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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

First time lighting for RED..

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Bryce Lansing

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I just got a gig to DP a music video to be shot on the Red. My Camera operator is pretty familiar with it, but I have never used one before.

I have lit for SD and HD 1/3 and 2/3 cameras, as well as for still 35mm film, but I'm still pretty new to the cinematography game. I really want to make sure I am completely prepared..

What should I know before lighting for Red? Are there any issues I may run into? Is it much different than lighting for other digital cameras or for film?

Will setting the ISO high cause more grain like it would for film?
 
I shoot tons at asa 800 on the camera because I happen to LIKE low light levels and don't mind grain.
 
Technically, it's noise, not grain.

Finding the ASA rating you like best is easy to test with the camera, but take it through the color-correction process, don't make decisions just based on the live picture from the camera. And test the ASA at both daylight and tungsten.

Red noise in underexposed tungsten light can look a little different than with other HD cameras, the blue channel noise looks a bit "chunkier", sort of fuzzy blue noise. You may not like that. You also have to be more concerned about fixed pattern noise as you underexpose the camera, so make sure you do a black balance.
 
I like grain as well.. But I the director said he wanted that "clean" look, which is why we're not shooting on 35mm.

The only problem is, I have a feeling it might be wide shots of night exteriors, and I don't think I can manage 160-200 ISO with the lighting we'll have. How is the image on 400-500 ISO? I'm not sure if they have it in the budget to rent the Red for a lighting test before hand.

Also, I've never shot with T-stop lenses before.. My light meter only reads F-stops. How do I know where to set the aperture from the F-stop?
 
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mrbrycel said:
Also, I've never shot with T-stop lenses before.. My light meter only reads F-stops. How do I know where to set the aperture from the F-stop?
Click to expand...

They'll function the same in this case.

Keep in mind that you should be choosing your exposure from the camera, not from a meter.
 
Just treat T-stops as f-stops.

You can get away with 400-500 ASA for night work, but you may consider getting T/1.3 Zeiss Master Primes and using a 320 ASA rating instead (of course, if your budget is small, those lenses are probably out of your budget range). You can also try opening up the shutter from 180 to 270 degrees to get another half-stop more exposure.

The camera likes exposure, so to speak... Even if you have to do your wide shots at a higher ASA range, you may want to move in the lights closer after that so you can use a 320 ASA rating.
 
It's not as complicated as you think.. If you lit pretty pictures on 2/3" video cameras, then you will with RED.. It gives you MORE to work with, not less. I would recommend using REC709 for your viewing since you're coming from video work and you don't need to be dealing with the differences of a RAW view while trying to do your job. The REC709 view will actually give you less range than the sensor is capable of, this is good as you will have some protection.

Don't worry, just shoot and be sure to have enough light. Tungstun or Daylight, if you have some signal (In other words, if you're going to let something fall off into black, be sure you want it to stay there!)

A "clean" look means no noise, and no noise means you need to feed the camera some sort of signal. Try to fill your shadows just a tad so that there's "somthing" there. You can always slam it back down in post. Give yourself choices, try not to light in such a way were you will HAVE to live with what you shoot or risk a lot of noise in color correction. Use contrast, but try to stay at a 10ire on your waveform in the darks. 15-20 is even better.. Run your subject at least 10-20 ire higher to get some sepration for making things more "contrasty" in post.

Signal rules. Its your first time, play it safe.. That way you can get another date later!

:)

Jay
 
If I may say... the best thing to do if you're new to the camera is to go old school.

Take the time to test the camera in tungsten and Daylight at different ISO’s just like you would a new film stock.
Cause it’s your eye and your style and only you know what you wish the look to be.
 
Thanks for the help everyone!

One thing I'm confused about.. If the Red can have a set ISO, wouldn't you be able to meter to determine the exposure? I learned how to expose on film, so when I started lighting video, I could never get used to not being able to just take a meter reading and expose on what I want to expose on. I was hoping the Red was more like film in that aspect. Is it?
 
You can do it that way, people have. I find it a bit odd, though, because there's nothing inherently better or more accurate with metering a video camera since you can see what you're getting by looking at a properly set-up monitor. I only meter to pre-light sets or to balance a series of keys, to get in the ballpark... but final exposure takes how it looks on the monitor into account, plus whether I have any clipping problems I need to solve by bringing down the exposure.
 
mrbrycel said:
I was hoping the Red was more like film in that aspect. Is it?
Click to expand...

Film ISO (and by extension, film lightmeters) is not the same as digital ISO. It's annoying but it's the truth. The problem is the placement of mid-tones in the exposure range - if you use a factory-calibrated meter at 320 ISO things will look about a stop under on the camera. If you calibrate the meter, though, you can definitely use it.
 
How bad are the rolling shutter problems with strobing lights? I've seen partial exposure on Red footage before, but wasn't sure how common it was or if there was any way to prevent it.
 
Use some form of daylight in the picture to feed the blue channel and prevent noise. It's no problem to use tungsten, however if you use only tungsten you may end up with some more noise in the darker areas than you wish for. What works for us so far is to light the background using enough daylight and people/faces in tungsten.
 
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