editing Level check -- bright, dark, just right?

Flicker Pictures

Flicker Pictures

one of the things I struggle with most when editing is getting bright and dark levels dialed in before pulling the trigger and posting online. I don't have a pro set-up, so I lack a legit monitor to gauge if the overall image is optimized for ease of viewing. I hate when certain shots are hard to make out.

my MacBook Pro is long in the teeth (refurbished 2007!) and the screen isn't firing on all fuses, but I have an external HANNspree side monitor that seems to be the "correct" brightness.

the tone of this music video is dark, which doesn't mean I want the images to be so dim that they are hard to see.

anyhow, I *think* this will look decent but wanted to get a few eyeballs on it before I get too far into editing...

https://vimeo.com/88445093
password: levelcheck

I'm in Premiere Pro 5.5

what's the best scope to use for gauging levels so when posted on YouTube or Vimeo it has the best chance of looking good on the majority of monitors and mobile screens?

thanks in advance! :cool:
 
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Flicker Pictures said:
what's the best scope to use for gauging levels so when posted on YouTube or Vimeo it has the best chance of looking good on the majority of monitors and mobile screens?
Click to expand...

Waveform monitor, or RGB Parade. Nice thing about the RGB parade is it'll show the levels for each color channel separately. Incidentally that also makes the RGB parade very handy for dialing in white balance.
 
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Your blacks are very crushed, but everything is visible. It wouldn't hurt to dial the midtone brightness up a hair, but doesn't seem necessary really... I could see everything fine, unless there are things hidden in the shadows I should be able to see that I didn't. :lol:

Nifty look you've got going on there.
 
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As a starting point, "correctly" exposed for a light skinned subject, key side of the face should be at 80-85%. Darker skin dips down to 60%. For a regular shot, pivot everything around that metric. You can darken and lighten as necessary for the needs of the story and the sequence, but that's a starting point.
 
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A quick way to set that level (and the white balance) is to temporarily crop your image to just the key side cheek of the subject… set your mid levels and mid colors to match the flesh line on the vector scope (FCP example from http://kenstone.net http://www.kenstone6.net/fcp_homepa...e_stone/27_fcp_7_scopes_vectorscope_stone.jpg )

This will help you get a quick starting point for further correction/grading. This and setting your blackest pint to zero and whitest to 100… then setting the white and black points… temp cropping to those parts of your image helps you target them more easily by reducing clutter in the vector scope.

When done setting them, you just remove the crop and move on to the next bit. Always do the mids last… then recheck the 0 and 100, then recheck the mids, then the 0 and 100, then the mids… you get the picture. Moving one will affect the others to varying degrees. Colorists call it the "Push - Pull" technique. You change one setting, then have to change the other one as a result as if they're attached by rubber bands a bit.
 
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>>Your blacks are very crushed

Yeah, I needed to mask some gain and video noise so lowering the brightness and pushing the contrast seemed to help. I know crushed blacks are a no-no for broadcast, but for Youtube and online, it'll be OK?

Thanks for the tips, knightly. I'll be doing some experimenting as I move forward.

Zen, just trying to establish a "look and feel" for this one, which will be a mashup of the Mouse Grey and 95 Driveways videos. Hopefully it will spawn its own beast altogether. :eek:
 
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