Should I be monitoring color in SMPTE or Full RGB?

[Alex K. Palmer]

I recently purchased a low end 10-bit monitor and aja t-tap for quick color correction and viewing for projects that don't have the budget for a colorist.

My question is, within the Aja controller, what RGB space should I be doing my corrections in? Full RGB or SMPTE?
In full RGB the blacks look truly black and the image overall has a richer feel to it, but in SMPTE, it feels slightly washed out and brings out details or items in the darker areas of my shots that i may not have seen otherwise.

My primary example/concern is as follows, I did a shoot in a black box studio lit from above of two dancers. Goal is infinite black background etc. On camera, within Premiere (on calibrated thunderbolt displays), and in full RGB on my external, blacks are black and the background looks endless. BUT in SMPTE mode on my external monitor I can see some of the duve and other things we used to do a bit more masking that I cant see in any other mode. So i know that there is stuff in the blacks i dont want to see (and couldn't see while shooting)

I understand the difference between the two (0-255 vs 16-235) but mainly would like to know if I should be focusing on one over the other. Should it depend on my final output? Online vs projected? What if a project is planned for both deliveries?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Stacey Spears]

In full RGB the blacks look truly black and the image overall has a richer feel to it, but in SMPTE, it feels slightly washed out and brings out details or items in the darker areas of my shots that i may not have seen otherwise.

The only reason you see a difference in black is because you have not re-calibrated. Blacks and detail will not be any different between full range and SMPTE once you properly adjust brightness and contrast controls. What is your deliverable? They should be telling you which range they want. e.g. Optical disc (DVD, BD, UHD BD) and OTT (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc...) all deliver SMPTE range to the consumer as the final product.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I recently purchased a low end 10-bit monitor and aja t-tap for quick color correction and viewing for projects that don't have the budget for a colorist.

You can get by with one of those, but not both of those. Having an uncalibrated low-end monitor is kind of like driving in a car race with the windshield completely blacked out with gaffer tape.

Having no colorist is like hiring Steve Wonder to be the driver of your race car.

There are affordable monitors that can get you reasonably close to Rec709. The Eizo CG series is one of them, but you still have to calibrate them. As a larger display (more costly), the LG E6 OLEDs can be pretty good when calibrated.

Without calibration of any kind, it's like all of the above, plus you've now gaffer-taped off the speedometer and RPM gauge. You can only drive blind to a point; ultimately, you're gonna wreck right off the road.

 

[Eric Santiago]

There are affordable monitors that can get you reasonably close to Rec709. The Eizo CG series is one of them, but you still have to calibrate them...

We have the CG276 but mainly for Print use.

I am planning on adding it into our Color grading system along with the Flanders (as the monitor).

Any tips like specific Rec709 options?

And I'm assuming that adding it as a setting is not considered calibrating.

 

[Dermot Shane]

yup, using a pre-set "709" on a computer mon is not going to be close to accurate enough, you will have to bite the callibration bullet