Shoot tomorrow - some questions

[Fader8]

Hi there,

I have an important shoot tomorrow. I'm a little behin in planning, as I had a lot of
other things to do. I just would like to have your opinion:

- there will be some insert/pick up shots of the shoot last week (I wasn't DP there); due
to storage reasons, I would use 4K --> 2K ProRes. I haven't tested this option so far
(dumb, I know) Is it as good as the other ProRes, modes on the Odyssey? Are there
any down sides? Or should I do those in 2K RAW if it has to be matched to the Alexa?

- for some important estblishing shots (natur) I will shoot 4K RAW so that it can
be graded easily and matched to the alexa (which was the A-Cam)
df
- as you can see in others threas, exposure concerned me. I think I will overexpose
1 or 2 stop using the -1/-2 LUT from CD. How exactly do I have to set the zebras for that
for IRE 84, at 90% (sorry if thats a dumb question)?

Thanks a lot for your help. It is appreciated.

Cheers

 

[paulcurtis]

Hi there,

I have an important shoot tomorrow. I'm a little behin in planning, as I had a lot of
other things to do. I just would like to have your opinion:

- there will be some insert/pick up shots of the shoot last week (I wasn't DP there); due
to storage reasons, I would use 4K --> 2K ProRes. I haven't tested this option so far
(dumb, I know) Is it as good as the other ProRes, modes on the Odyssey? Are there
any down sides? Or should I do those in 2K RAW if it has to be matched to the Alexa?

- for some important estblishing shots (natur) I will shoot 4K RAW so that it can
be graded easily and matched to the alexa (which was the A-Cam)
df
- as you can see in others threas, exposure concerned me. I think I will overexpose
1 or 2 stop using the -1/-2 LUT from CD. How exactly do I have to set the zebras for that
for IRE 84, at 90% (sorry if thats a dumb question)?

Thanks a lot for your help. It is appreciated.

Cheers

IMHO, the 4K->2K is as good as the other modes, no problems there. Although depending on your post route why not shoot 4K ProRes and downsample as needed? I tend to shoot 4K always, this allows some flexibility in reframing or stabalisation afterwards. If you downsample properly in post you can usually get a slightly better result. If you're just handing files off the 2K is great.

It's easier grading if everything is either RAW or ProRes, mixing similar shots can be more difficult. I tend to always shoot RAW unless i'm storage constrained on location. Storage is cheap, being in the right place at the right time and setting up a shoot usually isn't. If you use something like SlimRAW to compressed the DNGs afterwards you're not far off ProRes data rates anyway in some cases. RAW has the advantage of slightly more dynamic range (because of highlight recovery) and knowing that you have everything you possibly can to work with. Grading can be easier because RAW does not have white balance baked in, i find the image 'fatter' in that sense.

Exposing RAW, depending on the situation, is usually advised one or two stops over. But then if you're outside you have to ask yourself what is the most important thing, can the sky clip? If not then i tend to expose to avoid that and fill in people if possible, or i just accept that i need to get the maximum range recorded and i'll deal with scene by scene exposure in post. YMMV but i try to hit skin at 50% IRE but i change depending on the location all the time. One thing i hate is super clipped highlights.

cheers
Paul