Software Filters vs. Lens Filters – Keeping Track of Batteries

Software vs. Lens Filter – Keeping track of Batteries


Brian Peterson: Hi, I’m Brian Peterson.
Andrew Burke: And I’m Andy Burke.
Brian Peterson: And we’re here with Tips and techniques. And we’ve got another, the second half, I guess, this is our filter piece. We couldn’t cover it all! There was too much to it.
Andrew Burke: We got into it.
Brian Peterson: We talked about stuff putting in front of the lens, and we’ve got plenty to talk about filters on the timeline.
And actually, you and I were talking about, how do we actually refer to difference between the two? So I think we settle on photo lens on the timeline, or software filters?
Andrew Burke: Yeah, yeah, that’s what we referred to.
Brian Peterson: Right. And before we dig into the detail, I think, I don’t know if we really covered it enough, just balancing the pluses and minuses of which one you would use.
Andrew Burke: Right. Right.
Brian Peterson: Let’s talk real briefly about which ones are only possible in front of the lens?
Andrew Burke: The first thing I think of is a circular polarizer filter, because you definitely, I mean, it equalizes your contrast so nicely, and you get a richer sky, or less glare. And you definitely can’t do that in post.
Brian Peterson: You can’t do it in post. Well, actually, no, I take it back. Let’s say how you’re using your polarizer to pull of reflection out of the window or something. You could do that. It’s called rotoscoping. Frame by frame and it’s painful and it takes months. So, using a polarizing filter obviously in front of lens is a great one.
Another one that seems to allow for an improved image initially is that UV haze. It’s just something that gives you a little bit more polarity to the images. Not intense, it’s certainly not as intense as polarizing-
Andrew Burke: Right.
Brian Peterson: filter, but it’s not something you can replicate really well in post.
Andrew Burke: Right. I’d agree with that.
Brian Peterson: Any other you can think of that are good?
Andrew Burke: Let’s see. Neutral density maybe. Having a neutral density filter, but…
Brian Peterson: I mean, a neutral density really gives you a little bit of more control of your iris, and you can open it up a bit more to get a bit more filmic effect, in other words, your depth of field will narrow by putting a neutral density filter in front of your lens. Some cameras actually include that on a wheel.
Andrew Burke: Yeah. And there is some kind of, there are ways out there to do that in post, but it’s not the same thing.
Brian Peterson: Not the same thing. No. All right. So, let’s talk about filters in post. You know, one of the first things you can kind of think of in terms of effecting your clip in a post situation, is that, really, video is nothing more than 30 frames of still images sequenced in one after the other.
So, as we, you were talking about just a moment ago, that opens up one very powerful program to those of you who are familiar with it – Photoshop.
Andrew Burke: Yeah. Yeah, it’s great program for using for video and I know a lot of people who use it. And it gets a really nice, they have, you know, features that can automate things, so, you know, they put in their video frames, and it automates it, they don’t really have to do it one frame at a time.
Brian Peterson: Yeah. Obviously you wouldn’t want to do that, but having some software do that interpretation for you is necessary. But then you open yourself up to world of more advanced filter sets that Photoshop offers. And if you visit Photoshop, that might be one of the things you consider, so...
Again, don’t just exclude some of the more high end, still processing programs just because they’re not made exclusively for video.
All right, so, the two types of filters for post processing are very similar to the two types of filters for in front of the lens. The first type are those that really just adjust the image quality. So, we’re talking here about the color correction, contrast, brightness value, so those just kind of adjust, in general.
And then second type of filter really is about the enhancement, right, Andy?
Andrew Burke: Absolutely.
Brian Peterson: Any more or you just think there’s two?
Andrew Burke: No, I think that’s great. And I think they’re both really popular, in post especially. I know, I’ve used enhancement filter like a graduate sky filter. And a couple of my shots, I got a part of the building and lamp post in there, and it kind of turn that fringy blue. It wasn’t terrible, but you could kind of, you know it’s there-
Brian Peterson: So you can get away with it sometimes?
Andrew Burke: Yes, but in post I’d been surprised at how easy it is to, you know they have, what do you call it, ramifications or features that let you kind of feather around that, so you can actually add it in post, and it’s one of those that could give you a better result.
Brian Peterson: So, in post, what you really have here is the ability to add some of those features that we saw in, actually, we will see in a take 20, was done to a great effect. Obviously, you can’t put in motion filters and all that kind of thing, you can’t put ripples, you can’t put really, do any of these advanced color correction, in front of the lens, it’s just not possible.
Andrew Burke: Right.
Brian Peterson: So, naming out a couple that are exclusive to the timeline. Well, first and probably one of the most important ones to a large to be released to a still world, is sharpening. There is no sharpening filter out there. There is of course a blur filter which you can use.
So, sharpening, and then color correction. That’s probably the biggie. And if we can recommend an order to these class of equations, we probably would want to recommend that you treat the very first step as the correction series of filters, so you want to adjust your levels – your brightness, your contrast, and your color first, and then after you’ve achieved that effect, go ahead and start applying those types of effected filters that seem to give you the style that you’re looking for.
Of course, you can stack these things on and add in for night practically.
Andrew Burke: Yeah.
Brian Peterson: You can get carried away.
Andrew Burke: Absolutely. And a lot of them allow for, you know, just a host of filters. And what I’ve noticed is that rearranging the filters in order gives you different effects in difference.
Brian Peterson: Absolutely.
Andrew Burke: And play on with that and see what you get.
Brian Peterson: So, let’s talk just briefly about color correction. Since that seems to be the real major place for folks who are dealing with video, who really aren’t interested in providing, you know, an effected style, and not really trying to do something over and above what would look natural.
You’ve had a lot of chance to work with color correction. Can you give us just kind of the rundown of the basic steps that you follow?
Andrew Burke: Yeah, I think, you know, a lot of the color correction tools offer you a selection of the white point, you select what you want to look white, what you want to look dark, and you can adjust for contrast. And even adjusting for contrast adjusts the color sometimes, so…
Brian Peterson: Right. And of course you probably see wheels that we look, if you hadn’t have a chance to look at them, they look somewhat odd, but don’t let those wheels in the myriad of colors and the color wheel itself throw you off, but generally you’ll have values for levels of saturation, for hue, for gamma, all of those different wheels will adjust separate parts of the video independently.
Andrew Burke: Yeah, independently, which is nice.
Brian Peterson: If you want to get into the wild effects, of course, programs like AfterEffects will eat up the rest of your life, if you wanted to adjust color correction. That’s very, very, very heavy op and… but it’s great fun if you have the weekend to burn to and really tweak up your color correction tools.
Another software only feature is really some simple stuff which is just changing from color to black and white.
Andrew Burke: Yeah.
Brian Peterson: No filter out there so far that you can put in front of the lens that does that. And sometimes that’s a great effect.
Andrew Burke: Yeah. You know, there are a couple of camcorders out there that do that in camera-
Brian Peterson: In camera, right.
Andrew Burke: you know, but a lot of them don’t. And a lot of the Prosumer cameras that we, you know, spouse use of, don’t.
Brian Peterson: Right.
Andrew Burke: Mine included.
Brian Peterson: And that’s one of those things where, if you had a choice of an in camera effect, versus on the timeline, I don’t know. Timeline, probably?
Again, if it’s in the exit, done. So, think twice before you use those in camera effects.
All right, the last piece right here, and this is one that still is kind of controversial as to which looks better is blurring. Now, blurring you can do with filter in front of the lens, of course, or on the timeline. Now, there are some more sophisticated applications, such as Photoshop, or course, Final Cut Pro, and Elements, and of course, Premiere Pro, all have good blur filters. But they look different than the physical filter you put in front of the lens. And I don’t know if I can describe why.
There’s an optical characteristic that you just get with on the camera physical filters.
Andrew Burke: I think they definitely do, yes. And I’ve used a softening filter for one of these, what is it, soft effects filters. And they’re really popular, and they do give just a slightly different effect. I think they just affect the lights, the highlights and shadows differently. So…
Brian Peterson: It’s worth trying. Again, put it in front of the lens, if it’s in a mix, put on the timeline. You might have slightly less quality, but at least then you’ve got the idea of changing your mind.
Hey, let’s talk about batteries, and how to track batteries that are charged and not charged.
Andrew Burke: All right. So we have a tip for you today about keeping track of your batteries, and I’m going to tell you what I’ve done when I’m in a pinch. And these are three items that I always have on videoshoots – tapes, a Sharpee, and of course, batteries.
And, here…
Brian Peterson: Where’s your camcorder?
Andrew Burke: I don’t use camcorder. So, you know, there’s a certain amount of garbage that comes along with these tapes. And I put them to use. You know, when I, I label my tapes with one of these, but, you get all this stuff and what do you do with it?
And, when I’m out, what I’ll do is take one of these rectangular deals, and stick it on the top, write a number on it, and, my batteries are organized vertically, so when I have them all charged and ready to go, they’ll all be vertical in my case, my backpack or whatever. And, when I’m done with them, I’ll put them around upside down, so I’ll know, okay, there’s no number there, that means that I’ve got to move on to battery number 2. So I’ll know exactly which one to use.
And sometimes actually, I put multiple numbers on them so I can see what batteries are on my freeze camera that is, you know, a cost away, in a multicam shoot or something, so…
Brian Peterson: Ah, good.
Andrew Burke: Some of these tend to peel off in heat, when a battery gets a little hot, when it’s used for a while, so it is a kind of a temporary solution, but it’s definitely one that will get you out of running back to, you know, your gear spot with no batteries on.
Brian Peterson: Right. And, you know, alternative to that is sometimes those markers, they have gold permanent markers, you can write directly on the battery itself. So that would be another one if heat’s an issue.
But, man, you’ve got to jam, and grab a battery real fast, great idea!
All right, that’s it for this segment. Charlie and Jennifer will be taking Take 20 next, so see you next week.