EX1R Strong Highlights

[David Coyle]

Might be pretty obvious but ive fiddled around in the menu but to no avail. Does anyone know how to reduce the contrast on the EX1? Im using a standard enough profile. Sometimes on overcast days the contrast, highlights are really strong. I find the picture on the older Z1 one is so much better. Ive attached a still where its clearly visable on the faces.

Thanks.

[Jack Zhang]

You can try using the BBC Film profile. (look in the picture profile thread or search for it) You'll have less hot footage at the cost of less saturation.

Half of this is due to auto iris on the EX1R always being slightly hot.

You can use the direct menu to select the F-stop indicator and select either -0.5 or -1. This will tweak the auto iris parameter lower.

[David Coyle]

Thanks Jack. I dont actually use the auto iris. I only use manual settings on the cam. Maybe I had it slightly high.

How do you find the BBC profile? With less saturation do you have to colour grade everything? Is it an easy profile to grade?

Thanks.

[Les Wilson]

@david,
That is over exposed. The Zebras should help you catch that. What profile did you use? There's a sticky on that topic in which you find two very popular ones referred to as the Vortex Media one and True Color. Lots of debates around the merits of True Color versus shooting it the way you want to to be. YMMV

[David Coyle]

Thanks Lee. I think I used one of Bills profiles. Can someone send me the link for the BBC profile or anyone they care to recommend?

Thanks.

[Les Wilson]

I think that if the image is over exposed, the profile isn't the core problem unless there's something wrong with it. If you publish your settings here, someone may catch something that may exacerbate the problem. Otherwise, any number of profiles will be just fine. The EX1 is a great camera. Nonetheless, it has a defined dynamic range like any other camera.

[Alister Chapman]

Very often picture profiles are less forgiving of incorrect exposure. The flip side is than when exposed correctly they can look amazing. There's no getting away from the fact that however you set any camera up, it still must be exposed correctly, whether it's film, raw, log or standard gamma.

One of the most misunderstood aspects of a modern video production is that with the exception of linear raw, the greater you make the dynamic range, the smaller your exposure latitude becomes. The problem being that the recording medium, whether thats tape, a file or whatever only has a certain capacity. To squeeze more dynamic range into a bucket of the same capacity you have to add more compression. This normally means squeezing the heck out of highlights to fit everything in. So, overexpose, even just a little and you can run into issues with the mid range and skin tones getting compressed and not looking right.

If you want something flat use Cinegamma 3 with the black gamma at +20 or +30, but don't over expose or your skin tones will go flat and un natural.