Underexposed shots

D

DDirector

Veteran
We started shooting our short film, but looking at some of the shots we've done so far, they look.....underexposed by a stop.
I properly calibrated my light meter and have been using that to judge exposure for the RED One - Non MX.

Looking at the footage in RedCine-X, they are underexposed by a stop. I boosted the expoosure by 1 and it was better.
But, when shooting it looked properly exposed through the camera.
But bringing it back makes it look very contrasty and underexposed.

I changed the Red colour/gamma from the default but then it looks bad.

I even checked exposure before shots on my camera with the exact same setup and it looked perfectly fine. But through the Red One, its horrible.
What is going on??
 
how did you calibrate your light meter? you need to know the sensitivity if the camera before you can calibrate the light meter.

it's extremely low on the red one camera iso240 or a bit less. a lot of people think it's iso320, as advertised by red but it isn't.
 
Light meter should be calibrated to the gamma (or LUT) you are using for the project. Don't calibrate it to the camera display, don't calibrate to the supposed base ISO rating of the camera, don't calibrate to your "other" camera. Gamma curves do move exposure around and middle grey ends at all sorts of values. Easiest way is to shoot a grey card with different slightly varying exposures, import all of them in your NLE/grading software, apply your transfer curve/base grading curve over the raw video, see which one is what you actually target to achieve in terms of middle tone, then dial a correction value in your meter to match this.
 
that's a dslr method or a camera that can actually change exposure through compensation or gain through iso, the red does not. you can still test it, but you can't shift midpoint(it's not an alexa), or add gain(like a dslr or c300 or other cameras). but at most your 1/3-1/4 stop from target the OP is a stop or more off, it's not a fine tuning problem.
 
Not really. What curve or LUT you are going to use in the end has nothing to do with the camera. You can apply it at any point in the workflow, and you should still have your external metering match it.
 
Did you calibrate your meter to the camera by doing your own test with a grey card?

Did you go through the VIDEO & COLOR menus and review & reset all camera settings to default? What was the camera ISO, shutter and frame rate set to?

Who ever used the camera last might have just had the camera profile settings cranked up for a hundred different reasons - but this does not affect how the REDCODE RAW footage is recorded so you should always go by camera tools or your light meter and not the VF or monitor.
 
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Ugh. I noticed my post didn't go through.

Someone had profiles for the camera online. I just put it on my meter.
I shot it at ISO 320 and that's what I had my meter set to.
But even if its at 200, it was set to 320, so what difference would that be?
 
Wouldn't it have been better to do a pre-shoot test first (if you could get hold of the camera) & then you could have done some testing with the footage,

Maybe the Red forum would be a more useful resource for help?
 
DDirector said:
Someone had profiles for the camera online. I just put it on my meter.
I shot it at ISO 320 and that's what I had my meter set to.
But even if its at 200, it was set to 320, so what difference would that be?
Click to expand...

Never use someone elses settings online. You have no idea if its right, or will match your specific camera.

Do a quick test yourself with a grey card, an even light source, and the camera itself with lenses you will be using. It takes 5 minutes to put your gray card in front of your camera and adjust your iris until you get 50% IRE on your camera's metering system. Then take a meter reading exactly where the grey card is and compare your results. If your meter reads something else, then change your meter's ISO until the F-stop matches the lens. (watch this video to see Andy from Abelcine do it). The new ISO value is the effective ISO of your camera system setup and one you should be using. Also make sure your meter is in cine mode and set to match the frame rate and shutter angle of the camera.

In your case it sounds likely that someone before you adjusted the profile settings in the RED camera to increase the brightness of the monitoring output. Adjusting these monitoring output settings do not affect the way the RAW image is recorded what-so-ever. Someone might have cranked the brightness of the output for example if they were shooting under really bright conditions, or they purposely wanted to underexpose their footage slighty by using the monitor out as an exposure guide.
 
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I only see RED EPIC/Scarlet profile there, not the RED ONE non-mx. Those cameras have quite different sensitivities.

But regardless of that you already said that it looked one way in the monitor and recorded different so its pretty obvious the issue was the monitoring settings on either the RED camera (RED let's you create a kind of LUT for on-set previewing of the image so you can get an idea of the "look"), or the settings on whatever you were using to monitor with ie. brightness, contrast, etc..

I hate to beat the dead horse, but I would have done my own tests to be 100% sure.
 
The Red One we have does not have a Red Monitor.
We have a different non Red external monitor. All we have is the Red EVF.
I have no idea how I would be able to show the waveform on that.

Also, if I can do a test before the next shoot and if the exposure is under by about 1/2 to 1-stop, what do I do about it then?
Camera says 5.6 is middle grey @320 ISO, but Im getting 4.3 @320 ISO. What would that mean? - As in how would I adjust that on my meter?
 
...and how are they connected and are they terminated correctly?

If they are not terminated correctly...you can get a very false idea of what you are actually "capturing.

BTW - this is not suggesting that you should be exposing off the monitor (but it is a trap and it can bite hard)
 
I dont really understand.

Dont judge from the monitor
Certainly dont beleive a WFM (which is showing a 709 of a raw file)
Dont use a lightmeter (without precalibrating)

Just look at the HISTOGRAM in raw mode with no LUT - that is what you are recording. So simple.

(ive only played with epic not R1 - but it seems utterly simple to get right - HISTOGRAM)

S
 
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