FS7: Sony FS7 Slog2

Sorry for bumping an "old" thread, but I would like to ask a question regarding exposure with zebras. When you say to expose for any bright white or yellow at 60%, do you simply mean that if I'm outside and want to use zebras, I adjust the iris/ND until the sky or anything else gets zebras, and that will lead to an correct exposure? Can I use this method with something that reflects or is shiny? Say for example that I'm on a shoot with a car indoors, and the lights that reflects of it has some zebra patterns on them, then that means that I have the correct exposure since the rest "will fall in place"?

How would you use zebras if you're on a set where nothing has zebras since it's a moody or low light situation, or is that when you use the WFM? I heard a member on this forum say regarding the WFM to simply aim to get as much data above the middle line of the WFM and you'll be fine, but is it really that easy as "keeping it above the line"?
 
Set Zebras for white at 61% IRE. Remember this value is for 90% reflectance. You have around four stops of headroom above that point, so really you're looking for 'off' white as your reference in a scene. Many people expose their zebras for the brightest highlights, this is wrong and will lead to underexposure.

If you want to rate the camera at 1000ISO set zebras at 67%, though be aware you will lose a stop of highlights.

In regards to the WFM, the two most important things to look for are clipping highlights and crushing shadows. You don't want to do either so learn to 'read' the WFM. A quick glance will tell you all you need to know about exposure. A correctly exposed shot will look different on the WFM depending on what you are shooting, but broadly speaking you want to fill as much of the middle portion - there's a reason Sony put those guides there.

For low key shots in Cine EI mode, overexpose and bring the image back down in post.
 
Doug's zebra dependent method of exposure served me well when shooting "Providence" (in theaters Feb 12). The only time it "failed" me is when I tried to second guess it because the scene looked overexposed to my eye and I stopped down a bit more. I then ended up with slightly underexposed footage. I can't remember ever having an overexposed clip, and the slightly underexposed clips had no problematic noise. I shot in Cine EI, SLOG 3.
 
mainstreetprod said:
Doug's zebra dependent method of exposure served me well when shooting "Providence" (in theaters Feb 12). The only time it "failed" me is when I tried to second guess it because the scene looked overexposed to my eye and I stopped down a bit more. I then ended up with slightly underexposed footage. I can't remember ever having an overexposed clip, and the slightly underexposed clips had no problematic noise. I shot in Cine EI, SLOG 3.
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And that is why I argued for ten pages with Alister Chapman on the Sony forum: your eye will lie... ...or, at least, your LCD will.
 
I actually have a different way of setting exposure on my FS7 than what others are doing.

First I always shoot in Cine EI Slog3 and at the native ISO2000. I also always use the LC709A LUT on the EVF and I have highlight/lowlight warning turned on. Judging exposure is mostly by eye and thanks to the LUT I see exactly what I'm getting in post. No surprises here. Secondly I like to push the exposure until the highlight warning pops up and then back down just a bit. I did the same on my F3 but also used the spot meter to check my exposure.

The LUT helps me getting nice skin tones and exposure and the highlight warning or for that matter the low light warning tells me I'm within bounds.

Thirdly I sometimes use zebras set to 90% and have that as where the highlights should reach but often not to above unless blown windows, bulbs and the likes.

I find this way to work great for me and I know there's much room to both go up and down on exposure in post. In HFR mode when I don't have a LUT on the EVF I go more towards the highlight warning and push the footage even further to get a nice and clean image with less noise.

On a side note I have an Ikan D7W monitor tuned to mimic the LUT I have in my FS7 so that I can judge exposure better in HFR mode. A monitor with built-in LUT support would be better but as the Ikan works fine I'll stick with that.
 
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Liam Hall said:
And that is why I argued for ten pages with Alister Chapman on the Sony forum: your eye will lie... ...or, at least, your LCD will.
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I've found the LCD to be fairly accurate when I'm burning in a LUT ( which I do on daily jobs ) AS LONG AS I keep the brightness of the LCD at minimum.
 
Ok so after some testing I found the histogram function to work great in combination with zebras at 61. I simply aim to get a nice tall mountatin in the middle or even a bit to the right depending on the situation. That should give me a good base to apply a LUT on in the edit.

What percentage should I dial the zebras to in order for them to tell when something clips when viewing the bar Slog image? So in that way the histogram tells me when its all good and the zebras warn me what will be clipped. That should work?
 
I don't know if you have a manual iris but it is easy to see clipping as the histo goes flat at the right or Wfm flat at the top. I just stop down until that stops
 
Grug said:
You're all braver than me. I'm lost without my meter.
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My light meter has been the best thing I've bought in years, taking a reading right in front of the client's face, nodding and walking confidently back to the camera and setting exposure with zebras and/or waveform really puts the client at ease knowing they're in the presence of a cinematographer and not you commoner garden camera operator. I should put my rates up.
 
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