GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

I had some issues with skintones on my gh4 at last wedding, it was a bright sunny day and I used the standard preset, all values set at "0".

I exposed using the zebras and histogram as guide and eventhough I"m sure those where not showing any clipping of highlights my images do get the impression that they are overexposed a bit (eventhough the vectorscope/waveform in edius shows it's within the 0 and 100 value) Especially the faces looked overexposed and where lacking details. I was able to recover it somewhat in post but it made me do some testing today to see if I could get a better suitable preset.

The only preset that gave me more natural looking skintones and a good overall exposed image with most detail in my face (I filmed myself as testsubject in the sun) was cinelike D, skintones has a more natural feel to it.

The only value I changes was sharpness that I dialled all the way down but left all the rest at 0.

I"m not so confident changing any other values as they often result in some weird looking color but has anyone else had good success in getting natural looking color and skintones?

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

I just compared natural setting to my gh3 and it looks a bit different, the colors look "flatter" on the gh4, not much but still.

I did some more cinelike d test shots and they are definitely better, faces get much more depth and detail while any other setting I try flattens the color and detail in full sunlight. I will be going to the beach tomorrow and will shoot in that cinelike d preset, the forecast is sunny and no clouds so will see how it holds up. My daughters can serve as test subject :)

Curious though about others experiences.

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

Hello Noa,

You're leading the charge on the GH4, so I can't comment on its new profiles.

My experience with zebras is approximately 70% setting for skin tones, as opposed to 100% for landscapes. Your mileage may vary.

Looking forward to your continuing GH4 adventures.

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

This is my preferred set of settings for my new GH4.

cineV, 16-235 luminance, all zeros, master pedestal 0 up to +5 on occasion

here's a sample of some 96 fps conformed to 24p. The last two clips are 100mbps 1080-60p conformed to 24p. It's just a test, but I super stoked with how easy this workflow is. this test was with an Olympus 17mm f/1.8 and Hoya cir-pol and NDx4 filters.


In post I'm adding a bit of an S to the color curves to make it a bit snappier. The 96fps is geeing some sharpening as well, but that's it !!!

I'm pretty happy with these skin tones in quite a few different lighting conditions.

Cheers,
Pete

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

Yeah I think you are right on the zebra settings, factory standard you can choose between zebra1 (80%) an zebra 2 (95%) and you can change those values and I had it set to 95%, eventhough the histogram/zebras in camera and the waveform in edius tell me I don't have any clipping highlight (also no zebra on the faces) the exposure is too hot. Only not when I am shooting with that cinelike d preset, then the exposure on the faces seems just right.

I"m experimenting with the idynamic preset tomorrow as well as that supposed to boost the shadows but maintains the highlights, trade off is some more noise in the shadows but there are different settings and I"ll try the standard setting.

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

i get best results exposing a bit to the right indoors, and a bit to the left outdoors, so basically my histogramm is never white

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

Faces should land, ideally, between about 55-65 IRE, so set to 70% and back off a bit (70 is a bit too hot).

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

Just one or two little 70 IRE highlights on the face (I mean small, like a nickel or quarter sized)

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

I changed the zebra setting to 85% for last wedding as I not only have to expose for the skintones but also for a bright white dress in full sunlight and I don't want to loose detail in that as well. 85% proved to be much better for overall use.

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

Also consider bumping your hue +1 or maybe even +2. I've found, and I've seen it echoed from some other users, that otherwise there is a tiny bit of a color cast that is most evident in skin tones and is *very* hard to grade out in post. Looking at test shots I've made using Spyder's excellent target (it has a lot of muted colors) seems to confirms that nudge yields more accurate color.

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

I seem to find Panasonic cameras need to be set up at 78% to get decent skin tones. 70 is just too hot or that's the way it looks to me.

Re: GH4 skintones in full sunlight
 

I was going to start a thread, but maybe I can just ask here in Noa's thread. I notice with my GH4's histogram that sometimes depending on the scene it is a color until a little bit of over exposure starts on right side, then it goes "White" At least on mine, the color prior to that is Yellow or Gold.

Yet other times it is White up until the over exposure starts on right side and then it turns to the Yellow or Gold?

What is the significance of the color change, first? Is that where exactly some part of the image is over 100IRE? (in addition to the line starting up the right side)

Why does it seem to switch off colors on some scenes as to what's not not above 100IRE and what is?


Please, and thank you.