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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 :)

WHY does the RAW Level Meter & RAW Clip Meter indicate OVEREXPOSURE in the field ??

George D.

George D.

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WHY does the RAW Level Meter & RAW Clip Meter indicate OVEREXPOSURE in the field ??

We have been out in the field now twice, shooting wildlife with our Red-One, and there is something going on I do not understand. I think I may know the answer, but I need verification from those of you that have been shooting with this camera for many years and have the experience.

When we're shooting in the studio, we have no real problems with exposure, and can keep the "RAW Level Meter" in the green, and the "RAW Clip Meter" off. We shoot everything either at 800 ISO or 1600 ISO.

In the field, we seem to be having real problems with exposure, and to keep the RAW Level Meter in the green, I have had to lower the ISO to 100, and it still "says" it's overexposing at times. We'll also get some of the lights in the RAW Clip Meter on.

*I am a little paranoid about overexposing, because everyone says that when we shoot with a Red-One, whatever you do DO NOT OVEREXPOSE. I hear this and read this again and again. So, I do not want to overexpose the shots. But, later when I put these shots up on the PC Monitor, the outdoor shots are WAY underexposed and I have to raise the ISO up to 800 where the exposure is perfect. That is a "3" stop difference. ???

*I think the problem may be that since the meter in the camera is a "reflective" meter, it is probably seeing the sky or the water or whatever, and giving us a false exposure reading. In cases like this, I should probably use our "incident" meter to determine exposure, just like in the old days of film.

I would much rather keep the ISO set at 800 when we shoot in or out of the studio. It's the sweet spot for the camera and the image in the viewfinder is much brighter as well.

So, should I "ignore" both the in-camera meters, or what?

Any help, suggestions, or comments, are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

.
 
The raw clip is the same at 100 and 12000 iso, as the iso is just metadata and not changing the sensor, like it would do with a filmstock.

You need to change your exposure (as in how much light hits the sensor) not your iso to controll this

Depending on what you're shooting, nd's, aperture or shutter seems to be a common solution to this issue...

Keeping the iso at 800 and controlling what light hits the sensor instead, sounds like a good approach
 
Gunleik Groven said:
The raw clip is the same at 100 and 12000 iso, as the iso is just metadata and not changing the sensor, like it would do with a filmstock.

You need to change your exposure (as in how much light hits the sensor) not your iso to controll this

Depending on what you're shooting, nd's, aperture or shutter seems to be a common solution to this issue...

Keeping the iso at 800 and controlling what light hits the sensor instead, sounds like a good approach
Click to expand...

I "did" change the exposure, but a "three-stop" ND at 100 ISO seems a little over the top to me. I already had a Polarizing Filter on the lens. Besides, it still would not help us to "see" the image in the EVF or monitor.

If I kept the ISO at 800, I would have to stack so many ND filters on the lens, the image would be so dark I couldn't see it at all.

I still don't get it.

.
 
Funny, I have the opposite problem! When I can see over exposure for highlights, the histogram does not show it. Nothing hits the far right of it...I just don't trust it. I have tried trusting it before, despite what I see (even in RAW view mode) but when I get back to RCX, sure enough, the over exposed looking portions ARE over exposed.

As for your problem, you are correct. The camera is evaluating the scene as a whole, so, if there are clipping channels but your overall scene looks fine, it's just the sky, a highlight or small portion of the scene that is triggering the traffic lights. A good way to test that is to physically place your thumb in front of the lens and block the over exposed portion. Watch the traffic lights turn off and your histogram will represent the rest of the scene, so use that to expose it (but don't trust highlight exposure....like I mentioned above).

Confusing? It certainly is.

*waiting for a smug "just keep the histogram in-between the goal posts and you'll be fine"
 
Are you using ND filters regularly? I rarely shoot outdoors without a good strong ND. A .9 is usually a good baseline beginning for a medium sunny Colorado day (your ND strength may vary depending on your geographical region and relationship to the sun). Many days I'll need a 1.2 here or even, occasionally, stacked ND. A polarizer is rarely enough to control the amount of light hitting your sensor adequately.

Don't use your ISO or your iris to do the work of your ND filter, you won't like the results.

Outdoors, I usually set ISO to 500 - this gives me a little headroom in both the highlights and the blacks to push the exposure a bit in either direction. Sometimes I adjust to 800, depending on the cloud coverage. But with proper filtration, I see no reason to go outside of the 320-800 range which is the sensor 's sweet spot when shooting outdoors in daylight.

One note regarding overexposure - you still want a fat negative more than you want to just shoot between the goal posts - if you "stretch" the histogram and still don't see clipping, you can dial this back in Redcine - the data will still be there if you have not clipped - but it won't look that great straight out of the camera. You'll have some post adjustments to make, and it won't look as good as if you shot with a histogram which looks like mountains. So expose for the goalposts and then stop down to where your histogram looks good and thick. On one hand, it really is as simple as "just keep the histogram between the goal posts" but that is really a starting point, not a best practice.
 
Frequently shoot with nd 2.1 and 2.4 for outdoor daylight scenes...

A built in calibrated nd is often on my wishlist for the reds.

But it is really good advice to stick to 800, especially in situations where you risk overexposing. Gives you 1.25 stop highlightprotection, which you'll frequently need.

While when you expose at iso100, you have negative highlight protection. You force yourself up, and the cam will clip at theexact same point at isos 100, 320, 800 and 3200...

You really need to controll how much light hits the sensor. NOT the metadata to remedy this...
 
Follow Gunleik's and Meryem's advice. I routinely use a pola and upwards of 1.5IR ND outdoors. Also research the board a bit. There has been some discussion about how the histogram will not read overexposure when the iso is not set to 800. Not ideal - but that's how it works. Not sure if it has been changed in recent firmware upgrades.
 
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