22
The DV Rack Components
ability to make lighting and camera adjustments. Press
Alt
+
Enter
on your key-
board to view the Monitor in Full Screen mode. You can even split the screen for
clip-to-clip or clip-to-live camera signal analysis and continuity checking.
To get great results, make a habit of setting up the Field Monitor to Color Bars
whenever you set up at a new location with substantially different ambient
lighting. Calibrating the monitor is important in many other situations. Here are
some examples of when you should calibrate your Field Monitor:
• Your lighting conditions change mid-shoot
• Working under extra bright lights such as in a studio
• Shooting under sodium or mercury lamps
• Shooting at sunset or sunrise
• Shooting neon lights or fireworks
For more information see Step 2 - Set Up to Color Bars.
Switching the Field Monitor between clips and the camera
To change the Field Monitor display from a recorded clip to camera input, click
the DVR
Stop
button. To display the clip in the Field Monitor, click the desired
clip in the Clip List.
Using Zebra to identify light or dark areas in your picture
Although SureShot camera calibration helps you adjust your camera and lighting
for maximum dynamic range and accurate exposure in a given environment, not
every situation calls for that “high noon on a sunny day” look. Often, a
videographer will want to intentionally under expose or over expose certain
regions of the image or even entire scenes to create a mood or convey an
atmosphere. DV Rack’s two Zebras are useful for making these kinds of creative
adjustments as you shoot.
A more typical use of Zebra is to make sure that the most important parts of your
subject matter are being exposed at an appropriate level of brightness. Use Zebra
1 at it’s default level of 100% to alert you to areas that are too bright. Because your
subject matter is often a person, the default setting for the second Zebra tool,
Zebra 2, is 80% which is an approximate value for average skin tone. Ideally, you
want to adjust iris, exposure, shutter speed and gain on the camera or adjust your
lighting on the scene to “zebra paint” most of your talent's face. The exact
percentage setting is subjective depending on factors such as the overall ambience
of the scene and the complexion of the talent. Some videographers prefer 70% and
those crafting a “film-look” may use 60% or even lower.
You can also use two different Zebra modes to identify light or dark areas of your
picture. Set one Zebra to identify areas that are too bright and the second to
identify areas that are too dark or use both Zebras to identify two levels of
brightness or two different levels of darkness.