On Tue, 3 Sep 2002 19:58:44 +0100, "Rez Manzoori" wrote:

>Slightly OT this as it's not to do with the actual editing of the footage,
>but rather to do with camera settings, which I'm hoping one of you good
>folks may be able to guide me on.
>
>Background:
>
>My camcorder is a JVC GR DVL-300 Mini DV unit. The quality of the footage
>taken is IMHO excellent... but then I've not used any of the 'High end'
>camcorders!
>
>The one thing that does disappoint however is the automatic exposure
>control... or at least I think thats what the problem is. I can be filming
>on a lovely sunny day. When the camera is largely filled with sky, the sky
>comes out nice and blue. However as I pan down, when the percentage of sky
>in the shot drops below a certain level the sky rapidly changes to white,
>making it look like a very bright but ultimately overcast day. As I pan up,
>the whitewash fades out to be replaced by the natural blue of the sky.
>
>I largely shoot on the Automatic settings. What should I be doing to get the
>sky to remain consistently blue?
>
>Many thanks in advance.

Other than locking the exposure at a point that will retain
the blue (while likely underexposing everything else),
not much. 1-CCD cameras have limited tonal range, and
highlights and shadows tend to go abruptly white and black
beyond certain light levels. A good 3-chip camera improves
on this (look at the highlights in the daylight frame-grab
comparisons of the various Sony imaging types at
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder--comparison.htm, and
you will easily see the differences in the highlight rendering
ability of different camcorder imaging types - the VX2000
shows a complete range of tones with color from shadows to
highlights, but the PC9 "blows out" the highlights to
white and "blocks up" the shadows to black). One option
(but it looks too artificial to me) is to use a split-tone
filter, with the dark half covering the sky area to bring
down its tone into a range the camera will record in color;
another option (but it works well only with certain sun
angles) is to use a circular polarizer and adjust it for
maximum sky darkening.