C200: Tips on shooting with the c200?

J

jrm27

Active member
Hello all,

I'm gonna get real noob here and ask some very basic questions. I appreciate any guidance or resources you can direct me to.

I've shot for years on DSLR... lots of projects logged on 5D and 6D cameras. My workplace recently upgraded to a couple c200's and I took them out shooting and had a blast. However, (obviously), shooting on these is far different than the DSLR, and even the grading is very different. So, can you help me with some best practices?

I shot everything in 4k internal (so not raw), in CLOG 3 and the production camera color space. I'm used to shooting with a histogram, and so had to start thinking a little differently with the scopes on the c200. Is there a place one would want their exposures to "live" on the scopes? I didn't peak any of the image and was working the ND's to keep everything in the 50-80 range on the scopes (which feels like I wildly overexposed I guess). But I was filming some very very dark subjects in some very very bright places... so perhaps it'll all work out in the grade. Also, any tips on grading? I've generally done a lot of of my grade with Colorista and Lumetri, but perhaps there's a better way to harness this image and the CLOG info better. I'm just using the built in LUT (HDR 400% or something like that) to give me an easier image to view on the screen, but employ no other LUTS in the process. Those are semi-new to me too.

Love shooting with this camera. Looking forward to trying out the RAW codec and getting better with it. Any tips or best-practices would be greatly appreciated.

-jon
 
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Just discovered those and realized how much I was just shooting in the dark! I can only glean so much from a user manual ;). Thanks for that! Gonna spend my day off this week consuming these.
 
Congrats on the new cameras, Jon!

For exposure in Clog 3, you probably want caucasian faces around the 50% to 60% lines on the waveform scope. Also, don't fall into the trap of only paying attention to your highlights. A lot of people when they start shooting LOG see a lot of other people on the internet talking non-stop about "protect your highlight...protect your highlight." And the result is they avoid clipping brights spots that should clip, and underexpose the actual important parts of the shot (like faces).

Activate the view assist LUTs, so you can see a sample graded image on the LCD while you shoot. Keep one eye on the waveform and just make the LCD's image look "right" to you. If it doesn't look right while shooting, it will be a lot harder to create a pleasing image later.

And definitely try some non-LOG profiles. Wide DR and Rec 709 look great right out of the box!
 
Thank you for the helpful input! That is about the rule I was going by... just make it look good on the monitor ;) I was trying to actually error on the side of preserving the shadow data. I was shooting in South Sudan with a ton of contrast between subject and background. I'm just used to "protect your hilights" from shooting DSLR. When I shoot images in South Sudan I generally end up underexposing a bit and pushing the RAW in post... but since I don't have as much flexibility in the MP4, I figured it'd be safer to overexpose for the subject at the expense of the background... so the opposite. I always find it easier to crush the shadow data a bit if I need to, rather than try to coax it out of the exposure. Not sure if that makes sense. If I had the card space and the funds, shooting RAW for a couple weeks would've been awesome ;)

Moving forward I'll definitely give a look at some some of those other profiles. Wide DR and Rec 709 could be great for a lot of the run and gun type of stuff I end up doing. I don't have a lot of time to setup for the documentary type stuff I get pulled into, so something that works great out of the box sounds awesome.

Thanks again for the help. Excited to keep learning this camera as I'm really enjoying shooting with it.

-jon
 
I second Drummonds comment about letting clipping occur if it SHOULD. Always look at your waveform and read it in the context of your scene. There is no point underexposing 98% of your scene just so that you can prevent clipping on the other 2%.

Things like lamps, bright reflections, etc should be allowed to blow out (or better yet, fixed/moved/adjusted on location so that they don't blow out) in order to get a good exposure on the rest of your image.
 
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