@kholi @ shian

Overexposed is an interesting term. Is it overexposed ? I would say no because nothing is clipped. You're saying it LOOKS overexposed because...that's how the preview looks when you open it in Resolve ?

I guess the exposure methodology of protecting highlights means many tend to ETTL but I have a different way of setting exposure.

To me, and I do this with Alexa and RED, I want to know what is clipping, so using Zebra or Other similar tools, I set it to 100%. ON the BMCC the Zebra is based on SENSOR clipping, not a 709 LUT of the video space.

So when shooting RAW, the 100% zebra absolutely tells me when the sensor is really clipping.

Once I know what's clipping in the scene I then "choose" my exposure based on what I'm happy to let clip. In a round about way I guess it's like ETTR, but I like to have as much "meat" of my exposure above the noise floor. it depends on the screen though and that's something you have to judge. The DR of the scene itself will affect my judgement of where to "position" the exposure.

So yes Sian, the numbers you're looking at on the waveform are about right. I actually set the exposure in this by looking at her white dress when she was standing up. I then used the zebra to see where it was clipping, and then gave myself some headroom by backing off another stop. The sparkles on her dress where still clipping but I decided that was OK and let those "go". There's no point in trying to hold that kind of highlight detail obviously at the cost of the skin tones.

I'd love to ask both of you...you're reacting against the high levels of skin tones..being up higher in the exposure scale in this shot. Is there a downside ? If nothing is clipped, isn't all the information there ? How does it change the way things behave ?

There are other low keys scenes where the exposure isn't set in the same way at all. In those scenes (night, low con) then you make a much more subjective judgement of exposure. Wide open and highest ISO and trust the camera will hold the DR in the highlights of point sources !!

jb

6sec / 141 frames at 24fps = 704 MB. I can imagine that after first trials a lot of people will switch to ProRes. But really awsome.

@johnbrawley It behaves very similarly to R3D, except it doesn't seem to live in quite the same LOG environment. (In other words, stuff I would do to R3D footage, I have to do differently with these.) It does seem to be more difficult to bend, as in many instances as you can see by the scopes her skin tone is exposed over 90% which, even for a white girl, is pretty high, but it's manageable and there's recoverable detail, except in the shadows in the background they are so black there's no detail. But There is plenty of latitude on her facial shadows, I can do a myriad of grades with this.

In the sparkler shot, I really had to spend a bit of time messing with the knee to get something that didn't mute the skin tone terribly. I like the options in AE for interpreting the images very much.

Even with the ECU I placed her skin above 80, which is still pretty high, but that seemed to be the most natural look given the exposure and contrast ratio.

I'd like to hear from you, where you actually exposed her, and if possible see a flat interpretation of that exposure - realizing that as it's RAW with a baseline of ISO800, and that you are basically changing metadata in cam per what you see.

I've also updated the video to show RAW unadjusted DNG vs. the grade.

another option

scopes

@Shian,

that is awesome work. I am still learning how to color correct and grade, but seeing John's clips and the way you have pulled the elements out of each clip has sealed the deal for me for this camera. My GH2 just died, so what a great reason to buy the BMC now. But in the interim, I need to find another camera to finish up my projects

Thanks, John. I'm not totally happy with that one. I want to see if I can get a less muted look to the skin tone, but here is a quick video. I'll play with them more tomorrow. It's 2am here. Need sleep.

Download the mp4, and know that the Prores444 looks spectacular!

Here are a few of my interpretations with AE importer...

Sewper-Awesum Look:

Normal Look:

'Cool-Grade 9000' look:

Here's something with a bit more blue/red and less contrasty skin... I've always been a fan of slightly under-exposing skin. I don't really like green tones in skin either. This is why RAW is so awesome. :)

Man, I already don't want to shot on anything besides this cam... :) (well, Red or Alexa aside)

@johnbrawley

I can't seen to open them in Resolve Lite. Doesn't Lite only support 1920x1080 files... ?

First, it is great decision to lauch their forum.

Second, it is good news that Cinema DNG is available.

@JohnTollwannabe you're right, we should care IF the people directly had control of this. Unfortunately we don't - our voting system has much to be desired when ballots are skewed behind the scenes. @jfro Agreed.

Even Australian companies have been known to outsource. I do believe we should care about the working conditions and salaries of the people who make our goods, don't you?

And the sad truth is indeed, the U.S.'s greatest exports are weapons.

My Samsung SSD 830 just arrived. I'll see Dr. Dave's pizza and raise you a 12 pack of microbrew.

If all the stars align correctly, I'm expecting my cam in 12-14 days. Couldn't wait any longer so bought a single Kingston 240GB SSDNow V+200 (SVP200S3/240G) ssd. Wanted to buy the vertex OCZ 240gb, but scared off by many negative reviews as well as JB's comments.

Approved SSD list just updated.

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/detail/faqs?sid=27541&pid=27542&os=win#