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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 :)

Best practice for exposing Dragon?

Florian Stadler said:
There is a difference between judging a monitor image with a LUT at an ISO in the metadata and a metered ISO with Dragon apparently. I would say a 800 metered exposure is somewhere between 400~500 on a monitor. Kind of disappointing as it really just misrepresents the sensitivity of the sensor. It's 2/3 of a stop off it's advertised sensitivity at least depending on your noise threshold.
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I have always found this to be the case with MX, 2/3 to a full stop difference with Alexa IMHO
 
Florian Stadler said:
There is a difference between judging a monitor image with a LUT at an ISO in the metadata and a metered ISO with Dragon apparently. I would say a 800 metered exposure is somewhere between 400~500 on a monitor. Kind of disappointing as it really just misrepresents the sensitivity of the sensor. It's 2/3 of a stop off it's advertised sensitivity at least depending on your noise threshold.
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Yes, exactly my findings. There is some marketing behind the ISO rating or the engineers like noise.


Hans
 
I have found that shooting at ISO 500 and treating the histogram the same as I did at ISO 800 on MX gives incredibly clean and beautiful footage. The reason I preferred shooting at 800 on the MX was to avoid pushing important parts of the scene into the top 10% of the sensor. The high end of the DRAGON sensor is so good I just don't have to worry about that anymore. It really feels like as long as the clipping meters aren't lit up it will look amazing.
 
Yo Phil, Where's your "something special" post? I'm getting my Dragon shortly.
 
Scott Stickane said:
Yo Phil, Where's your "something special" post? I'm getting my Dragon shortly.
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Soon. I'm even working on it while I'm here in San Francisco.

Don't worry. It's worth the wait :)
 
David B. what OLPF do you have?
 
I think the image is too clean at 250 ISO, for general, properly exposed material 800 looks fantsstic to my eye with just the right amount of grain/texture. However I have been shooting my interiors at 500 iso, mostly because I like to underexpose interiors for mood and I want to maintain the same texture. I've also found the ISO rating to be right on to my Sekonic incident and Minolta spot meters.
The Alexa seems to be rated 2/3-1 stop faster than it's stated EI comparitively but middle gray is just that, the middle, whichever curve your viewing with will affect how the overall image appears even if 18% gray is correct.
 
In theory, there is only one correct exposure if you want max dynamic range from the sensor.

Info lost when the pixels are over saturated is irrecoverable.


Hence why using a camera as a 20 million sensor spot and colour meter enables every portion of the scene to be measured simultaneously as it is being seen by the sensor, rather than the looser and more general application of a light meter that does not take into account nuances in the optical chain and which also can be fooled by specular highlights.



Mike Brennan
 
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Michael Kromschroeder said:
... I am testing and figuring out, what is the best way to expose the Dragon properly.

How do you guys do a proper exposure on the Dragon?
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Consider becoming familiar with the new Gio Scope, currently in the 5.3.9 Beta firmware. I think it can be very useful in nailing exposure.
 
Phil Holland said:
I'm at the moment writing a concise document on this and I just demonstrated these exposure techniques at Reducation yesterday. Two in my group had "their minds blown". While I don't think what I'm doing anything miraculous it is indeed the exposure logic and general technique used on several of feature films shot on Red. Though based on this sampling most never have seen exposure done this way.

It is completely fascinating seeing how everybody works.

With exposure there's a subjective answer, which can vary, and there's a technical answer. Then there's a very precise technical answer if you are looking to absolutely nail exposures all of the time within 1/10th of a stop.

There's no right or wrong way to expose in reality. There's only the right or wrong way for any given scene.

More soon. I promise I've been working on something special for us Dragon riders.
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Do not want to miss this Phil, where, how, and when will you be announcing/posting it?
 
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