3 questions to ask. Back focus, focus peaking and shutter angle

[Pascal Payant]

Hi guys.
I got my new RED and i was wondering if i need to do backfocus adjustement is i'm dslr sigma Art lenses. they don't have back focus on the lense. if yes how do i proceed?

2- Is there a focus peaking so that when i shoot handheld i know exactly what's in focus or not. I have a small square that it's in the menu but that's about it. is there something better where what's in focus is it color or sharper?

3- Is my shutter angle should always be at 180degree for 24p? if i do slow mo 60p should i keep it there? how do i change my shutter speed to be 1/48 or 1/120. i don't seem to find it

Thank you so much guys

 

[Brody_B]

You dont need to adjust your backfocus it comes factory adjusted. unless you have issues with distance accuracy and infinity not being infinity, but that is less common. There is a back focus screw behind the cover screw in the front of the body on DSMC2. if you want to change it you should do some reading on the Red camera manual pdf first.

There are a couple different focus assist options in your menus, specifically a focus peaking type one that is great. I suggest setting that up to a custom button to activate on and off.

180 shutter is standard and will give you a good natural looking shot, if you want less blur with less light go lower, if you want more blur and more light go to a higher degree setting. You can and should adjust these according to the shot you are trying to achieve, but staying at 180 will do you just fine in most cases. Somewhere n advanced, you can change it to either degree or fraction, I would recommend getting use to staying in degree as it makes your workflow simpler when changing frame rates.

 

[Louis Maddalena]

180 shutter is standard and will give you a good natural looking shot, if you want less blur with less light go lower, if you want more blur and more light go to a higher degree setting. You can and should adjust these according to the shot you are trying to achieve, but staying at 180 will do you just fine in most cases. Somewhere n advanced, you can change it to either degree or fraction, I would recommend getting use to staying in degree as it makes your workflow simpler when changing frame rates.

Much easier on the workflow to keep it in degrees.

If you are at 24fps then a 180 degree shutter is 1/48, but if you change to 48fps and you have your shutter set to 180 degrees then your shutter will change to 1/96. If for example you're shooting 24fps with the shutter in fraction, and you change to 48fps, you're shutter will be a 360 degree shutter which is not as pleasing. Keeping it on degrees makes it easier to change between frame rate without forgetting go check your shutter speed.

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

Just addressing angle. If you don't know how we get the idea of what the shutter angle is, then understanding how motion film cameras work will really help. If you already know, then disregard.

Film cameras work by advancing a frame of film into the gate, allowing it to expose, then moving onto the next frame. The shutter on a cinema camera is very different than film stills -- on cinema cams, it is a spinning disk. Standard is to keep the shutter at 180 degrees, which means that the angle of the open area of the disk is 180 degrees. Say you want something to feel more jarring and staccato -- you might change your shutter angle to 90degrees so the film is being exposed for only half of the time previously, and the motion in your frame is being captured for less time per frame. Great example is Saving Private Ryan which employed a "skinny shutter" technique throughout a lot of the film (smaller angle than 180, typically ranging from 45 to 90 degrees). It's advantageous to work in angles because the look a certain angle shutter creates will stay constant along framerates without the need for additional math. So shooting 180degree shutter at 24fps and 180degree shutter at 100fps will have the same creative effect.

Here's a little GIF that helps visualize:

And a bit more info from RED themselves: http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/shutter-angle-tutorial

Even if this is overkill and you know it, figured a little PSA might help others who come along and find this thread.

 

[Pascal Payant]

Thank you so much
where is the good focus peaking option in the red i cant seem to find it

 

[Phil Holland]

Thank you so much
where is the good focus peaking option in the red i cant seem to find it

Hi Pascal.

Give Menu>Settings>Display>Tools a try.

Select Focus for a slight sharpening effect, which helps.

Select Edge and you'll see a negative image with the edges in focus.

Both can be enabled while in Magnify.

Both will be disabled once you use the Video Check or other tools. That's why it's good to map them to a custom key.

Good luck and happy focusing!

 

[Pascal Payant]

Thank you Phil. It worked well it helped at least with the sharpness it easier to focus.