BestVideoMaker

Camera settings: gamma, sharpness, frame rate and shutter speed

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Almost all professional-grade video cameras now have menus that allow the user to tweak the look they produce. This can be of great use in improving the look of the videos you shoot.

Sharpness enhancement

Many cameras allow the modulation of sharpness enhancement. Have you ever noticed how video tends to add an artificially enhanced edge around objects? This aims to make the footage look sharper than it it is, but it is misguided, because it actually makes the footage look worse. It is an ugly artifact. Many cameras allow the user to choose the level of sharpness enhancement. You should reduce the electronic sharpness enhancement or eliminate it completely. The resulting video will have a more visually pleasing and subtle look instead of the ugliness produced by the artificial edge enhancement.

Gamma

Professional cameras also allow the modulation of gamma, which is essentially the rendition of the mid-tones. I recommend you shoot test footage of the same subject with exactly the same lighting, using a different gamma setting each time. Then you can choose which setting produces the look you want.

Cinelook

Many cameras these days also offer a preset generally known as "Cinelook". These presets can work very well and are worth considering.

Shutter speed

Many videographers claim that shooting at the slowest shutter speed, generally 1/30th or 1/60th of a second, produces the most film-like footage, due to the slight blurring. Remember that film has a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second, so this argument is a valid one.

That said, using a slightly faster shutter speed can produce a very slight strobing effect that is also very cinematic. I have personally used shutter speeds of 1/120th of a second and can confirm that the look is very cinematic - arguably more so than with slower shutter speeds, due to the slight strobing that we normally only see with motion picture film. As always, test everything to find what works for your tastes.

Frame rate

Motion picture film runs at 24 frames per second (24 fps). NTSC video has a frame rate of 29.97 fps and PAL video has a frame rate of 25 fps. In general, the closer the frame rate is to 24 fps, the more film-like the motion signature will be. NTSC video tends to look glassier and more video-like than PAL video, due to its high frame rate and lower resolution.

If you are going to shoot a project on video and are serious about transferring to film later, PAL is definitely superior to NTSC.

In recent years 24p cameras have been released. 24p stands for "24 frames per second, progressive" - in other words, instead of the interlaced footage of regular video, they take 24 discrete digital photographs per second, and therefore are the true digital equivalent of motion picture film. Please note, however, that the color and contrast rendition of all digital formats, including HD, is still nowhere near as good as that of motion picture film. The Panasonic DVX100 was one of the first 24p "prosumer" cameras to be released.

Deinterlacing video footage to simulate the look of film / 24p

The look of 24p can be faked in post-production by deinterlacing the video footage. Simple deinterlacing blends the fields, using interpolation, giving 30 fps with NTSC video and 25 fps with PAL video. Since half the lines are discarded and replaced by interpolation, you are essentially losing 50% of the vertical resolution. Nevertheless, the motion signature of deinterlaced footage is more film-like (less smooth) than that of interlaced video.

Some software packages convert interlaced video to 24 fps progressive scan footage, with interpolation, pull-down and other tricks. You are still technically losing resolution but the results are even more film-like than with straightforward deinterlacing.

That said, true progressive scan cameras, which eliminate the need to deinterlace the footage, are becoming increasingly common and soon 24p will be the new standard for most if not all video projects, as there seems to be universal agreement that the glassy, ultra-smooth look of interlaced video looks cheap and penalizes the project, whereas the slight strobing of progressive scan footage is associated with the look of movies and simply looks better, making the high-end look less elusive.

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