Which format gives better Sceen captures Capturs from 35mm or from Red

[Richard Lowther]

Hi,
Can you get better screen captures from 35mm film? Do you have the same issues with shutter speed? Has anyone compared a still from a Red One MX or Epic to a still from 35mm motion film?

Thanks
Richard

 

[D Fuller]

I'm assuming you mean still frames or frame grabs rather than screen captures. Both have pretty much the same issues with motion blur. If you want sharp stills of moving things, you need to shoot with higher shutter speeds than 1/48th.

That being said, it's a lot easier to work at higher shutter speeds with a Red because it works so well at iso 800. That's real grain territory for film. The other factor is that you can get a 16bit 4k tiff out of RedCineX essentially for free. A 4K scan of a 35mm frame can cost real money (hundreds of dollars each, last time I did it) otherwise, you are limited to whatever resolution your film was scanned/transferred to - likely 1920x1080 or less. If that's the case, the red stills have 4x the resolution and twice the color depth.

 

[Richard Lowther]

Thanks...yes I did mean frame grabs

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Do a quick search here ... Red cameras have been used for fashio photography shoots, including the covers of several high profile magazines. You know ... Vogue, Elle, Esquire.

http://reduser.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?68-DSMC-FASHION-PHOTOGRAPHY

Have a look at that work. You can see it online here, or grab a copy from the newstands.

Me? I think it rocks.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[D Fuller]

Do a quick search here ... Red cameras have been used for fashio photography shoots, including the covers of several high profile magazines. You know ... Vogue, Elle, Esquire.

http://reduser.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?68-DSMC-FASHION-PHOTOGRAPHY

Have a look at that work. You can see it online here, or grab a copy from the newstands.

Me? I think it rocks.

Draw your own conclusions.

Alexander, all that you say is correct, of course, but it really applies to shooting specifically for still use. I suspect (because of the question about motion blur) that the OP was asking about grabbing a frame out of material shot primarily for motion. I've wrestled with this quite a bit, and I have to say I haven't solved it very often for subjects with much motion. I usually end up shooting twice: once for the moving images and again for stills (with either the Red at faster shutter speed or with a Nikon). With slow-moving subjects, that's not a problem at all. And if the look is right, motion at 1/1000th can work great, but not always. So use a but of caution, and as always, test everything you can. It's a great thing that with RedCineX you can check a frame's critical sharpness right on set.

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I suspect (because of the question about motion blur) that the OP was asking about grabbing a frame out of material shot primarily for motion.

I didn't read it that way.

If you want to use a frame grab from moving imagery you will have motion blur.

Any steps you take to eliminate the motion blur will compromise the motion imagery. I'll go through a few choices I considered.

In any case EPIC presents an answer with HDRx.

Epic exposes two frames at different shutter speeds. The A frame is the standard exposure at the shutter you've set (180º or whatever) The X frame is an exposure at a shutter speed that's faster as specified in HDRx set up.

The X frames can be relatively free of motion blur.

You can use HDRx to blend in more or less motion blur as desired.

Red's "instructions" are to expose for the A stream, and set the X stream to cover the regions of over exposure you have in your scene where you want to capture detail.

You don't have to follow the instructions. When breaking the "rules" you had better know what you are doing. Remember, you can only monitor the A stream.

You can expose for the X stream and use the A stream to protect shadows from crushing.

You can split the exposure as well. You can expose for some stop with your light meter, say 8. Then set the lens to 2.8 and HDRx to +6 stops. Now the A stream will ostensibly be 3 stops overexposed, while the X stream will be 3 stops underexposed. Delivery of the correct exposure will require HDRx blending and grading. It will also have a sharper shutter than your camera was set for.

There are lots of options for using HDRx as it was not intended to do cool things.

You can also do some crazy things with high speed photography. You can shoot 120fps, then accumulate 4 frames for very accurate motion blur- but you have to be careful of overexposure when you create the composite.

You can also just shoot with a very fast shutter and add motion blur in post - which looks faked.

All these options are a compromise of the motion picture photography to accommodate still image quality.

Ultimately however, if you want to capture a still while shooting primarily for motion, you will have motion blur. Physics places that limit on reality.