SuperFlat
 

I recently shot some footage for my short film in the SuperFlat picture style. I like the dynamic range that it adds, but I question the reason for the sharpness being turned down. I know people say you just re-sharpen in post, but my question is; how much do you sharpen in Vegas Pro to make it look natural, but not too soft? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Zach

Hey Zach,

The creator of Superflat actually prefers now to use the Neutral preset with contrast and sharpness all the way down and saturation down 2 notches.

This isn't the best setting for quick edits as it does require some grading, but will provide the best dynamic range for post color correction.

Turning the sharpening down makes the line skipping less noticeable in some areas. You don't want it as sharp as a photo would be.

Good to know David. So would you even add any sharpening in post? This is for a short film for film festivals, so obviously I am grading and color correcting every clip, but I'm basically trying to figure out if it will still look good blown up to big screen if I don't do any sharpening. Obviously it's a fine line, since if I sharpen up to .3 or .4 it could potentially start getting pixelated. So would you suggest doing any sharpening in post, or just allow it to be as soft as it was shot? Thanks a lot for your help!

If you are going to up-rez, some people have noted that they used a different app to apply SOME sharpening at the same time as the scaling. I think this was scaling to 2K. I can't remember the post, but that's all I recall. I think you can apply a small amount in post as you export if you want... I haven't needed to.

Cool, thanks for the reply. I'll likely stick with little to no sharpening since it will probably be screened on 2k, and I'd rather have high quality soft picture than sharp, pixelated picture... I appreciate your responses!

Auto Lighting Optimizer
 

David, is it worth have the Auto Lighting Optimizer on. I see there is a Low, Standard and Strong. Does this bring out the mid tones? Something like a gamma control?

Hey Jim,

I actually have my ALO turned to off. From what I can tell, this feature is designed more for the entry photographer that will print JPGs straight from the camera. It appears to boost low-level parts of the image, making your shadows/darker areas appear to have more digital noise.

I'll back Dave up on this- definitely turn off Auto Lighting Optimizer for everything, unless you specifically want noise in the shadows.

Would you guys suggest any different settings for very low light work (i.e. shooting in nightclubs where it is very dark with flashing lights?)