I am a fan of Your channel. Rhythm, English style (low arousel), content, knowledge, relevance, no coffee drinking or making, no excessive smartness or self promoting behavior, all ads up to a very pleasant experience. Thanks.
Like the extreme example at the beginning?? 😂 as always be sure to check out my new Patreon page, I've given away hundreds of dollars worth of goodies already!
Appreciate the video and techniques used but I'm with "team sharp". As long as the sharpness isn't the result of software - mobile phones for example - I'm all about the sharpest look I can get from the camera and lens combination. If specific scenes need to be blurred for any reason you can always do that in post but you cannot make a blurry video sharp. You have good skin Harv, no need to soften anything! 😄
I gree. Just because old cinematography could not be sharp (small film fornat size, grain etc) does not mean that unsharpness is undesirable. If people want their videos to look like old film then that's up to them but I want to see how things look in real life not as in an old cinema.
@@Megalobatrachus There is nothing sharp about real life... That's why most filmmakers who want to shoot movies or short films ( including most Hollywood cinematographers) prefer the old school cinema look because it looks real. If you prefer super sharpness in your projects then that's your artistic vision, no criticism there... But my point is, don't refer to it as natural or real looking, because our eyes don't see UHD sharpness... And the reason many filmmakers (myself included) hate it is because it can look too digital and therefore unrealistic.
Solidly in team sharp too, I don't see the point in having gear that can achieve crystal clear sharpness to then tweak things to make them blurry. Doesn't make sense to me...
Love the video and the science behind it, I also prefer to remove absolutely every sharpening in-camera, but for 99.9% client work (at least for me) this thing we do is extreme pixel peeping that no client will notice or care about, (again, just my own experience), great vid !
Let's make an exchange. Give me your a7sIII and I'll give you one of my camera which, without any of those expedients, gives you the results shown. Think, it shoots in HD and you don't even have to change resolution! Seriously, the sharpness it is always better to adjust it post; the pro mist filters help because in addition to attenuating the sensation of detail, they return a nice effect on the bright areas or lights in the scene
Personally I prefer I slightly more vintage, filmic look, so I use Black Magic cameras which, from the start, have a more filmic feel; use vintage lenses; use a Black Pro Mist filter on my modern lenses; reduce any digital noise and replace with a more organic and pleasing film grain. The net result is a very natural image that leans more towards the feeling of 16mm and 35mm film. The secret is not to overdo each step, and let the cumulative steps gradually push you in the right direction.
Good one, great topic. Shooting in B/W gives you loads more latitude to play with vintage lenses, as chromatic aberration isn't an issue. If I remember correctly, David Lynch shot an entire movie with a stocking on the back of the lens. Also changing the spacing between lens elements can produce a lovely effect, some vintage large format lenses do this, but it's also incorporated into the Nikon DC lenses (Defocus Control).
Hi thanks so much for the very relevant ideas. As a baseline would you use 2 of the techniques together - reducing detail setting and the 1/8 mist filter or just one of them?
Interesting. I think the softer edges you get from stopping down to t1.8 or lower allows for better subject selection. With those landscape shots where every things equally sharp, it causes a tension. Where I don't really know where to concentrate my gaze. Which isn't pleasant.
Ah but is sharper better? I often find that the footage I see from arri cameras looks really natural/not overly sharp. I think the points in this vid should be carefully cherrypicked and definitely not used all together 😄👍🏻
@@HarvVideoAudioStuff I totally agree with you. But it is interesting to see that we might have peaked in the 'perfect digital look' we can get with today's cameras, and that we might want to tone this down a bit. As you demonstrate perfectly here. The same for smartphone cameras. Some produce extremely sharp images, with details 'everywhere'. But does it look natural? I think 'natural' looks will be the winner over time.
Thanks for a great video. For me, the main thing to get rid of are the black lines that form around the edges of objects with a lighter background. I would like to retain the detail but eliminate the black edges. Have you tried to change any of the settings down in the detail menu? I will be checking these out. Crispening?
Hi, mate. Really appreciate you bringing up the digital look on sony cameras, I thought no one really care about it, until I saw your video, I am a sony user, the digital look on sony is really annoying, I also tried everything I could to reduce the sharpness, but at the end, I found that it was not only because of the sharpness, the bmpcc 4k/6k their images are very sharp and detail as well, but the highlight rolloff and the color rolloff just way more natural than sony, every time I compair the image between sony and bmd, I felt like the sony image just like dslr/mirroless still camera's pictures look. I love the cleaness of a camera, like arri, super sharp and clean image, but it doesn't have the digital look, I am not a fan of vintage or old glass, just want a natural clean and sharp look, unfortunately, sony can't give the natural look.
Note to myself: Sharp image is no good anymore. Time to sell my super-expensive glass, and substitute it with lenses purchased with bag of chips in convenience store . Go figure...
I shot a video and forgot to reduce the sharpness now it’s done messed up my footages, it was so late before i discovered the sharpness was on 7 and i short on Canon MarkIV What can i do please #Urgent
It’s so confusing. Have the manufacturer confirmed that “zero” is including digital sharpening? Are you absolutely sure that (-7) is NOT in camera softening?
Assuming this isn’t a joke, yes we are 100% on this. We know this because comparing the raw output direct from the sensor, footage looks the same in terms of detail (albeit not noise!)
i don't understand.. sharper looks better to me... I do a lot of film photography, and the pictures come out sharp. The digital look I think it's more contrast and color related and yes, some cameras add artificial sharpening, but true sharpness I think it's good, especially if it comes from the lens. I use a sigma 16mm on my Sony and I like it BECAUSE it's sharp. Film has "softer" colors, not sharpness. At least in my opinion.. Also, in your video, the 0.48 shot looks nice and 4k (a little artificially sharpened) but the 0:50 shot looks blurry and 1080p.. (at least on my 1440p monitor). Maybe on a 1080p monitor it looks good.
I am a fan of Your channel. Rhythm, English style (low arousel), content, knowledge, relevance, no coffee drinking or making, no excessive smartness or self promoting behavior, all ads up to a very pleasant experience. Thanks.
Always been a fan of your channel . Thanks for all your hard work. I've learned a lot from you. I only wish there were more channels like yours
Awesome! Always appreciate your videos
Thanks for sharing your tips and work!
Thank you for your ideas! So helpful. I have an a7siii with a Sigma lens as well and it is a wonderful combination.
Like the extreme example at the beginning?? 😂 as always be sure to check out my new Patreon page, I've given away hundreds of dollars worth of goodies already!
Appreciate the video and techniques used but I'm with "team sharp". As long as the sharpness isn't the result of software - mobile phones for example - I'm all about the sharpest look I can get from the camera and lens combination. If specific scenes need to be blurred for any reason you can always do that in post but you cannot make a blurry video sharp.
You have good skin Harv, no need to soften anything! 😄
(Blushes) many thanks 😄
I gree. Just because old cinematography could not be sharp (small film fornat size, grain etc) does not mean that unsharpness is undesirable. If people want their videos to look like old film then that's up to them but I want to see how things look in real life not as in an old cinema.
nah fam
@@Megalobatrachus There is nothing sharp about real life... That's why most filmmakers who want to shoot movies or short films ( including most Hollywood cinematographers) prefer the old school cinema look because it looks real.
If you prefer super sharpness in your projects then that's your artistic vision, no criticism there... But my point is, don't refer to it as natural or real looking, because our eyes don't see UHD sharpness...
And the reason many filmmakers (myself included) hate it is because it can look too digital and therefore unrealistic.
Solidly in team sharp too, I don't see the point in having gear that can achieve crystal clear sharpness to then tweak things to make them blurry. Doesn't make sense to me...
Love the video and the science behind it, I also prefer to remove absolutely every sharpening in-camera, but for 99.9% client work (at least for me) this thing we do is extreme pixel peeping that no client will notice or care about, (again, just my own experience), great vid !
Interesting video - makes you think. Thanks Harv!
Awesome topic and tips! Thanks!
I'd add film grain to the list of techniques as well
Ahh nice one, didn’t think of that! 🤦🏻♂️
best video on sharp detail image comparison with different methods!
Let's make an exchange. Give me your a7sIII and I'll give you one of my camera which, without any of those expedients, gives you the results shown. Think, it shoots in HD and you don't even have to change resolution! Seriously, the sharpness it is always better to adjust it post; the pro mist filters help because in addition to attenuating the sensation of detail, they return a nice effect on the bright areas or lights in the scene
Ha ha, deal 😂
@@HarvVideoAudioStuff yeah! 😜
Amazing Job!!!! Lovely village Castle Combe!
Thank you Harv. Very helpful info.I think overall the videos of standard coming out from cameras is to sharp.
Personally I prefer I slightly more vintage, filmic look, so I use Black Magic cameras which, from the start, have a more filmic feel; use vintage lenses; use a Black Pro Mist filter on my modern lenses; reduce any digital noise and replace with a more organic and pleasing film grain. The net result is a very natural image that leans more towards the feeling of 16mm and 35mm film. The secret is not to overdo each step, and let the cumulative steps gradually push you in the right direction.
You forgot to mention the largest benefit of shooting in HD, file sizes, potentially reducing them by 4 times or more.
Very awesome vid!
Good one, great topic.
Shooting in B/W gives you loads more latitude to play with vintage lenses, as chromatic aberration isn't an issue. If I remember correctly, David Lynch shot an entire movie with a stocking on the back of the lens. Also changing the spacing between lens elements can produce a lovely effect, some vintage large format lenses do this, but it's also incorporated into the Nikon DC lenses (Defocus Control).
Guy, you are my guru for getting the natural non-digital look!
Hi thanks so much for the very relevant ideas. As a baseline would you use 2 of the techniques together - reducing detail setting and the 1/8 mist filter or just one of them?
Interesting. I think the softer edges you get from stopping down to t1.8 or lower allows for better subject selection. With those landscape shots where every things equally sharp, it causes a tension. Where I don't really know where to concentrate my gaze. Which isn't pleasant.
Great video. But we're at a point where 1. This is the best gear you should buy, and 2. Here is how to make it look 'worse'. 😉👍🏼
Ah but is sharper better? I often find that the footage I see from arri cameras looks really natural/not overly sharp. I think the points in this vid should be carefully cherrypicked and definitely not used all together 😄👍🏻
@@HarvVideoAudioStuff I totally agree with you. But it is interesting to see that we might have peaked in the 'perfect digital look' we can get with today's cameras, and that we might want to tone this down a bit. As you demonstrate perfectly here. The same for smartphone cameras. Some produce extremely sharp images, with details 'everywhere'. But does it look natural? I think 'natural' looks will be the winner over time.
Thanks for a great video. For me, the main thing to get rid of are the black lines that form around the edges of objects with a lighter background. I would like to retain the detail but eliminate the black edges. Have you tried to change any of the settings down in the detail menu? I will be checking these out. Crispening?
Also: Contrast. Screen Size. In-camera encoding format. Monitor/TV sharpness controls.
But what about NeatVideo? Can you make your Video looking more natural with it? Killing the Digital Sharpness look with it? More Cinematic look?
Trouble I have is when matching my phone footage with my A7iii footage the phone footage is way too sharp. And no way to dial down the settings.
blurring in post saved my footafge, as it took a horrible moiré effect from an outfit, even using low aperture and minimal sharpness on set.
I've always hated that sharp look but I always end up with it, lol.
Harv, these images look identical to me. Could this be RUclips's compression or my monitor's resolution?
Hmm could be either, are you viewing in 4K?
Also some TV’s add a ridiculous amount of sharpening….
Thanks for mentioning this, it’s another thing that prompted me to make this! 😅
I like the sharp look.
10 pints of lager ?
Non prescription glasses?
Hi, mate. Really appreciate you bringing up the digital look on sony cameras, I thought no one really care about it, until I saw your video, I am a sony user, the digital look on sony is really annoying, I also tried everything I could to reduce the sharpness, but at the end, I found that it was not only because of the sharpness, the bmpcc 4k/6k their images are very sharp and detail as well, but the highlight rolloff and the color rolloff just way more natural than sony, every time I compair the image between sony and bmd, I felt like the sony image just like dslr/mirroless still camera's pictures look.
I love the cleaness of a camera, like arri, super sharp and clean image, but it doesn't have the digital look, I am not a fan of vintage or old glass, just want a natural clean and sharp look, unfortunately, sony can't give the natural look.
RIP all those Sigma "sharpest lenses" buyers
there is another ways to reduce sharpness in editing that really works, adding blur? lol of course thats not gonna work
I find the opposite. My footage never looks sharp enough
All cameras operate differently
if you really want to reduce sharpness, just get a cinema lens or a vintage lens!
Note to myself: Sharp image is no good anymore. Time to sell my super-expensive glass, and substitute it with lenses purchased with bag of chips in convenience store . Go figure...
Try reducing sharpness in apple iphone 13 max video, just for fun! 😂
I shot a video and forgot to reduce the sharpness now it’s done messed up my footages, it was so late before i discovered the sharpness was on 7 and i short on Canon MarkIV
What can i do please #Urgent
How do we capture video without blurry background like mobile video? Everything will be sharp? What camera and lans needed?
Thanks.
You just have to shoot at a very high f-stop and have lots of internal stabilization.
It’s so confusing. Have the manufacturer confirmed that “zero” is including digital sharpening? Are you absolutely sure that (-7) is NOT in camera softening?
Assuming this isn’t a joke, yes we are 100% on this. We know this because comparing the raw output direct from the sensor, footage looks the same in terms of detail (albeit not noise!)
@@HarvVideoAudioStuff yes I am not joking sorry. It just seems counter intuitive that the zero point has sharpening included. Thanks for confirming.
i don't understand.. sharper looks better to me... I do a lot of film photography, and the pictures come out sharp. The digital look I think it's more contrast and color related and yes, some cameras add artificial sharpening, but true sharpness I think it's good, especially if it comes from the lens. I use a sigma 16mm on my Sony and I like it BECAUSE it's sharp. Film has "softer" colors, not sharpness. At least in my opinion.. Also, in your video, the 0.48 shot looks nice and 4k (a little artificially sharpened) but the 0:50 shot looks blurry and 1080p.. (at least on my 1440p monitor). Maybe on a 1080p monitor it looks good.