In today's day of digital cinematography, most filmmakers will default to the recommended ISO settings set forth by the camera's manufacturer — but is this always the best starting point? I would argue that it depends on what you are filming and, more importantly, what type of image you are trying to craft. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is responsible for creating the ISO standards for camera sensitivity, and it’s often what is used by filmmakers. The recommended ISO for most digital cinema cameras is 800; this means that, on average, your camera will record the cleanest image with the highest dynamic range. Therefore, this is, of course, the setting often relied upon by filmmakers. You want the cleanest image with the most information without sacrificing dynamic range, right? Not necessarily. Chris HaggertyThe Latitude Shifting TechniqueLet’s look at the Arri Alexa, for example, which has a set number of stops of dynamic range. With the ISO set at 800 and having 14 stops of dynamic range, this gives you 7 stops of latitude in the highlights and 7 stops of latitude in the shadows. This is how you get those nice, clean images that we’re all familiar with in modern digital media. However, this is not always what images (particularly film) have looked like. In the past, before digital media, film often struggled to capture details in shadow, while retaining highlight information in even the brightest environments. Many cinematographers prefer the rich and realistic look film offers to media...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday