Short film

F

frankoi

Active member
Hello,
I will be shooting a short movie in August, I will use A7SII, because is what I own and pairs with my Ronin M, so it will give me some freedom of movement. I will shoot 4K in Shogun, the edit will be HD, but to reframe and better HD we will go from 4K.
What I´m in doubt is to go for slog2 or slog3. We will shoot mostly night interiors and some day interiors, but mostly night exteriors in a Harbor. I looking for a dark and contrasty look, so all the detail preserved in the dark and middles of slog3 will be lost, and slog2 take care of lights better than slog3. And with slog2 you can overexpose middle grey 2 stops avoiding noise with less danger of white clipping than slog3.
So, what do you think guys? slog2 or 3?
Any advice on one slog3 to 709 LUT that works good on my Shogun? Thinking about make myself one for my Shogun with 1.5 stops more, but I don´t have experience with LutCalc, is that easy?
I used Casey Wilson ( thanks Casey ) slogto709 but I don´t have anything for slog3

Thanks!
 
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I probably will take the slog2 (maybe with sgamut-3.cine), with 1,5 or 2 stops over, I will crush blacks at taste in resolve later. Anyway, I will try to build something with lutcalc or resolve to shoot from there. Time to test
 
I'd also go for slog2, with sgamut3.cine. But if you have the camera, you can test yourself.

Do you get better DR with slog3? Prepare a still scene, set everything up, then shoot with slog2 and slog3, changing ND and iris to over- and under-expose your scene by a big amount (I usually do it from -4 to +4, in one-stop incremente). If the highlights or shadows are not dying earlier with slog2 than with slog3, you probably want to stick to slog2, because it will create less banding. Other people have already ran similar tests and found that there's no extra headroom in the highlights with slog3, but in the shadows it's a pretty subjective thing, so, checking for yourself would be a good idea.
 
Thanks Samuel H. Is clear that slog3 gives me more detail on dark part of signal. But I think that slog2 protect better highlights. In theory the shot I´going to do is almost night scenes and dark interiors, the exterior will have strong practical lights and I´m going for a contrasty and dark final image, so all the detail in shadows will be mostly crushed down o clipped but in the strong highlights I want as sweet roll off as posible. That´s why I thing slog2 would fit better and banding with Shogun will be not problem.
But, as you said, I will try to test as soon as posible and see what happen.
Any experience creating LUT with Lutcalc for slog3?
 
If one is giving you more headroom in the highlights and the other one in the shadows, I would run the test and see, with numbers, if what I'm getting on one side is bigger than what I lose on the other. Total usable range is what matters to me. Whether it's on one side or the other, you can easily change with how you set your exposure (this works perfectly with both log and RAW, but it can be a bad idea with non-log video gammas).

Dynamic range is one of the two theoretical advantages of slog3, and you're not using the other one (it's easier to cut together with other cameras using slog3). If DR is not there, the disadvantage remains (banding) and then you want to go for slog2.
 
frankoi said:
Thanks Samuel H. Is clear that slog3 gives me more detail on dark part of signal. But I think that slog2 protect better highlights. In theory the shot I´going to do is almost night scenes and dark interiors, the exterior will have strong practical lights and I´m going for a contrasty and dark final image, so all the detail in shadows will be mostly crushed down o clipped but in the strong highlights I want as sweet roll off as posible. That´s why I thing slog2 would fit better and banding with Shogun will be not problem.
But, as you said, I will try to test as soon as posible and see what happen.
Any experience creating LUT with Lutcalc for slog3?
Click to expand...

In my experience Slog2 and Slog3 give identical results in the shadows once graded correctly. Slog3 shows elevated shadows so the impression is that there is more detail but there isn't really. That camera cannot fill the full range that Slog3 can deliver so you are not making the best of the recorded files by using Slog3 in any circumstance. Slog2 is plenty to record everything that camera can give you.

If you're shooting nights don't be afraid to up the ISO. I've shot 25k ISO which captures more light at the sensor. After denoising at UHD and adjusting exposure back down you can get some excellent shadow results. In other words if your scene allows it shoot 1 or 2 stops over exposed.

Denoise from the shogun files and you're good to go.

cheers
Paul
 
Totally agree with @paulcurtis, slog2 gives a darker impression at first than slog3, but the info is just there. Just grade it properly and will be there.
Yes!! I even shot at 80k overexposing the image at night and once going back to normal at grade didn´t get any noise, and was HD, not necessary denoising. I can imaging that going to HD from 4k will have even less noise.
But the idea is using the more DR advantage, that is suppose to be in slog at 1600 ISO and then light at taste. Using a Lut with 1 or two stop over to get a cleaner image.
The Casey Wilson 709ish gives that room, but I will have to create one for slog3. Or +1 or +2 from Alister Chapman could do the trick too. But the contrasty look I´m looking for fits more in 709ish
Thanks again Paul and Samuel
 
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