Simulating celluloid-style clipping with Red (or any digital cinema) cameras

mentatDUKE

mentatDUKE

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Hello all. I was wondering what the best practices were for getting digital to behave like film when it comes to highlight rolloff and elegant clipping.

My best guess would be to not clip in camera, but instead shoot with a stop or two under clipping the highlights, and perhaps use a (well rounded before ramped) curve at the top end when grading.

Any thoughts with regard to this?

The below picture was shot on film. I'd like to be able to reproduce the aesthetic digitally. Notice the shadow gradient on the face. The clipped highlights on the legos on the right. The dynamic range in general (how much estimated dynamic range would you say this picture has captured?)

Can this shot be done on Red?



Thanks much
 

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The picture you posted has the inherent 'look' of film - the grain, for example. It doesn't 'look' like a RED. But, as long as you keep things within the histogram on a RED, you could certainly grade a picture to look like that.

If you want a camera that rolls the highlights off and behaves relatively similar to film - get an Alexa. It's still not quite the same as film, but it's the closest there is at the moment (at lest IMHO).

If you really want the look of film - why don't you just shoot on film? In general, digital looks like digital, and whilst it might be a desireable look for some (or at least no longer a necessarily undesirable look), if you want your shots to look like film, I'm not sure why you'd want to shoot on RED.
 
mentatDUKE said:
The below picture was shot on film. I'd like to be able to reproduce the aesthetic digitally.
Click to expand...

16 or 35? Judging solely by the low quality YouTube clip, it kinda looks like 16mm.

Was it finished on film? If you telecined it to digital and then processed it, you're going to lose some of that analog headroom anyway. Nothing in this photo looks outside the realm of current digital cameras, especially higher end. Even by C100 has somewhat similar highlight rolloff.
 
The grab in the 1st post is film (Nikon SLR). The short itself was DVX100. I really wish you didnt find it. I haven't watched it in years. Kinda made me cringe. lol

Can Red be graded to look like the grab above? Most of the Red shot films I've seen are pretty subduded as far as clipping goes, but what about when one wants to clip on purpose? At least with specular highlights, like the glint of a sword or something? It'd be great to find some reference on this...
 
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