Exposing RED Dragon with Xrite Color Checker Chart

[Christian Simpson]

So the new Xrite Color Check chart has a 90% reflectance chip on it but I was wondering what the corresponding IRE values were for Redgamma 4 and Redlogfilm?

 

[Marc Wielage]

I would worry more about clean blacks, clean whites, and a good overall balance. I wouldn't worry about what it looks like in RedLogFilm, because that's just the "base" from which you start. The advantage of using RedLogFilm are that you can essentially create your own gamma curve and adjust the "toe" (blacks) and "shoulder" (whites) optimumly. Sometimes, for creative reasons you need to deviate from a strict formula. And there may be situations where you don't want to wind up with clean whites and blacks but want to deliberately contaminate them for a stylized look. But I generally like starting out with a "normal" image and then screw with it from there to satisfy what the filmmaker is going for.

Patrick Inhofer has done at least one tutorial on MixingLight.com about color charts, and I agree in a general way with his findings. But I just trust the monitor and the scopes and do whatever it takes to get a reasonable picture as quickly as I can.