HDRi

[Brian D. Goff]

Well, I'm not to happy with the results so far. So maybe I'm doing something wrong. If I overexpose my base stream to dig into the shadows and set HDR to 5+, the result I get in REDcine with the blender is to bright and I would say, I get a better result over all if I had exposed to protect the highlights and then pull the shadows out of the dirt. However, If I use a other program to merge, the result seems more like what I would expect from HDR - any ideas?

2.Pic is result from redcine.

 

[Cüneyt Kaya]

Hi brian,
the "correct" use of HDRx on epic as i understood it, is to set your exposure first...when you then see burned out highlights, you close the lens till the highlights are back again...take a look on the lens, if you stopped down 3 stops, you set HDRx to 3 stops.
then you open your lens again 3 stops and shoot...the second stream will take care of the 3 stops in the highlights.

 

[Dan Kanes]

I think Cüneyt is mostly correct there...

Start with a normal exposure, Aka A track - the X track should be darker, and thus protect your highlights... Hope that makes some sense.

 

[Graeme Nattress]

HDRx is a tool to capture more DR when you find yourself in a position where the excellent native DR of the sensor is just not enough. A good example is dark room, bright window and you want to be able to see inside and outside. HDRx is all about capture - and presenting that data in a raw form where you have all the available DR for post processing. We don't do that dayglo "HDR" stuff, which isn't "HDR" but is correctly tonemapping. Tonemapping is one method of displaying a HDR image on a LDR monitor. It's not the only method, and personally speaking, it's not my favourite method either. (And don't drag me into the question on "what is my fave method then?" please.)

So for good HDRx expose for the shadows. If you then still see some highlight clipping, add some HDRx.

The test image above doesn't look to have a greater DR than a normal capture mode can capture.

Graeme

 

[Christian Pfeil]

I tried this:
the car in the forground needed stop 2,8 to
be bright enough to see all details but the sky
with the sun was about 11.
so I took the 2,8 and set hdr to 4.
combined in cine x the too bright A track...

...and the darker X track looked like this:

 

[Tim Sutherland]

Your X track alone doesn't look too bad. I bet you could make that work.

I tried this:
the car in the forground needed stop 2,8 to
be bright enough to see all details but the sky
with the sun was about 11.
so I took the 2,8 and set hdr to 4.

 

[Christian Pfeil]

that's what I thought, too.
the mx sensor is too good
anyway, but the photos above
are none graded, imagine what
you could get out of the
combined one!

 

[Dan Kanes]

if you care to post the two .r3d still frames I will do a grade and post it?

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

It looks like you found an edge case which breaks MagicMotion I would just manually output the two tracks and use a homegrown luma matte.

 

[Justin Kirchhoff]

I tried this:
the car in the forground needed stop 2,8 to
be bright enough to see all details but the sky
with the sun was about 11.
so I took the 2,8 and set hdr to 4.
combined in cine x the too bright A track...

...and the darker X track looked like this:

I pulled a quick grade from the footage. Granted this is a crappy PNG compression, then recompressed with JPG.

 

[Perry Wilson]

why are you showing CG footage? and if that is real footage im either really High or it looks like absolute SH*T

 

[David Mullen ASC]

The exposure was too bright in general -- you didn't need that much exposure to capture shadow detail (especially when the subject is a white van). The darker B frame looks more like how I would have exposed the A frame, and then the B frame would just be for holding info where the sun hits the clouds.

As for the first post, those aren't particularly shots that would need HDRx, the Epic can normally hold both the highlights and shadows in a general day exterior shot like that when the subject is medium-toned. HDRx is more useful when you have a hot sky or bright window or white object in the frame.

 

[paulherrin]

why are you showing CG footage? and if that is real footage im either really High or it looks like absolute SH*T

like david said, all the shots in this thread so far are exposed incorrectly.

you basically should expose towards the shadows and then turn on HDRx if necessary to retain highlight detail. or don't use it at all and expose normally, if possible or otherwise necessary.

 

[Christian Pfeil]

It looks like you found an edge case which breaks MagicMotion I would just manually output the two tracks and use a homegrown luma matte.

That sounds interesting, how will I do that?
Any tutorial you could post?
Thanks.

 

[Christian Pfeil]

The exposure was too bright in general -- you didn't need that much exposure to capture shadow detail (especially when the subject is a white van). The darker B frame looks more like how I would have exposed the A frame, and then the B frame would just be for holding info where the sun hits the clouds.

As for the first post, those aren't particularly shots that would need HDRx, the Epic can normally hold both the highlights and shadows in a general day exterior shot like that when the subject is medium-toned. HDRx is more useful when you have a hot sky or bright window or white object in the frame.

hey guys, that is only a test, a test to the max, of course on a regular shoot I wouldn't do that, eg to overexpose a white van (in the foreground).
but anyway I guess you can imagine the resources HDR provides, even if the original A track is over.
thanks anyway for your comments, I'm honored to read the opinion of an ASC!
hope to post some "real" test soon.
cheers.
christian.
:cheers2:

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Hi brian,
the "correct" use of HDRx on epic as i understood it, is to set your exposure first...when you then see burned out highlights, you close the lens till the highlights are back again...take a look on the lens, if you stopped down 3 stops, you set HDRx to 3 stops.
then you open your lens again 3 stops and shoot...the second stream will take care of the 3 stops in the highlights.

It would be great to have the option by assgnable button pression to switch the EVF between A and X track RAW, to control if the X value still stands correct.

(Releasing the button would automatically switch to A track).

 

[Adam Eden]

It would be great to have the option by assgnable button pression to switch the EVF between A and X track RAW, to control if the X value still stands correct.

(Releasing the button would automatically switch to A track).

I was in the same position today, and it would be awesome if i could switch via an assignable button the switch between the A and X track..... Pretty please RED?

 

[paulherrin]

that's in progress, i know.

 

[Pablo Villegas S.]

To see the X track you just need to close the iris, the number of stops you have chosen. It's easy.

 

[Patrick Tresch]

To see the X track you just need to close the iris, the number of stops you have chosen. It's easy.

Your are right, but changing on the lens can be sometimes bulky (when you are in handheld mode for example) and is a process where the characteristics of the picture (depth of field) is changed. Push release is much faster.

;-)

Pat