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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 :)

Settings and firmware you're using for the cleanest low-light blacks?

J

Joesef o.

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OK so coming from a Sony F3 which is pretty much noiseless right out of the box, I'm having a bit of a learning curve with the Scarlet.

I wanted to ask what you guys are doing to work in low light and get the least amount of noise in the blanks.... It seems everyone else is able to get pretty clean blanks, except for me haha

My question to you is: What camera settings - gamma - firmware - exposure comp - ect ect are you using to get clean blanks.... I like to shoot on the darker side of things and wanted to archive what I've seen in the "Tattoo" video on RED's website (I know that was Epic, but should be the same with the black levels)

I have some of the original R3D files from the MX sensor reel too, and theres a shot of an Audi 8 in a studio with the lights off, they then turn the lights on and the car lights up, lots of black in the shot but yet very clean, but for some reason I can't get that kinda levels yet with my camera. I know its mostly just due to me not knowing the system, so I'm asking for any help/refrecnes to settings and tips to get nice clean images that I KNOW and can see from original R3D files from the MX and Epic.

Also I'm running firmware 3.0.0 could this be why? The reason why I haven't updated yet is because I just got the camera, and I had fear of this dreaded "corrupt frame" thing I've been reading about, and RED says its a firmware issue... Since my firmware works fine, I didn't wanna upgrade until that was completely figured out, but if you say I gotta upgrade to get cleaner blacks, then I guess I gotta do it and hope I dont have issues?

Thanks!
 
Give the sensor enough light and watch your goalposts. I personally don't subscribe to all the voodoo surrounding high temperature black shades and the like. I think the camera is pretty dang clean when exposed properly. And even when you get into ISO 1600-2000 territory I find the look of the grain pleasing. If you want true noisless blacks you will have to look at post de-noising.

Can you post an .r3d frame what you think is noisy?
 
Well here is my issue: people say to me "give the sensor light" well thats my point, I'm used to being able to with Alexa and F3 not give it any light, and the blacks stay the same at iso800.

Plus I KNOW that the scarlet can get clean blanks with hardly any light at all, because the Audi R8 R3D files I have are clean as day and the image starts out with the lights off, and theres no noise...

Anyway here's what I feel is a bit noisy for what I shot (dont mind the subject or lighting, it was just a quick lowlight test to check for noise)

http://nycinematography.com/A001_C006_0922YL.0000171F.R3D.zip

I figure there's a lot of light on my subject but the background is littered with noise

Here is what I am trying to get at:

http://nycinematography.com/A033_C004_010836.0000049F.R3D.zip


I know im not that far off, but the second one is still a bit cleaner and trying to get there.
 
First off are you taking the different gama spaces into account and where the blacks are in both images? Off the bat the Audi R8 blacks sit much lower on the waveform.

And did you expose your shot for ISO 400 (ie, have your camera set at ISO 400 and rolled)?

Try this, bring both your shot and the R8 to the same gama and color space and set both of them at ISO 800 in REDCINE. The noise starts to look very similar don't you think? I know nothing about how much light was on the set when that R8 was shot - but I can tell you if I want something "dark" I light the crap out of it and shoot a stop over with the camera rated at ISO 800. Then in REDCINE-X I drop the ISO down to 400 and boom, clean silky blacks and an over-all image exposure where I want. I'm not saying this is the right way or the only way but it is what I have been doing and I think it's working well.

There are really two different things going on here, getting clean blacks and shooting in low light. Your assumption is that the R8 was shot in low light... That might not be the case.

And either way.., I'm sorry if this doesn't seem much help. I've had the camera for 6 months now and I'm still figuring it out.
 
I think the secret to getting clean blacks is to crush them in post.

Or else as William says "If you want true noisless blacks you will have to look at post de-noising."

All my concert test shots have a lot of noise in the blacks, shooting at 1600 ISO (on Epic-X).
 
As William stated, you are comparing apples to oranges here. Put them both to similar color spaces and you will see how similar they are. Also, you need to view the footage at full quality to see the grain. Any less viewing quality can be very deceiving.
 
Ah ok thanks a bunch, I'll just keep testing and see whats what I guess, have to get used to all this haha. Do you monitor RAW while shooting to check what your actual levels are to get good blacks?
 
Thank you so much guys, I just shot a bunch of tests in low light, and worked them in X-pro, I think I got to where I like it now, thanks a bunch!
 
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