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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 :)

New to RED Workflow or "ISO is just Metadata..."

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Felix Steinhardt

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Hi,
I´m Felix from Germany, new to the forum and I´m looking forward to getting a RED Scarlet when it becomes available. Currently I´m shooting on XDCAM Stuff and Panasonic GH2.
Now shooting with RED seems to need some serious "out of the box" thinking, when you´re used to AVCD and MPEG2 cra...codecs.
In the last two days I read a lot about RAW Workflow, Colorspaces, getting right exposure, using Redcine-X etc.
I downloaded a few r3d files and played around in RCX.

There´s one thing I just don´t fully understand. I don´t know how to get a correct exposure.
Everyone is talking about using false-color which is always using RAW Data (ISO 320 on Red-one MX) or using the zebras BUT only @ISO 320 to make sure you´re not clipping highlights.
So far, ok, BUT let´s say I have to use ISO 800 (I know, it´s only metadata) because it´s a little dark in the foreground but I have a hot light source in the background. Now if I use the false-color tool it will tell me the light source is just not clipping (@ ISO 320). But I (will) need to use ISO 800 (set ISO 800 later in RCX) to expose a face in the foreground properly and the lightsource will now clip. The Information is still there but not when finally using ISO 800 instead of 320.

So why should I ever use this false-color tool, when I will not use ISO 320?
Why not use zebras which are set to the actual used ISO Setting?
What is the benefit of knowing, there would be highlight information when using an ISO Setting which I will not use?

Help!^^
Felix
 
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We have an exposure mode which shows in red near-clipping data in the raw, and in purple, very dark data in the raw, so you can see at a glance if you are clipping in the raw. This works at ALL isos as it references back to the raw data.

The part you're missing is having the raw data to grade from. Say you use REDLogFilm to grade from - at any ISO you choose, there is no clipping and all the data is there to grade from. We also bend the ISO curves so that they're non-linear so there's a lovely soft knee to help avoid unnecessary clipping.

Graeme
 
Aha, ok. Whoa! That´s a little overkill. You mean, when a lightsource doesn´t clip at ISO 320 it also won´t clip if I set a higher ISO later?
That would essentially mean I would only gain up the low and mids and keep the highlights untouched, right?
 
That what the curves do Felix. Now you can only push a curve so far before the highlights, although still "there" in the data are visibly crushed. That's why in grading secondary colour correction and windows are often used. For a standard low-dynamic range display, if you try to show an image with about 5 or 6 stops or more dynamic range, making all those stops really visible, the image starts to get really flat and boring. The trick with grading is to make the image look nice and contrasty, but still to see detail beyond those 5 or 6 stops.

With a log starting point you'll get a very bland, boring, low contrast image, but you have ALL the information there to grade from.

Graeme
 
All right. with this in mind I will do some more testing in RCX.
It seems the FLUT control is a good alternative to increasing ISO.

Thank you very much for your time and help!!
God I need this camera!
 
FLUT is fine control over ISO. Adjusting either can lead to the same result, but with FLUT you have finer control.

Graeme
 
I´ve got one more question. I read some threads about FLUT and ISO but it is not entirely clear if ISO changes protect the highlights the same way FLUT does.
Is FLUT really just a more accurate way to set ISO?

Edit: Ah, read a little more. Yes, it´s the same.
 
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Felix, yes, FLUT is a more accurate way to set ISO.

Graeme
 
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