What Is This Camera Shooting Anyway and Why Do I Care?

The first thing that is important to know is what kind of color space and color information the DSLR camera is capturing. All of the current DSLR cameras will capture the video in a codec that will compress the color. DSLR cameras will produce 8-bit video with a 4:2:0 color space. The importance of these technical specifications becomes clear when post-production color correction is on the agenda.

When planning for color correction, the available color space needs to be considered. A color space is an agreed upon way of defining colors, usually involving the mathematics of color. Knowing what color space is available will help in determining what colors are going to be available for color correction and what range of color is going to be able to be captured by the video. You don’t get to pick what color space you want to work with when dealing with a DSLR camera. It is predetermined by the internal camera device, and only color variations that are capable of being produced by the camera are available both in capturing the image and in post color correction.