N-Log

[Conrad Obregon]

I've been shooting in N-Log on the Z8 with good success in color grading. However I notice that when I shoot with the histogram in the expose to the right position, my images are too light when it comes time to grade in Premiere Pro and require much more adjustment than when I center the histogram on the camera screen. (So far, at least when shooting outdoors in N-Log, no tail of my histogram extends off the scale.) For what it is worth I am recording to an internal card, and mainly in 8K. Are other people encountering the same phenomena or am I missing something?

[Doug Jensen]

It sounds like you are confusing LOG with RAW. Is your background in still photography? A lot of photographers shoot RAW stills by putting the histogram nicely centered in the middle with no clipping at either end. That works for RAW stills, but LOG isn't the same thing. LOG for video needs far greater precision if you want it to work as designed. "Exposing to the right" is absolutely the wrong way of exposing LOG.

I have no experience with N-LOG, but I have a lot of experience with S-LOG (Sony), C-LOG (Canon) and V-LOG (Panasonic) and they all work basically the same. LOG (regardless of the camera) needs to be exposed at a certain threshold with a very narrow margin. Usually the manufacturer gives you a target number for white and another number for gray. Exposing for gray is impractical unless you want to carry an official gray card with you everywhere you go. But white is super easy, especially if you use Zebras or a Waveform. For example, with S-LOG bright reflected whites need to hit around 65% and that will make the exposure almost dead-on in all but the most tricky lighting situations.

Histograms, on the other hand, have no business on video camera and give you almost zero useful information about the correct exposure. Histograms are for stills, not video.

So, if you want better results you need to find out where Nikon says LOG should be exposed and then master the use of zebras or Waveform to hit that mark. The difference in post will be huge when you consistently hit the right exposure. Let me repeat: LOG is not RAW.

BTW, it makes no difference whether you are shooting HD, 4K, 8K, or whatever resolution. Nor does it matter what kind of recording media you are using.

One last thought, Premiere doesn't have the necessary tools to grade LOG correctly. If you want excellent results, you need to learn how to grade in Resolve. Once you make that jump, you will be amazed at the speed, flexibilty, and power it gives you. YOU will never regret it. Resolve is like Lightroom for video -- except even more powerful. And it is FREE.

Everything I shoot gets graded in Resolve first, and then I bring the graded clips into Premiere for editing. Of course, you could do both your grading and editing in Resolve if you wanted to, but you shouldn't do your grading in Premiere because it is not up to the task.

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Conrad Obregon

I've been shooting in N-Log on the Z8 with good success in color grading. However I notice that when I shoot with the histogram in the expose to the right position, my images are too light when it comes time to grade in Premiere Pro and require much more adjustment than when I center the histogram on the camera screen. (So far, at least when shooting outdoors in N-Log, no tail of my histogram extends off the scale.) For what it is worth I am recording to an internal card, and mainly in 8K. Are other people encountering the same phenomena or am I missing something?

Doug nailed the solution to your problems, especially about the point about of using ETTR for judging exposure in LOG. If you can follow his advice, I think you will find 99% of your problems will be "resolved", if you get my drift. 😀

Chris Young

[Andrew Smith]

DVinfo is where you come for the answers.

The comedy, however, is pure bonus! :-)

Andrew

[Conrad Obregon]

I thank you all for your recent responses to my question, even though they did not address my question directly or show knowledge of the workings of the Nikon Z8.

My independent research showed me that rather than use a histogram one can select a wave form monitor to show on the built in screen to set exposure (setting g18), as well as the usual zebra pattern.

[Doug Jensen]

Yes, I already mentioned using Zebras or Waveform in my earlier post. Obviously your camera has them because every modern professional camera has them. And there's nothing special about the Z8. LOG is LOG. The real question is, do you know HOW to use those tools to help you set the correct expousre? And do you know how to correctly process the images in post?