Question about footage.

H

harmonica44

I've shot a scene for a short film I'm making and have a question. I could not tell this on the camera at the time, but there are a lot of red dots on the screen. Perhaps cause of the lighting or something. I tried to keep the ISO, shutter, and aperture at the settings often advised on here so not sure if that was the problem. I will upload some footage to show as soon as I can, there has been some problems uploading to youtube I need to figure out. Is it fixable in post, cause I am shooting my next scene in a few days and want to know what I'm up against.
 
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Are they in the same spot in every shot? If so, dead pixels. Pretty common. Try doing like 5 sensor cleanings in a row (in the menu), that fixes it sometimes. If it doesn't, you have to send it to canon who usually doesn't fix it.

To fix in post, a lot of software has a tool for it. If you don't, just duplicate the footage and mask the pixel next to the dead one and move it over. You'll never see it then, quick and easy but tedious when it's EVERY shot.
 
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Dead pixels are... dead. Nothing can be done about them.
Hot or stuck pixels can potentially be fixed. If you're seeing a coloured spot in your images in the same spot try the following:

1. If your lens is attached, make sure the lens cap is on. Otherwise make sure the cap on the body is on.
2. Go into sensor cleaning in your menu and select manual sensor cleaning.
3. Let it clean for 30 or 40 secs and then turn your camera off.
4. Turn your camera back on and take a dark picture with the lens cap on. View that picture on ur pc and see if the spot still appears in the same place. Hopefully it will be gone.
 
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A "lot of red dots".. sounds more like an inexperienced person talking about low light sensor NOISE.

Can you post a still frame from your footage? that will help me understand.

If it IS noise, you just need MORE LIGHT .. Which cam are you using again?

Thanks
 
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wheatgrinder said:
A "lot of red dots".. sounds more like an inexperienced person talking about low light sensor NOISE.

Can you post a still frame from your footage? that will help me understand.

If it IS noise, you just need MORE LIGHT .. Which cam are you using again?

Thanks
Click to expand...

That was my first thought as well, probably noise, which does sometimes look like a grain made of red dots.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
A "lot of red dots".. sounds more like an inexperienced person talking about low light sensor NOISE.

Can you post a still frame from your footage? that will help me understand.

If it IS noise, you just need MORE LIGHT .. Which cam are you using again?

Thanks
Click to expand...

This sounds like it and I'm using the canon T2i. It is happening in the low light scenes so that's probably it. Any tips on how to light up the room bright enough? I was told not to use the natural light on the ceiling, as it's just not cinematic enough of course. But some rooms are very difficult to get bright enough without using the ceiling lights to assist.

I will post it once I can get it to upload to youtube, there has been some uploading problems. But I'm pretty sure this is it. So can it be fixed in post, since the scene is already shot!
 
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harmonica44 said:
So can it be fixed in post? since the scene is already shot!
Click to expand...

Probably, if people can make entire movies without touching a single camera (I'm talking 3D animation, insanely realistic 3d animations), then i say anything can be fixed in post. Worst case scenario, you re-draw every pixel of every frame by hand. it's not impossible, just nearly impossible...lol.

The question always is just: is it worth it? If not, then re-shoot it, if you can't re-shoot it, better luck next time.
 
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harmonica44 said:
This sounds like it and I'm using the canon T2i. It is happening in the low light scenes so that's probably it. Any tips on how to light up the room bright enough? I was told not to use the natural light on the ceiling, as it's just not cinematic enough of course. But some rooms are very difficult to get bright enough without using the ceiling lights to assist.

I will post it once I can get it to upload to youtube, there has been some uploading problems. But I'm pretty sure this is it. So can it be fixed in post, since the scene is already shot!
Click to expand...

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-denoiser/ :cool:
 
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I guess I could get that. Since I'm getting the Adobe Creative Suite PP package, there anything in that that will do it? Since we're on the subject, in the sound recording of that scene, there is some humming in the background of the soundtrack. I made sure every appliance such as fridges, and ventilation was turned off. It all sounded quiet so he started recording, but then I found the humming after it was over, which I could not hear the headphones originally. I went back to the set, and apparently there was a water cooler hidden, that we missed, and could not hear.

Is there software in that package that could reduce that as well? I read you can reduce such things by adding white noise, but it sounds like white noise could be a bad thing, but what do I know.
 
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Take what u have, and work with it.

Remember how everybody said the first film is usually not a masterpiece? ;) that would be one of the lessons that will put u closer to your awesome movie
 
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True. Well now I know what to do for the next scene. I'm going to shop for some much bigger, brighter lights. I'm going to ask the camera store, if they also have a lens that will let in a lot more light, but I hope they don't rip me off or sell one that doesn't. Even though I'm suppose to keep the shutter at 50 and the ISO at 800, can it hurt to bend the rules a little?
 
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harmonica44 said:
Even though I'm suppose to keep the shutter at 50 and the ISO at 800, can it hurt to bend the rules a little?
Click to expand...

Keep it as low as u can. And keep it in multiples of 160 if u can.

Also remember to change the shutter to 1/60 when dealing with fluorescent lighting conditions. Otherwise we'll have another thread with another problem.
 
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Okay thanks that helps. If only this noise and red grain was shown on the T2i camera screen instead of only being able to see it on the computer or TV later. SO what do you mean by multiples of 160?
 
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