Seeking Recommendations for dealing with Dynamic Range problems in Video

[Dan C]

Hi Pilots,

I was recently up in some mountains filming; mostly heavily treed, but an excellent small river with rapids was an obvious feature, and the scree flows right beside it.

The problem is of course when the camera is adjusted for the trees, any shots including the rapids or scree (near-white rock) is blown out. When set for detail on the rapids, the trees are dull and flat.

My big problem is that I'm away from my work-horse PC with until September. I bought VideoStudio Pro, and I am aware it can do correction, but I've never used it before, and I'm traveling right now without access to that PC to test results.

Trying to learn what might be "safe" settings for video that I can later successfully correct post production, I've watched hours of YouTube and read numerous articles and posts. However, there seems to be some "shifting sands" going on in this realm. I've learned that DJI had some great dynamic range characteristics up until about 2017, but then apparently "broke it". Comments suggest it has gotten better, but is still not great.

And then information seems to stop about 1 year ago. I can't find anything recent on this topic.

And I can't do my own trials because I can't get to my software for several weeks more. I'm concerned I'm capturing 10s of Gigs of footage that may be useless.

The only solid advice I've discovered so far is to get some ND filters; easier said than done, but I'm trying to track some down. I've learned about the FPS:Shutter speed 1:2 ratio, but until I can acquire the filters, I'm sol.

In the meantime, does anyone have some current information on best settings for the camera?

I'm perfectly happy to sit and watch (good) YouTube videos, or read (good) posts/articles/blogs on the subject. I've just hit a wall on finding recent stuff myself.

Looking forward to your replies.

 

[vili]

D-cinelike mode and Contrast to -3
What else can we do on Air?
Manual exposure with overexposure warning (zebras)

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

ND filters won't solve your exposure problems, nor can you do much to correct for it in editing. The only thing you can do is set your camera for your main subject and minimize the undesirable subjects in your field of view. It's probably better to underexpose a bit rather than overexpose if you are in such a situation. If you are planning on color grading then D-Cinelike is generally considered best.

 

[Dan C]

ND filters won't solve your exposure problems, nor can you do much to correct for it in editing. The only thing you can do is set your camera for your main subject and minimize the undesirable subjects in your field of view. It's probably better to underexpose a bit rather than overexpose if you are in such a situation. If you are planning on color grading then D-Cinelike is generally considered best.

Research suggests ND filters will allow for a slower shutter speed, which is apparently desirable. The target for 30fps video should be 1/60 second.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

In the meantime, does anyone have some current information on best settings for the camera?

To my knowledge, this is the best advice available to date.

 

[Dan C]

To my knowledge, this is the best advice available to date.

Thanks for that. Very helpful.