Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

So I grabbed your frame and did a quick grade on it. I didn't use any LUTs, just high, mid and low color wheels, AAV color lab and a touch of sharpening. In AAV, I adjusted green channel saturation and shifted slightly in the blue direction and darkened yellows a bit. Mid tone color wheel was swung a bit towards red and overall saturation increased allot.

It's just a simple, plain "mild" look, I think with a modest contrast. Nothing at all special. It's not broadcast legal 16-235, there is some that dips under 0 but who cares for this? hehe

This one is has less contrast with lighter shadows:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6...ew?usp=sharing

This one has more contrast with more crushed blacks: (center of contrast lowered)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_...GF4VGI0YkhfZkE

This last one has a LUT and has bold contrast. I kept this one basically between 0 and 100
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6...ew?usp=sharing

Another with more contrast and blue water pulled back:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6...ew?usp=sharing

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

Nice work Cliff!

I'm partial to high contrast so I liked the last one best but the others are nice too!

I guess you had all the data you needed within the frame then, so I guess I got the exposure right for this one?

Thanks for your help Cliff. Very valuable to me!

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

Hi there!

I've now been shooting with s-log 3 a bit more with varying results. It is a bit of a learning curve for sure. Both under and overexposing does not look good, at all.
I know you all say to expose for whites instead of skin tones but that has put me in trouble where I had to bring the mids up a bit and, as some one said here, welcome to noise city...

Since I do a lot of talking heads the most important for me are skin tones. If anything else is too bright I'll deal with it another way in post. (Is it really just me that prefers to adjust the iris to skin tones and not whites when you shoot log?) What would you put for zebras on the high lights on a caucasian when you shoot s-log 3? 75, 80 or even 85?

Thanks a lot for all your help. It has really made a difference!

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

None of those. I would never set exposure based on skin tones. Is everyone's face the same shade? No. So obviously a face is not a consistent target and should not be used to judge exposure. Otherwise you are just guessing at the exposure, and your eyes and EVF will fool you often. Why do we even have zebras, light meters, waveforms, etc. if it's just going to come down to guessing anyway? You must use bright white, a genuine 18% gray card, an incident lighter meter, or some other method that ensures you are being consistent and accurate.

Bright reflected white, measured with the zebras, is by far the easiest method of setting exposure for S-LOG and that's pretty much all you should need 99% of the time. But an equally important part of the equation is how you process the footage in post. It's good that you're showing concern for getting the exposure correct, but you haven' said a word about what you are doing to the footage in post. You can't expect good results with S-LOG if you don't have a good workflow in post.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/resolve

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

Hi Doug!

I understand that what you are saying is undoubtedly correct about how to expose properly. I do a lot of ENG work however. I work alone in environments that may change. England is overcast one minute and a bit sunny the next. Most of the time there is little to no time to set things up properly.

You may say that that's why we have rec709. But, there's ever pressure to deliver better, visually more interesting material. That's why I'm moving to s-log, when I know I have some time to color it before it's sent, that is.
I'm doing the post work myself with Color Finale. It works well for me I think. And I don't have to export in and out of FCP which is a good thing, for me.

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

That is all the more reason why you need to have a fool-proof, fast, easy, way of determining the right exposure without guessing. Guessing and second-guessing wastes precious time during the shoot and also later in post to fix inconsistencies. If you learn to expose on reflected whites with zebras, you will instantly be faster and more accurate.

And BTW, S-LOG is much easier to expose than rec709 because it has so much more leeway and dynamic range. If someone can't mostly fix a poorly exposed S-LOG image in post, then they really missed the exposure!

I can't speak about Color Finale because I never used it, but I haven't seen any color correction tools in any NLE that are good enough for grading S-LOG properly. If someone is going to shoot S-LOG they really need to commit to using a dedicated color grading program such as Resolve, Baselight, or similar. The difference is night and day in terms of what you can do and how fast you can do it.

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

One way I'm exposing Slog 2 is using a SmallHD 501 monitor and setting one of the screens/profiles for zebras between 0-40 IRE, another screen for 40-70 and the third to 100-109.

If you are familiar with the SmallHD interface you'll know you can quickly flick sideways between all 3 screens. Thus getting a quick look at what will be noisy in the shadows, what should grade well and what will burn out.

If you want to eyeball it (which I know will send Doug crazy;-) you can apply a live LUT on yet another screen.

But I must admit going the SmallHD route is an expensive option and personally I've had quality issues with two of their units, so not all plain sailing.

Re: FS5 S-log tips and gotchas
 

Thanks guys!

I really appreciate it!