Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • 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 :)

RED TECH Low Light

There's a huge difference between 'low light' and 'not enough light'. This video was talking about low light. But still exposing things properly.

Again, there's no magic bullet or setting for 'not enough light' and if you can't get more light in via the optics or adding lighting then it's a balancing/compromising art to see what you are willing to sacrifice in terms of noise/detail as it is with every other camera system out there.
 
Rui,

Shooting underwater, as you well know, necessarily involves very low light levels, we are always looking for tools to deal with that. No magic bullet, as Ben says, when ambient isn't good enough you have to light it up. Which is what the video is about.

I am personally looking forward to the reintroduction of the 3-CCD sensor or something equivalent, whether Red does it or someone else, CMOS performance is not stellar in low light.

Having said that, there is one magic bullet I know of, I use the NR tools in Resolve Studio to rescue otherwise unusable footage shot at murky depths.
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Rui,

Shooting underwater, as you well know, necessarily involves very low light levels, we are always looking for tools to deal with that. No magic bullet, as Ben says, when ambient isn't good enough you have to light it up. Which is what the video is about.

I am personally looking forward to the reintroduction of the 3-CCD sensor or something equivalent, whether Red does it or someone else, CMOS performance is not stellar in low light.

Having said that, there is one magic bullet I know of, I use the NR tools in Resolve Studio to rescue otherwise unusable footage shot at murky depths.
Click to expand...

but the NR tools is not even half as good as neat video, no?
 
In my mind shooting low iso or shutting down to create a dark shot even though it´s not is normally not called lowlight. Its called low key or day for night. Low light... is more commonly used when you shoot with low exposure and dont have coverage in the whole frame.
 
It would be nice that RED Tech had more complete and structured tutorial videos about different subjects.
My point is, like in this example about Low Light shooting, where several aspects are missing, a well planned video, will avoid that. Including all the steps / stages from equipment (for example OLPF choice, lenses, etc), production (camera settings) and post-production (adjustment in RCX and NR if needed) will certainly be very welcome.

We all know that every choice is a trade-off and there are no miracles. But since we don't have a RED Shooting Guide or at least an User Manual that teaches users when and how to use all the camera functions, RED Tech videos will be a very good opportunity to do so, and not to just outline in a general way some of the cameras functionalities (that were already mentioned in other videos and in the RED website).
 
Last edited:
Björn Benckert said:
In my mind shooting low iso or shutting down to create a dark shot even though it´s not is normally not called lowlight. Its called low key or day for night. Low light... is more commonly used when you shoot with low exposure and dont have coverage in the whole frame.
Click to expand...

Low key refers to the contrast ratios in your image, not the exposure.
 
Rui Guerra said:
It would be nice that RED Tech had more complete and structured tutorial videos about different subjects.
My point is, like in this example about Low Light shooting, where several aspects are missing, a well planned video, will avoid that. Including all the steps / stages from equipment (for example OLPF choice, lenses, etc), production (camera settings) and post-production (adjustment in RCX and NR if needed) will certainly be very welcome.

We all know that every choice is a trade-off and there are no miracles. But since we don't have a RED Shooting Guide or at least an User Manual that teaches users when and how to use all the camera functions, RED Tech videos will be a very good opportunity to do so, and not to just outline in a general way some of the cameras functionalities (that were already mentioned in other videos and in the RED website).
Click to expand...

The thing is, if you're buying into a professional cinema camera ecosystem, or renting into one, there is an expectation that you are professional that understands the basics of how to expose a scene. This information is completely camera agnostic.

So they make really useful videos that talk about the idiosyncrasies of their ecosystem that people might not be familiar with.

There is always the Field Ops guide if you need more hand holding than this.
 
Ben Scott said:
The thing is, if you're buying into a professional cinema camera ecosystem, or renting into one, there is an expectation that you are professional that understands the basics of how to expose a scene. This information is completely camera agnostic.

So they make really useful videos that talk about the idiosyncrasies of their ecosystem that people might not be familiar with.

There is always the Field Ops guide if you need more hand holding than this.
Click to expand...

+1000
 
Ben Scott said:
The thing is, if you're buying into a professional cinema camera ecosystem, or renting into one, there is an expectation that you are professional that understands the basics of how to expose a scene. This information is completely camera agnostic.

So they make really useful videos that talk about the idiosyncrasies of their ecosystem that people might not be familiar with.

There is always the Field Ops guide if you need more hand holding than this.
Click to expand...

Understanding the basics of how exposing well is one thing, knowing every little detail in every camera is another. Yes, it's the idiosyncrasies of RED cameras that are useful to understand and should be explained. As you know, during the evolution of camera systems, features are added and removed in a regular basis... and not all of us use them all every day. Also, we all have the preferred settings or the preferred tools we use most often, so it is always good to have other points of view, namely from the ones that develop the hardware / firmware / software of the RED ecosystem.
 
Rui Guerra said:
Understanding the basics of how exposing well is one thing, knowing every little detail in every camera is another. Yes, it's the idiosyncrasies of RED cameras that are useful to understand and should be explained. As you know, during the evolution of camera systems, features are added and removed in a regular basis... and not all of us use them all every day. Also, we all have the preferred settings or the preferred tools we use most often, so it is always good to have other points of view, namely from the ones that develop the hardware / firmware / software of the RED ecosystem.
Click to expand...

This is a pretty good place to start.

http://www.red.com/learn
 
Rui Guerra said:
Hi Audy,

Can you elaborate a bit about the way you use GioScope in documentary shooting, to avoid clipping and see the shadow texture?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi Rui,

I turned up all the colors on the GioScope mode (all 16 of them) to see what the sensor actually sees and I always avoid the red colored zone (zone 16) and the blueish zone whenever possible (zone number 8 and below are when the 'image texture' started to become apparent on my Scarlet-W). So I keep most of it all greenish and below dark red to get the best clean images out of this camera. I assign a dedicated GioScope button for quick raw exposure checking before hitting the record button, I rarely use the other exposure tool as this one is so reliable (with REDCode raw recording) and I always adjust the ISO in post.

When I get all blue zoned as in low light situation and there is no way to add more light I don't have any other choice but to face the noise (as long as they are not purple, or no light at all!)..
Then 'Neat Video Noise Reducer plugin' is my other friend :)

I agree with you that this video should add something about the Low Light OLPF.
 
Audy Erel said:
Hi Rui,

I turned up all the colors on the GioScope mode (all 16 of them) to see what the sensor actually sees and I always avoid the red colored zone (zone 16) and the blueish zone whenever possible (zone number 8 and below are when the 'image texture' started to become apparent on my Scarlet-W). So I keep most of it all greenish and below dark red to get the best clean images out of this camera. I assign a dedicated GioScope button for quick raw exposure checking before hitting the record button, I rarely use the other exposure tool as this one is so reliable (with REDCode raw recording)...

(...)

When I get all blue zoned as in low light situation and there is no way to add more light I don't have any other choice but to face the noise (as long as they are not purple, or no light at all!)..
Then 'Neat Video Noise Reducer plugin' is my other friend :)

I agree with you that this video should add something about the Low Light OLPF.
Click to expand...

Hi Audy,

Thanks for posting your way to use the camera's tools in a practical way. That's the kind of post that is indeed useful to others and it's after all one of the main reasons to be in Reduser: to exchange valuable information and our own experience while shooting RED.


and I always adjust the ISO in post
Click to expand...

That is interesting because the ISO we choose at the moment of shooting will influence the aperture/shutter speed and lighting that we use on set. I also tend to play a bit with ISO in post and in fact, especially if we use the RAW view in the viewfinder/monitor's camera, where the ISO is disable, the tendency will be to forget it and leave it's adjustment to post.
 
i have to bring that question up again..


Heinrich_Lindmayr said:
so at around 40 seconds he says that the exposure tools don't change when you change for example ISO.. doesn't he?
when i change ISO every exposure tool adapts... (no, not shooting prores).. only when i have raw overlayed it sticks - but that is clear cause i can't change the ISO from 800 anyway..

where is the mistake?? is it my misunderstanding of what he's saying or do i have settings wrong or just a camera error??
Click to expand...
 
Heinrich_Lindmayr said:
i have to bring that question up again..
Click to expand...

Hi Heinrich,

For example, when you change ISO, if you take a close look at the left goal post (noise) it will no change because that is a RAW tool and ISO it's just metadata (that's why the histogram changes to the right, because this is video - IRE based tool - in other words, just like a "look" in your monitor and not a light quantity change).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top