Posted: September 12th, 2010 | Author: michl | Filed under: tips | Tags: After Effects, Animation, automatic, automation, link, Motion, Scripts, watermark, Workflow | No Comments »
One observation in my work with after effects is that you can achieve a lot by tweaking the knobs you have been given – but as soon as you are faced with the hell-hounds of mass-producing watermarks and idents with changing designer names, you really need to get a clever script doing the job for you. really, you don`t want to sit all night long and copy-paste the names from a list, which isn’t confirmed or somehow mixed up.
On my travels along that road i stumbled upon after effects scripts .This awesome site offers it all: from automatic color separation to using external files to fill in the names for you – everything scripted to command your AE the right way. You can try all the scripts for free, just make sure to pay the 20$ for corporate jobs. A small price to pay to make your life easier and just the right thing to do…
Posted: September 11th, 2010 | Author: benjamin | Filed under: tech, tips | Tags: adjustment, bars, brightness, calibration, camera, color, color bars, colour, colour bars, condition, configuration, contrast, correct, display, ex3, HD, image, knobs, light, lighting, monitor, multi, resolution, screen, service centre, sony, tip, tips, true, true image, veiwfinder, video, viewfinder, xdcam | No Comments »
Anyone who has used the Sony EX3 at sometime has probably fallen victim to the viewfinder displaying either an underexposed or overexposed image, resulting in a disappointing screening of the daily rushes.
Sony released the XDCAM EX3 with an amazing viewfinder. Although it’s not of HD resolution it provides superb clarity and colour rendition. I have come across a few techniques and modifications to make sure you can take advantage of this great piece of equipment.
The two aspects I will cover are contrast and brightness configuration for true exposure, and colour level configuration which speaks for itself.
Lets begin…
Contrast & Brightness:
To start have both the “Brightness” and “Contrast” knobs set to 12′oclock, which is half way.
Press the colour bars button to bring the colour bars up on the viewfinder (make sure the colour bar type is set to “multi” in the camera menu). Press the “Display” button on the front of the viewfinder to get a clean viewfinder screen.
Start to adjust only the “Brightness” knob clock wise slowly. Look at the bottom right of the monitor you will notice the black bar will start to display 3 different grades of black and grey vertical strips. The lightest shade of grey positioned most right is the strip you will reference for your configuration
Adjust the brightness knob until you see the mentioned grey strip appear but none of the other strips are visable.
Your viewfinder has now been calibrated for the closest representation of a true exposure. You may have noticed that the contrast knob doesn’t actually get touched, this is correct in this quick and simple method. leave it at 12′oclock.
You will find that most offen the brightness knob will be set around the 1′oclock mark.
BUT NOTE!
The adjustment you have made is set for the existing lighting condition in which you are viewing the monitor. The external light hitting the screen of the monitor influences how the image in perceived. Therefore, if the eye piece is attached to the viewfinder or if you are under different lighting conditions viewing the screen without the eyepiece, the viewfinder must be re calibrated. Which means repeat the steps I have mentioned.
TIP:
Check the viewfinder regularly as the knobs can be easily knocked or moved during operating.
Next….
Colour:
I have observed in my time while operating multiple EX3′s that the viewfinder has consistently displayed a warmer (orange) image. Despite the fact that every camera is manufactured with a degree of difference I found it to be invaluable to get the viewfinder re calibrated.
The only way to achieve this is to book your camera into a SONY approved service centre and ask them to have the viewfinder’s colour calibrated. It was first thought at the service centre that this would not be possible but they were able to find the adjustments necessary in the backend of the camera. Hopefully your service centre was as helpful as mine, they did a great job!
Posted: August 19th, 2010 | Author: markus | Filed under: tips | Tags: Markus | No Comments »
There we go, after reading hundreds of posts about how essential filters are, I decided for the new 5D it is a must-have. Despite quite a number of phone calls, checking if one or even two filters on top create vignetting and result in f-stop-loss, the 24-70mm 2.8 L had the UV and the CIR POL on it…. as if it was meant to be.
All it took was a quick step, tripping over and the lens hit the ground. As always, it looked like everything was broke into pieces, but in the end it turned out it was just the pol-filter who took the damage.
Lucky us, a €120-high-end filter instead of the L-lens has to be replaced O_o
right after an accident
