The tonality vs dynamic range debate

[Andrew Reid]

Ages ago I made some LUTs for the standard rec.709 pic profile on my Panasonic GH4 and LX100 which did lovely 4K, alas this was before V-LOG came out.

The LUTs were correcting the standard dynamic range files to make them appear more Canon-like in terms of colour science (Panasonic and even Sony have come a long way since).

Digging out these comparison shots...

If you view these full size and download the originals, take a look at the book cover in particular.

Just shows how even a small change in contrast can dramatically improve tonality in the mids and skintones.

This is why I think there should be more SDR LUTs for standard pic profiles.

It's amazing what difference they can make and how much you can do with an SDR 8bit 4K file.

[Andrew Reid]

A quick present-day update...

Here is the Sony a9 which doesn't have S-LOG, which was originally a decision to protect the A7s line.

It does however shoot very good oversampled thick 4K H.264 100Bit files that are some of the best I've ever seen even given the relatively high compression by today's standard.

In the graded version all the colour casts are gone.

A lot more shadow detail.

I'm really happy with it and starting to think missing S-LOG isn't such a bad thing.

[EduPortas]

I'd suggest 99% of color correction is correct white balance and then adding or subtracting contrast in the midtones and blacks.

As you said, a good standard codec allows these changes in post without the nuisance of using any log profile.

Yes, log is very useful for extreme DR situations, but other than that I think ppl are complicating things by choosing to shoot in that profile when a very chunky codec is compulsory to make any sense at all of it in post.

 

[MrSMW]

57 minutes ago, EduPortas said:

Yes, log is very useful for extreme DR situations, but other than that I think ppl are complicating things by choosing to shoot in that profile when a very chunky codec is compulsory to make any sense at all of it in post.

Which is pretty much why I shoot log with a burned in LUT. 

Usually needs a slight tweak but generally nothing major if I got the WB more or less in the ballpark.

[KnightsFan]

I definitely agree that more SDR luts would be great. It would be nice if cameras could share luts with the same ease as using a new snapchat filter. Or if you could connect your camera to an ipad wirelessly and build the lut in real time using color correction software. There are so many UI/UX barriers to cameras still.

However, for narrative projects, I would never shoot anything other than a standard log profile anymore. I shoot in log on large projects because it allows a color managed workflow. If I shoot a scene one day, and then have pickups a month later, with slightly different lighting because it's cloudier--or with a different camera system altogether--log is very useful. Partly because of added dynamic range, but, more importantly, the shots are standardized to reduce the guesswork for adequately matching. I also shoot a kelvin white balance rather than balancing to a card for the same reason. Standardization is key.

[zlfan]

7 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Which is pretty much why I shoot log with a burned in LUT. 

Usually needs a slight tweak but generally nothing major if I got the WB more or less in the ballpark.

i also found that log plus some in camera painting is much better than log then post lut for 8 bit even 10 bit cameras.  

[zlfan]

some in camera picture profiles are actually mimicking famous film stocks. just we power users typically skip these in stock styles. 

[zlfan]

6 hours ago, KnightsFan said:

However, for narrative projects, I would never shoot anything other than a standard log profile anymore. I shoot in log on large projects because it allows a color managed workflow. If I shoot a scene one day, and then have pickups a month later, with slightly different lighting because it's cloudier--or with a different camera system altogether--log is very useful. Partly because of added dynamic range, but, more importantly, the shots are standardized to reduce the guesswork for adequately matching. I also shoot a kelvin white balance rather than balancing to a card for the same reason. Standardization is key.

Actually this is the true reason for log or raw, not the dr thing.