Jump to content

Axel Rothe

Basic Member
  • Posts

    4
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Occupation
    Cinematographer
  • Location
    Germany
  1. S-Log3, as does S-Log2, needs to exposed correctly in camera, otherwise the colors fall apart. I've shot very dark low light scenes with the F55 and FS7 and both times I over exposed by two stops or more with S-Log3, to keep the waveform above 20-30IRE. The reason is that the sensor is rated for 2000ISO, but's "actually" a 500 ISO rating. The sensor has it's best performance at a 2000ISO rating, but it's an experience of mine that anything under 20-30 IRE is broken in terms of noise and color. Noise affects color, as it's not just a little luma noise as with other cameras, but a rather heavy chrome noise. When I talk about the IRE, I'm referencing the LOG-Gamma, not the translated Image to Rec709. So a S-Log3 Image, and it's entire spectrum on the waveform being between 50-10, would be massively underexposed and therefor the skin tones would also be damaged. I've graded a lot of S-Log material and this has been my personal findings. That whenever it's "properly" exposed, as in above 20-30IRE, the material holds well, whereas if it's exposed at base ISO, the material tends to break apart if the image is at the lower end. Especially in high speed footage.
  2. Hey Guys and Gals, I've been working with the Varicam 35 for some time and have gathered a lot of experiences shooting commercials with this camera. I've been perusing this section of the forum and noticed a lack of actual user experiences. Panasonics marketing isn't also exactly stellar. I'd be happy to share my experiences with you. I'll do a quick overview: The Varicam 35 is a 4K Digital Cinema Camera, with a Super 35 Sensor, it shoots 12bit 444 AVCUltra at 30fps. 10bit 422 at up to 60fps and 200fps at 2K Resolution. I've shot with RED, Arri and Sony Digital Cinema Cameras and have found the Varicams sensor to deliver a very neutral, but detail rich image. Working with it in post has been a smooth ride so far. The AVCUltra Codec is however a rather CPU intensive codec. Skin tones are great and very well separated. As a colorist, I prefer them over REDs skin tones. Since they seldom need any adjustments. The 5000 ISO is pretty nifty. I don't use it very often, but every now and then it has saved production money or made things otherwise impossible possible. i.e. using a 1,8KW HMI instead of a 8K HMI at night. Or shooting with nothing but a string of fairy lights and still needing to stop down. I've been using the live grading features of this camera to create previews for clients and directors on set using LiveGrade Pro. It's great as the camera saves a LUT for every clip and the Proxies are created with the LUT burned in. So no need for offsite Dailies. If I'm not mistaken the 35 and LT have been used on quite a few Netflix Originals. -- Do you have any particular questions regarding the camera or the workflow? -- Some Stills from my work with this camera:
  3. Slog-3 needs to be consistently shot 2 Stops over. Anything below 30IRE is essentially mush. I've had many battles with Sony Footage in my grading suite. It's not like Arri, Varicam or RED footage, where exposing skintones 1-2 stops under can be quite pleasing or skin color is well separated. Sony needs you to expose spot on - always. I stopped working with sony cameras for that reason. The scene seems to be lit with two different color temperatures. This can be weird on skin tones, especially with Slog3. I think that might be why you are seeing odd color shifts in the skin tone highlights compared to the "shadow "levels of the skin. The skin is quite evenly lit, which is why it might be hard to tell. You might be correct with 80% of her skin, but the highlights will be shifted into yellow or red. Or vis versa. The vectorscope shows you a cloud of pixels and their corresponding saturation and hue. The skin tone indicator is a generalisiation of all variation of skin tone complexions. You need to make adjustments in relation to your talents actual skin color as well as the surrounding. A cool winter scenes, will need cooler skin tones, than say a bilstering desert. I'm not in my studio at the moment, otherwise I'd give it a go.
  4. If there was one take away I have after listenting to countless origin stories of cinematographers, is that there is no story that is the same. This is an industry of connections, meaning that whatever director you meet, will take you down a specific yet undefined path. Some people meet a couple of guys, do music videos and five years later they are shooting high end studio commercials. Others zig zag and make their break with a side project. Or they work as staff somewhere and go freelance having gathered some connections. It's true that luck is a big part, but it's up to you to create as many opportunities as possible for luck to strike. My only advice is: "Nobody is waiting for you" and "The friends of bad people, are always equal or worse." Don't waste time with people that you don't enjoy working with. It's never worth it.
×
×
  • Create New...