Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD User Manual Using Camera Control

Clicking on the ‘camera’ button in ATEM Software Control opens the camera control feature that lets you control Blackmagic cameras including Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pro and URSA Broadcast G2 from your ATEM switcher. Blackmagic camera settings such as iris, gain, focus, detail and zoom control are easily adjusted using compatible lenses, plus you can color balance cameras and create unique looks using the DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector that’s built into the camera.

ATEM camera control works by broadcasting camera control packets via all the non down converted SDI outputs of your ATEM switcher. This means you can connect an SDI output from your switcher to your camera’s SDI return input and the camera will detect the control packets in the SDI link and allow you to control features in the camera itself.

ATEM Camera Control.

To connect cameras:

1. Connect your Blackmagic camera’s SDI output to any SDI input on your ATEM switcher.

2. Connect any one of your ATEM switcher’s SDI outputs, except multiview outputs, to your camera’s program SDI input. Camera control signals are not sent via the multiview outputs.

3. In your camera’s settings, set the camera ID number to match your switcher input. For example, if studio camera 1 is connected to ‘input 1’ on your ATEM switcher, the camera number in your camera settings must also be set to 1. This ensures tally is sent to the correct camera.

Camera Control Panel

Launch ATEM Software Control and click on the ‘camera’ button located at the bottom of the software window. You’ll see a row of labeled Blackmagic camera controllers containing tools to adjust and refine each camera’s image. The controllers are easy to use. Simply click the buttons using your mouse, or click and drag to adjust.

Camera Control Selection

The button row at the top of the camera control page lets you select the camera number you would like to control. If you have more cameras that fit onto the window size, or you are running the color corrector window, then you can use these buttons to select between which camera you would like to control. If you are using an output for monitoring your camera control, pushing these buttons to change the camera to control will also send that camera’s video output to the output setup in the switcher preferences.

Channel Status

The channel status at the top of each camera controller displays the camera label, On Air indicator and lock button. Press the lock button to lock all the controls for a specific camera. When on air, the channel status illuminates red and displays the On Air alert.

Camera Settings

The camera settings button near the bottom left of the master wheel lets you turn on the color bars setting on Blackmagic Studio Camera, URSA Mini and URSA Broadcast, plus adjust detail settings for each camera’s picture signal.

Each camera controller displays the channel status so you know which camera is on air. Use the color wheels to adjust each YRGB channel’s lift, gamma and gain settings.

Show/Hide Color Bars

Blackmagic cameras have a color bars setting built in which you can turn on or off by selecting ‘show’ or ‘hide’ color bars. This feature can be very useful for visually identifying individual cameras while setting up for your live production. Color bars also provide an audio tone so you can easily check and set the audio levels from each camera.

Detail

Use this setting to sharpen the image from your cameras live. Decrease or increase the level of sharpening by selecting: Detail off, detail default for low sharpening, medium detail and high detail.

Color Wheel

The color wheel is a powerful feature of the DaVinci Resolve color corrector and used to make color adjustments to each YRGB channel’s lift, gamma and gain settings. You can select which setting to adjust by clicking on the three selection buttons above the color wheel.

Master Wheel

Use the master wheel below the color wheel to make contrast adjustments to all YRGB channels at once, or luminance only for each lift, gamma or gain setting.

Reset Buttons

The reset button near the bottom right of each camera controller lets you easily choose color correction settings to reset, copy or paste. Each color wheel also has its own reset button. Press to restore a setting to its default state, or copy/paste a setting. Locked controllers are not affected by the Paste feature.

The master reset button on the bottom right corner of the color corrector panel lets you reset lift, gamma and gain color wheels plus Contrast, Hue, Saturation and Lum Mix settings. You can paste color correction settings to camera controllers individually, or all cameras at once for a unified look. Iris, focus, coarse and pedestal settings are not affected by the Paste feature. When applying Paste to all, a warning message will appear asking you to confirm your action. This is so you don’t accidentally paste new settings to any unlocked cameras that are currently on air.

When applying ‘paste to all’, a warning message will appear asking you to confirm your action. This is so you don’t accidentally paste new settings to any unlocked cameras that are currently on air.

Iris/Pedestal Control

The iris/pedestal control is located within the cross hairs of each camera controller. The control illuminates red when its camera is on air.

To open or close the iris, drag the control up or down. Holding the shift key allows only iris adjustments.

To darken or lift the pedestal, drag the control left or right. Holding the command key on a Mac, or the Control key on Windows, allows only pedestal adjustments.

The iris/pedestal control illuminates red when its respective camera is on air.

Zoom Control

When using compatible lenses with an electronic zoom feature, you can zoom your lens in and out using the Zoom control. The controller works just like the zoom rocker on a lens, with telephoto on one end and wide angle on the other. Click on the zoom control, located above the Coarse slider and drag up to zoom in, or drag down to zoom out.

Coarse Setting

The coarse setting is located to the right of the iris/pedestal control and is used to limit the iris range. This feature helps you prevent over exposed images from going to air.

To set your coarse threshold, completely open the iris using the iris control, then drag the coarse setting up or down to set optimum exposure. Now when you adjust the iris, the coarse threshold will prevent it from going above optimum exposure.

Iris Indicator

The iris indicator is located to the left of the iris/pedestal control and displays a visual reference so you can easily see how open or closed the lens aperture is. The iris indicator is affected by the coarse setting.

Auto Focus Button

The auto focus button is located at the bottom right corner of each camera controller. Press to automatically set the focus when you have an active lens that supports electronic focus adjustments. It’s important to know that while most lenses support electronic focus, some lenses can be set to manual or auto focus modes and so you need to ensure your lens is set to auto focus mode. Sometimes this is set by sliding the focus ring on the lens forward or backward.

Click on the auto focus button or drag the manual focus adjustment left or right to focus a compatible lens.

Manual Focus Adjustment

When you want to adjust the focus on your camera manually, you can use the focus adjustment located at the bottom of each camera controller. Drag the wheel control left or right to manually adjust focus while viewing the video feed from the camera to ensure your image is nice and sharp.

Camera Gain

The camera gain setting allows you to turn on additional gain in the camera. This is important when you are operating in low light conditions and need extra gain in the front end of the camera to avoid your images being under exposed. You can decrease or increase gain by clicking on the left or right arrows on the dB gain setting.

You can turn on some gain when you need it, such as outdoor shoots when the light fades at sunset and you need to increase your image brightness. It’s worth noting that adding gain will increase noise in your images.

Shutter Speed Control

The shutter speed control is located in the section between the color wheel and the iris/ pedestal control. Decrease or increase the shutter speed by hovering your mouse pointer over the shutter speed indicator and then clicking on the left or right arrows.

If you see flicker in lights you can decrease your shutter speed to eliminate it. Decreasing shutter speed is a good way to brighten your images without using camera gain because you are increasing the exposure time of the image sensor. Increasing shutter speed will reduce motion blur so can be used when you want action shots to be sharp and clean with minimal motion blur.

White Balance

The white balance setting next to the shutter speed control can be adjusted by clicking on the left or right arrows on each side of the color temperature indicator. Different light sources emit warm or cool colors, so you can compensate by adjusting the white balance. This ensures the whites in your image stay white.

Hovering your mouse pointer over the filter, gain, shutter speed and white balance indicators reveal arrows you can click on to adjust their respective settings.

DaVinci Resolve Primary Color Corrector

If you have a color correction background, then you can change your camera control from a switcher style CCU interface to a user interface that’s more like a primary color corrector on a post production color grading system.

Blackmagic cameras feature a DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector built in. If you have used DaVinci Resolve, then creatively, grading in the Blackmagic camera will be identical so you can use your color grading experience for live production. The color corrector panel can be expanded out of any camera controller and provides expanded color correction control with extra settings and a full primary color corrector interface.

Click on the DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector button to expand the color correction window and adjust settings.

You have color wheels and settings such as saturation available and you can see shadows, mid tones and highlight settings all at the same time. Simply switch between cameras using the camera selection controls at the top of the window as you need.

Lift, gamma and gain color wheels in the color corrector panel.

Color Wheels

Click and drag anywhere within the color ring

Note that you don’t need to drag the color balance indicator itself. As the color balance indicator moves, the RGB parameters underneath change to reflect the adjustments being made to each channel.

Shift-Click and drag within the color ring

Jumps the color balance indicator to the absolute position of the pointer, letting you make faster and more extreme adjustments.

Double-click within the color ring

Resets the color adjustment without resetting the master wheel adjustment for that control.

Click the reset control at the upper-right of a color ring

Resets both the color balance control and its corresponding master wheel.

Master Wheels

Use the master wheels below the color wheels to adjust each YRGB channels’ lift, gamma and gain controls.

Dragging to the left darkens the selected parameter of the image, dragging to the right lightens that parameter. As you make an adjustment, the YRGB parameters underneath change to reflect the adjustment you’re making. To make a Y-only adjustment, hold down the ALT or Command key and drag left or right. Because the color corrector uses YRGB processing, you can get quite creative and create unique affects by adjusting the Y channel only. Y channel adjustments work best when the Lum Mix setting is set to the right side to use YRGB processing vs the left side to use regular RGB processing. Normally, most DaVinci Resolve colorists use the YRGB color corrector as you get a lot more control of color balance without affecting overall gain, so you spend less time getting the look you want.

Contrast Setting

The Contrast setting gives you control over the distance between the darkest and lightest values of an image. The effect is similar to making opposing adjustments using the lift and gain master wheels. The default setting is 50%.

Pivot Setting

Once the contrast setting is adjusted, modifying the pivot value will adjust the midpoint of the contrast. The Pivot control establishes the contrast balance by placing more or less priority on either side of the luminance scale. By lifting the control, you will increase the overall brightness and clarity of the image, although at the inverse expense of the shadows, which will be reduced.

Saturation Setting

The Saturation setting increases or decreases the amount of color in the image. The default setting is 50%.

Lum Mix Setting

The color corrector built into Blackmagic cameras is based on the DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector. DaVinci has been building color correctors since the early 1980’s and most Hollywood films are color graded on DaVinci Resolve than any other method.

This means that your color corrector built into the camera has some unique and creatively powerful features. The YRGB processing is one of those features.

When color grading, you can choose to use RGB processing, or YRGB processing. High end colorists use YRGB processing because you have more precise control over color and you can independently adjust the channels with better separation and more creative options.

When the Lum Mix control is set to the right side, you have the 100% output of the YRGB color corrector. When you have the Lum Mix control set to the left side, you get 100% output of the RGB corrector. You can set the Lum Mix to any position between the left and right to get a blend of output from both the RGB and YRGB correctors.

Which is the correct setting to use? That’s up to you, as color correction is a pure creative process and there is no right and wrong. The best setting is what you like the most and what you think looks good!

Hue Setting

The Hue setting rotates all hues of the image around the full perimeter of the color wheel. The default setting of 180 degrees shows the original distribution of hues. Raising or lowering this value rotates all hues forward or backward along the hue distribution as seen on a color wheel.

Tint Setting

Adjusting the tint setting will add green or magenta to the image to help balance the color. This can assist when filming with artificial lighting sources such as fluorescent and sodium vapor lighting fixtures.

Drag the sliders left or right to adjust Contrast, Saturation, Hue and Lum Mix settings.

Synchronizing Settings

When connected, camera control signals are sent from your ATEM switcher to the Blackmagic camera. If a setting is accidentally adjusted from your camera, camera control will automatically reset that setting to maintain synchronization.