product line has matured nicely and I enjoy working with them. I just wish I knew what I was doing!! <grin>
Marc
Audio I can somewhat grasp - throw up a stereo mic and some soloist mics, take direct feeds from every instrument out there, mix down to 8 channels and record them to hard disk with Vegas 5.0. Easy. Mix according to taste. Sounds good. (Behringer MX3242X -> presonus Firepod@96kHz sample rate -> homebrew desktop) It would sound GREAT if I could isolate all the instruments from the vocalists, but this is LIVE recording and so I won't do that. I make the choice and accept the consequences.
Video is going to kill me. I have a "somewhat older Sony Digital 8" TRV 120 (not sure of the number) My results have been depressing. I have spent the last few weeks trying to learn how to "color correct" using the following plugin chain
"HSL Adjust" "Levels" "Brightness and Contrast" "Color Corrector"
The problems are myriad - but I think they always occur in the same order.
LIGHTING PROBLEMS
(1) Most scenes have something that is too white. it might be the white frock worn by the actress, or glare off of a piece of set painted light yellow. Cothes and set pieces are my worst enemy here.
(2) All that white looks burned out and I panic - so I try to find an "autoexposure" setting that brings things into better "balance". You see the result in the lcd monitor and the captured footage - click (hmm thats not good one) - click (hmm that is worse) - click (hmm that looks better) - click (nope I liked the previous one better) - click (OK thats the keeper ----- But there's still too much white! - try the manual exposure control) - click (getting better) - click (hey that looks really good - whites are not burning out completely!!!)
(3) Next scene - everything I set previously is subject to change - perhaps this scene is played totally in front of the BLACK curtain - or worse, in front of the GREEN curtain! As an example, in the last show I did, there was an 18 ft. high wall 20 ft wide in the center, with black on either side (15 ft on either side). Half the action was on either side of that glowing yellow wall, and the rest in front of black. (The lighting is so bad that over the years I took over the lighting - but we don't have enough equipment to properly light everything nicely. I am curious how I would light these scenes so I could tape them well)
(3) Capture the video (THANK YOU BATCH CAPTURE!!! I can't tell you how many other products would not successfully batch capture for me, between 1997 and 2000)
(4) Gee - the beginning of each scene shows every CLICK I made (I guess it has to right??) I tried color correcting with that plugin chain I described above. I ended up keyframing all those correctors FRAME BY FRAME whenever I did a "click" (1to 5 frames per click)
(5) I plow through the troubled scenes for days, only to come back to it later and get disgusted, starting all over again.
It might be my imagination, but in the process of kocking out the overexposed whites, I'm underexposing everything else? What are the cures or workarounds for this?
I am resisting the urge to "rob a piggie bank" and locate a much nicer video camera. The reason is because I'm not sure it would help me get better footage. I'm not sure what problems that better camera would be able to avoid, and I'm not sure I would know how to use it to avoid those problems.
I HAVE pleaded with the set designer and director to STOP putting white clothes on the kids and STOP painting sets so reflectively. They cannot stop. The sets look OK to the average theater goer. In fact, this high school is kind of famous for their sets. I'm the only one with a problem.
I've read about "setting the white balance" but my camera doesn't allow that adjustment. And besides, if the lighting is different between scenes (and even during the same scene) what good is a white balance? Which scene is getting balanced for white?
My shows SOUND great because I use that stereo mic at stage level, record to minidisc and then sync to the video during post. If I could throw this video nonsense away I would, but everyone wants video first - they don't seem to care as much what it sounds like. They want to see their kids on stage.
Am I the only one that struggles with this? How can I video more effectively in this (somewhat chaotic and always rushed) environment? More education? Different equipment? Different lighting stragegy?
The SF product line has matured nicely and I enjoy working with them. I just wish I knew what I was doing!! <grin>
Marc