FS7: Harsh glow on street lights in footage

Abaddon

Abaddon

Well-known member
I just did a shoot the other day with the following settings:

S-log3
XAVC-I
Matrix-Cinema
29.97
ISO 2000
Shutter 60
3840 X 2160

As you'll see in the video (ungraded) street lights, car tail lights, etc, look totally blown out and oversaturated. Is there something that can be done in-camera to fix that?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xswlpok5y1prk3r/Light Test.mp4?dl=0
 
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Dropbox an extract of a few seconds unaltered out of camera footage so we can take a look at it, a jpeg won't do.
Also what gamut did you use?
 
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Clermond said:
the bus has his brake lights on. The are bright. I don't see anything unusual.
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In the video I posted, the lights are really bright and don't look natural at all. Looks like the bright colors aren't processing well.
 
Seen similar funky stuff on concert shoots plenty of times... :\ Especially the magenta/purple lights go bonkers.
 
Abaddon said:
Yeah. It was pretty late in the day. I think the ISO was actually at 4000 for this shot.
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Always try to expose right and I personally would ignore the "advice" from people who tell you to over/under expose and tinker with all kind of settings.
 
If you did that shot at 4000 ISO in Cine EI.. which will always record at 2000.. are you not "under exposing" by 1 stop.. in camera anyway.. Fs7 is 10bit isnt it in this mode..?
 
Donny 123 said:
If you did that shot at 4000 ISO in Cine EI.. which will always record at 2000.. are you not "under exposing" by 1 stop.. in camera anyway.. Fs7 is 10bit isnt it in this mode..?
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Donny, he never said he's shooting CINE EI. He said he's shooting with the Matix set to Cinema, which I believe means he is shooting in the camera's Custom Mode. So, yes, he's using S-LOG3 but he's just using it as his gamma setting in Custom rather correctly using the camera's CINE EI mode if he wants to shoot LOG. It's not surprising he is getting poor results. If he wants to use S-LOG3 he should put the camera into CINE EI mode and expose correctly. If you ask me, the sample footage looks underexposed by quite a bit. Alternatively he could get some nice results in Custom too, but not with the combination of settings he's using.
 
Cary Knoop said:
Always try to expose right and I personally would ignore the "advice" from people who tell you to over/under expose and tinker with all kind of settings.
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I would suggest he follow the advice of folks who actually own and use the cameras on this forum. And most of those people will tell you that Sony's exposure advice results in images that are 1-2 stops too low.
 
Doug Jensen said:
Donny, he never said he's shooting CINE EI. He said he's shooting with the Matix set to Cinema, which I believe means he is shooting in the camera's Custom Mode. So, yes, he's using S-LOG3 but he's just using it as his gamma setting in Custom rather correctly using the camera's CINE EI mode if he wants to shoot LOG. It's not surprising he is getting poor results. If he wants to use S-LOG3 he should put the camera into CINE EI mode and expose correctly. If you ask me, the sample footage looks underexposed by quite a bit. Alternatively he could get some nice results in Custom too, but not with the combination of settings he's using.
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Ah yes.. correct.. didnt notice the Matrix setting..if I read slog I just assume Cine EI..
 
Damn right I'm serious. Did YOU look at the sample footage? If that was shot with the camera's Custom mode is is drastically under-exposed. It's probably under-exposed if it's CINE EI too, but not by as much. I don't have time to download and look at it with scopes. But either way, it is underexposed.
 
Okay, I watched it on a proper monitor and I'll admit it's not as underexposed as it first appeared. But it is still underexposed.
It is fubar because it's underexposed. Can't you see that?
 
But getting back to the OP's original question, the tail lights are a mess because he's shooting with a bad mix of paint settings in Custom instead of using CINE EI.
 
Cary Knoop said:
No, it is fubar because the lightest colors are clipped hard due to over exposure.
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Nope. The shot is not overexposed even though the bright headlights exceed the dynamic range capabilties of the camera. YOU DON'T EXPOSE FOR THE HEADLIGHTS AND TAILIGHTS!! The problem is underexposure combined with limited performance from the Custom mode of the camera. Even with a camera like the FS7, you're gonna exceed the DR on extreme highlights. Which is okay if you are shooting with CINE EI and the highlights can be handled properly, but he's shooting with Custom and making a mess of the camera. The number one issue is using the wrong settings. The secondary problem is exposure. Combine the two, and you get fubar.
 
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