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How to grade a log?

Posted: January 26th, 2014, 10:44 pm
by Bram
Hi,

I’ve been an enthousiast of Photo- and videography for a while now. But i didnt really take it up until last year when unemployment meant i had to come up with something. I put my money into an EX1r and some other stuff and i managed to make these things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6chhoc5yels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4yIy1kAaNI


(in Dutch but its about the closure of a Popculture venue, the movie is a sort of documentary.


All thanks to my trusty EX1r

Now that I’ve gotten this far I’ve noticed that I’m able to do certain things and that I can find info on how to improve my work easily and comfortably.

My current problem is, is that i’m not sure in what direction to focus my attention in forming myself as a camera guy. I’ve managed to secure a role (together with 2 colleagues) as the Media crew for a company. We currently are shooting elevator-pitch style videos. My colleagues are good at audio and have a ton of experience in working with (Multi) media projects. So I figured that my best bet would be to focus on good general camera understanding and grading afterwards.
Ie: making sure i get the most out of my camera and can make it look nice afterwards. So far I’ve figured out that prepping the camera to produce a gradeable result is the thing to do right now.

I’ve got a few picture profiles on my EX1r cameras which helped me do the videos i posted above.

I have:

-3/0/6 Gain

Shutter at either 1/33 or 180 degree angle, depends on the lighting

TLCS: AGC 12 AGC F2.8 A,sht point F5.6 or manual if i can

Aspect marker 14:9 with the grid in my LCD to keep composition and safe margins etc.

Zebra -1 at 70

Matrix: On, High-Sat, Level 0, Phase -5, R-G 75, R-B 0, G-R -18, G-B -23, B-R -27, B-G 13

White: on, Offset A +2, Offset B +2, Offset ATW +2.

Detail: On, Level 0, Frequency +65, Crispening 0, Black limiter +75, White limiter +75 for colour defitnition.

Gamma: Cine-1 or Cine-3 depends on how wel lit the situation is.

Black -3 for low blacks

Black gamma -2 to reduce some noise


And afterwards I use Premiere Pro in conjunction with Pluralise, Neatvideo and Colorista2

So far so good but could i do better? How could i use the skin tone correction in my cameras?

Also could i benefit from an external recorder (with a waveform) ?

Adjust IRE Recording frequency to capture more? Nowadays everybody has a HD tv (well i put my stuff up on Vimeo/Youtube so if somebody watches my stuff they’ll certainly have a screen with a lot of range and such)

How about LOG style shooting? I tried Allistar Chapmans LOGa for the EX1r and during daytime it seems to give some intrguing results if i use it together with a Technicolor Cinestyle LUT. But at nighttime in dramatically lit areas like a rockshow or DJ set , well it hasnt worked for me yet. But i must admit that i havent used the faux log as advised. I set it in the following manner:

(Ie all same settings as above but with profile that Allister provided: Profile name: EX-LOGA

Matrix:
Setting: On
Select: Cinema
level: -6

Detail:
Setting: On and values as above in the other profile.

Gamma:
Level: -17
Select: CINE4

Black: -1

Black Gamma: +80

and for some reason i had low key saturation set to -50 but i cant remember why i did that.



How do i handle that? Can I shoot LOG style in discos or rockshows at all?

Gain and exposure: positive gain works better for DnR in some cases and in other cases not so much. If i use Neatvideo could i afford higher gain on LOG shooting? In a dark area like a rockshow DnR isnt the same as in daytime shooting ofcourse

In order to get control, im gonna need something to see,understand and handle all the light/gamma settings. Will a Recorder help me see what should be 38% gray? I'm not seeing it right now because i dont know what to look for. Can i still record FauxLOG style with the detailing/crispening set as it is right now?

tons of questions...

(last bu not least: are wondlan vests and stabilizers any good?

Re: How to grade a log?

Posted: January 26th, 2014, 11:02 pm
by Bram
Had to cut this due to URL restrictions: Obviously I did something wrong with that low key setting but perhaps the detailing setting f-ed me over?
(see: https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 4faaeb2ef6)

and (https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... bde137fc14)