Questions on sensor settings for red one

[Jonathan Goggin]

Hi, I am a rookie to this type of camera. I just got one to up our production value and just plain get better shots. My Question is My Shutter is 1/48 white balance is 5000 and iso is 320. is this a correct setting if i am filming outside and action. If not please help as I am getting overwhelmed with figuring it out. I primarily film Snowboard and skateboarding, as I am outside most of the time I really would like to know what the best settings are. Night setting outside with mainly work style lights off a generator, and then the bright sunny snow cover ground days, and maybe a cloudy with sun kind of day. PLEASE HELP ME ON THE SENSOR SETTINGS I NEED IT !!! THANKS for your Time today as I must sound like an idiot.

 

[Andy White]

Have a quick look here - http://www.red.com/learn

Maybe here too - http://www.red.com/learn/red-101 - and Red exposure stuff here - http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/page/3

You are working in RAW now - and all things can be changed later (WB/ISO etc)... but it's best to understand the goalposts and how they'll help you (as a basic start).

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

Andy is quite correct. Your white balance and ISO are for your convenience at this point. Once you're in post, you'll set those to your liking.

The goal-posts, however key, don't really work very well at all. Just protect your highlights.

Welcome to the family.

Stephen

 

[Flo Eckhardt]

get a GOOD variable nd ... that´s maybe not top professional but you gonna be way faster to setup and adapt to changing light situations ... good luck!

 

[T_Freundlich]

It does take a bit of getting used to, especially if you're coming from a mostly DSLR-type background (as I did)... some of the things are a bit counter-intuitive or work exactly the opposite of what you'd expect... Someone transitioning from shooting film might actually have a slightly easier learning curve.

In my experience, shooting Red is actually quite similar to shooting color negative, in that the only thing that ultimately matters for proper exposure is how much light hits the sensor, which is dictated by the exposure time (a combination of frame rate and shutter angle) and lens aperture. Everything else (white balance, ISO, color space etc etc) is adjustable in post when shooting raw.

As a relatively new Red shooter, here are a couple of things that have worked for me:

- almost always just leaving the ISO at 800 and thinking of the ISO setting mostly as a Brightness control for the monitor. When shooting, I like to visualize the Red as a film camera loaded with ISO 800 daylight-balanced color negative film, but depending on your background this may or may not be helpful...
- 90% of the time I roll in the Raw (not Redcolor) view mode with Exposure false color enabled (the "purple, black-and-white, red" mode). That way you just see what the sensor is really getting, what's clipping and what's in the noise, without being led astray by the "artificial" brightness of a high ISO setting. If the client or director is watching over my shoulder it's often a good idea to switch to Redcolor so they don't freak out by how the image looks on the monitor :smiley: but other than that I try to just focus on the raw view to see what's really getting captured, nail a nicely exposed shot and tweak the look in post... But there is no 100% right way to do it, and you'll find that people will have greatly differing approaches and workflows.

I would second Flo's suggestion regarding ND - the R1MX's "native" ISO of 800 is VERY sensitive for bright outdoor applications - even when stopped down to a high f-stop, you'll definitely find yourself in need of lots of ND, or else shooting at very high shutter speeds (though not sure if that might be part of the accepted aesthetic for snow- and skateboarding?).

The one piece of gear I've found myself wishing for repeatedly as of late is an ND grad filter. The Red has a terrific dynamic range, but sunny days with partial cloud cover can be very tough to expose for outdoors if what you're shooting is in the shade but the clouds are still very bright. But that challenge is of course not particular to Red cameras as such.

Good luck!