Michael Tiemann
Well-known member
For a long time I've had a goal of producing beautiful videos shot inside a beautiful audio control room. One of the great challenges is that the intrinsic dynamic range of the analog console is quite large, and one of its most compelling elements, the analog VU meters, is far more dim than the LEDs and various other illuminated buttons on the console. Nevermind--the RED DRAGON has huge dynamic range, and it is almost possible to grab hold of that range from one end to the other and make a beautiful image. Using an f2.0 lens @ 1/48th of a second, the DRAGON won't clip the consoles brightest lights, but then the VU meters are just on the hairy edge of what Resolve can pick up with a qualifier and brighten in post. And there is still fairly pervasive noise. Shooting f1.4 @ 1/24th of a second dramatically improves the noise situation, at the cost of letting some of the buttons to clip. I have dimmer controls on many of the lights in the control room, and have been experimenting with a variety of levels to try to balance the environmental illumination with the console's intrinsic illumination, but everything has depended on having really fast glass.
Fast glass is really cheap when it's labelled "Canon EF-L" and it's really expensive when it's labelled "ARRI Master Prime". The EF-L lenses are not my long-term strategy for lenses (for obvious reasons), but the limitation of f2.0 for primes and/or zooms has put my lens choice costs into the stratosphere.
This weekend it occurred to me that I could cheat. Using a 50w ETC Source4 mini lamp, a 1/2 CTO, and a careful adjustment of the internal shutters to shape the light gave me the result I was looking for. Here's an R3D file capturing the 10 or so frames during which the tungsten filament comes on. And as you can see on the final frame, the console looks naturally and intrinsically lit. I have since proved to myself that this approach works very well up to about f3.5 or f4.0, which means that practically *any* zoom or prime cine lens fits my light budget. Hooray!
Here are the R3D files, in case you are curious what I am talking about...
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ax5ztq46ckh7zku/l_sQUqm-mF
Fast glass is really cheap when it's labelled "Canon EF-L" and it's really expensive when it's labelled "ARRI Master Prime". The EF-L lenses are not my long-term strategy for lenses (for obvious reasons), but the limitation of f2.0 for primes and/or zooms has put my lens choice costs into the stratosphere.
This weekend it occurred to me that I could cheat. Using a 50w ETC Source4 mini lamp, a 1/2 CTO, and a careful adjustment of the internal shutters to shape the light gave me the result I was looking for. Here's an R3D file capturing the 10 or so frames during which the tungsten filament comes on. And as you can see on the final frame, the console looks naturally and intrinsically lit. I have since proved to myself that this approach works very well up to about f3.5 or f4.0, which means that practically *any* zoom or prime cine lens fits my light budget. Hooray!
Here are the R3D files, in case you are curious what I am talking about...
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ax5ztq46ckh7zku/l_sQUqm-mF
