RED-One ISO & White Balance ??

[George D.]

Since the RED-One has an affective ISO of 320, and is balanced for sunlight, the cinematographer needs a pretty good arsenal of ND filters on hand when he's outdoors. Is that not true? Is there any "internal" ND on this camera?

When shooting in studio conditions with tungston lighting, what type of filtration do you need to balance it back to sunlight?

Are either of these factors controllable, while maintaining good quality, by adjusting the ISO or White Balance "within" the camera? Or, is it always best, with a RED-One to use lens filters?

Thanks.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Yes, you need ND filters. No, there are no internal ND filters.

Blue filters correct tungsten lighting to daylight balance. There is a trade-off though because the full correction from 3200K to 5600K loses two-stops of light (the 80A filter). Most people settle for a half or quarter correction in order to find a reasonable compromise between converting the color temp versus having enough light.

Also, shooting under 3200K lighting and balancing for that mainly gives you more noise in the blue channel. It's not too objectionable at 320 ASA. If you had to shoot without a blue filter, you'll be fine as long as you don't underexpose by accident. But if you want to give yourself some extra leeway by using a mild blue filter rather than the full 80A correction, then go ahead.

I've done plenty of lighting at 3200K on the RED and it looks fine, it's just that the noise level in the blue channel can limit you on some color-correction decisions (i.e. it's hard to boost the blues because they are already boosted.)