Picture Profile Recipes

[Jeroen Wolf]

I received my EX 1 a week ago, just in time for filming a documentary that will start this month. I've been reading up on the PP's and -sometimes- what they're used for. I will start experimental shooting with some of your settings this week to look at the differences/my prefs.
We'll be shooting the doc in 'existing light', indoors and outdoors. Like many I like the hi-sat, 'punchy' look, shallow dof. Has anyone prepared a PP with this prefs in mind and care to share these settings? Perhaps 2 PP's, one for interiors and one for exteriors?

Jeroen

[Chris Leong]

Jeroen
Congrats on your EX1!

I'd just use Bill Raven's setting or similar, and concentrate on getting the best exposed images you can - i.e. capture the maximum amount of digital data per image possible.

This means using your histogram, watching the areas of lighting, using a real exposure meter, perhaps using fill boards or butterfly scrims, etc, to control your contrast.

Don't worry about getting your final image on your camera.

Do the hi-sat look in post, it's much easier there.

The shallow DOF is to do with your lens being at a wider aperture, which means ND filters, or decreased shutter angles, or both.

And usually most people use a 35mm DOF adaptor such as a Brevis, Redrock or Letus and 35mm stills camera lenses to achieve that look, but it can be done on longer focal lengths without the adaptors.

Just make sure that you get the best exposure and latitude possible. Use Bill's settings (there's four variations) and check your histogram to see you're not losing any information (i.e. losing your highlights or lowlights by getting your exposure wrong, or by shooting an area that has too much contrast in it).

Worry about getting your pictures sharp and well composed. If you have a follow focus unit, practice with it.

Practice with your tripod and fluid head, get all those settings as you like it and don't forget to exercise the head just prior to each shot - i.e. rehearse your camera moves before you shoot, especially in colder countries. Your fluid gets cold and more viscous, the settings change with temperature.

Don't forget your 3x and 30 degree rules - if you want two shots of the same subject to cut together, you'll want to be either 3x zoomed in or out from your A shot to your B shot, or you'll need to be at least 30 degrees moved over one way or another from your previous camera position.

Plus, don't forget to shoot plenty of inserts and cutaways!

HTH
Cheers
C

[Paul Cronin]

Very nice post Chris with great information.

[Thomas William Alexander]

Originally Posted by Jeroen Wolf

I received my EX 1 a week ago, just in time for filming a documentary that will start this month. I've been reading up on the PP's and -sometimes- what they're used for. I will start experimental shooting with some of your settings this week to look at the differences/my prefs.
We'll be shooting the doc in 'existing light', indoors and outdoors. Like many I like the hi-sat, 'punchy' look, shallow dof. Has anyone prepared a PP with this prefs in mind and care to share these settings? Perhaps 2 PP's, one for interiors and one for exteriors?

Jeroen

Hi Jeroen
If you are interested in an indoors preset I have one that works great for tungsten lighting. I think it works better like in a house under strong bulbs. I origanally set it up to work under Par Stage lights but I think I will have to do a little more work with those on this setting. Go back to page 25 and you will see the setting on a preveous post.
Also try it with difrent CIN settings to see what u like.

Good luck:

Thomas

[Raul Rooma]

Hi!

Hey guys...i belive that lots of You have canon a1 and also sony EX-1.Have You tried to color match them,or what is the good starting point to set up A1 & EX1 for multicam shoot

Best Regards

Raul

[Jeroen Wolf]

Thanks, Chris, that's more than I bargained for!

As far as doing the grading in post: I don't expect to have access to a pro colorist and am not proficient at grading myself.

As far as Bill's settings are concerned, hope you don't mind me asking: what page are the definitive settings at or do you have them? I had the impression they were constantly tweaked and I lost track of where he arrived at...

@Thomas: I'll give it a try-thanks!

Jeroen

[Bob Hart]

I motivated myself to try the published true color preset published in this thread with an EX1 modified Letus Extreme and a Voigtlander f2 40mm prime lens.

I made an error and took a local whitebalance instead of going with a more normal daylight setting. One of the frames below is a grab from a shot done with a normal daylight preset.

There was also a piece of two f-stop neutral density filter gel in the path between the lens on front and the groundglass.

Frames are numbered :-

1 2
3 4

Frames 1, 2, 3, are local whitebalance to white card.

Frame 4 is daylight preset.

Frame 4 is most fathful to the look and colours at that time of the day which was evening just before sundown. It is not the sharpest shot. Focus with groundglass work must be meticulous, - no excuses for me.

I was also a little greedy with the relay wide-view and picked up an edge of the prism path through being zoomed back a fraction too far.

Here's a link to motion versions of those frame grabs :-

http://exposureroom.com/members/DARA...d6b3f40a2cadd/

[Michael Maier]

Originally Posted by Chris Leong

Don't forget your 3x and 30 degree rules

Never heard of the 3x rule and quite frankly I can't see how that would avoid a jump cut. I mean, without moving the camera the minimum 30 degrees, using a focal length 3x longer will still jump. Am I missing something? Or do you mean using both together as in make sure to move the camera 30 degrees AND use a focal length 3x longer? If so, the 3x is not really necessary unless you off course need a closer shot. Maybe I'm still missing something.

[Chris Leong]

Michael

If you're 3x out or in, then you're essentially cutting from a wide to a medium, or a medium to a close, etc. No need to move the camera, just change the focal length substantially.

When you're doing, say, a single camera interview headshot and your subject flubs a line, try it and see. Just immediately change the focal length to a medium shot (or a closeup if you were on medium) and keep the subject going. Or, alternatively, or go down to his/her hands, then come back up as they start talking again, again without cutting the camera.

Later, in post, you can then cut from the medium wide past the flubbed line to the closeup or out again (as if there were two cameras shooting the same subject, one wide, one close) whereas if you hadn't altered your focal length then you'd definitely be jumping between your two headshots.

Naturally, you're still going to have to make the subject's motions match (can't have a hand up cutting to a hand down, etc)., but if you can do that you can get away with it nearly every time.

In fact, it's probably the only way I know to tighten up an interview without cutting away and back.

In another situation, let's say you cut from a wide shot of a house to a tele shot of the front door of the same house, shot from the same angle, then to a closeup of the door handle as it turns, also shot from the same angle.

Do you call those cuts jump cuts? If so, then you're right, you should move the camera between them.

For me, they go by pretty easy, and I've cut lots of stuff that way without a murmur from anyone.

viz long shots of battle scenes, cut in to teles of people fighting, further in to bodies hitting the ground, etc., then back out again, all from the same angle... they seem to work fine too, in my book. In fact, I've cut scenes that way in order not to confuse basic screen direction (good guys moving left to right, bad guys right to left, etc).

YMMV, of course.
HTH
Cheers
Chris

[Neil Dankoff]

Hi guys, Does anyone know any of Doug Jensen's picture profiles for ex1? I heard they are really good.

[Thomas William Alexander]

I was wondering if annyone knew for sure what some of the color symbols stand for on the ex1 in the pp settings? For instance: RG, RB, GR, GB, BR, BG.
The oporators manual does not tell what the anacronyms stand for and I have had no success finding any information on the web anywhere. Can anyone help me in this area?

Thomas

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Thomas William Alexander

I was wondering if annyone knew for sure what some of the color symbols stand for on the ex1 in the pp settings? For instance: RG, RB, GR, GB, BR, BG.
The oporators manual does not tell what the anacronyms stand for and I have had no success finding any information on the web anywhere. Can anyone help me in this area?

Thomas

R=Red
G=Green
B=Blue

If you look at a vectorscope, you will understand that each combo represents an axis and these combos describe how to shift the image along those axis'.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

An even better analogy is the "RGB cube" mapping. See here:

RGB color space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Steven Thomas]

I "believe" these are the settings for the EX1:

DOUG'S PRESET

MATRIX:

SETTING: ON
SELECT: HIGH SAT
LEVEL: 0
PHASE: 0
R-G: 0
R-B: 0
G-R: 0
G-B: 0
B-R: 0
B-G: 0

COLOR CORRECTION:

SETTING: OFF
AREA DETECTION
AREA INDICATION: OFF
TARGET PHASE: 130
TARGET WIDTH: 40
LEVEL: 0

WHITE:

OFFSET WHITE: OFF
OFFSET: 0
OFFSET: 0
OFFSET: 0
PRESET WHITE: 5600

DETAIL:

SETTING: ON
LEVEL: 0
FREQUENCY: 0
CRISPENING: 0
H/V RATIO: 0
WHITE LIMITER: 0
BLACK LIMITER: 0
V DTL CREATION: Y
KNEE APT LEVEL: 0

SKIN TONE DETAIL:

SETTING: OFF
LEVE: 0
AREA DETECTION
AREA INDICATION: OFF
SATURATION: 0
PHASE: 130
WIDTH: 40

KNEE:

NOTHING

GAMMA:

LEVEL: 0
SELECT: CINE4

BLACK: -3
BLACK GAMMA: -2
LOW KEY SAT: 0

[Neil Dankoff]

Thanks! Appreciate it.