The number one resource for information about HDR technology, workflows, tutorials, news and opinion.
Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part I Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part II Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part III Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part IV Acknowledging that HDR monitoring for every display on-set for the entire length of a production is prohibitively expensive for most productions, Netflix proposes three alternatives: CAMERA TESTS (E.G. HAIR... Continue Reading →
How well does the new Voigtlander Apo 35mm f/2 aspherical stack up to the Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM? In the most critical areas, like architectural and landscape photography, the two lenses might be difficult to tell apart (although we still think the Sony will prevail); however, with its fast f/1.4 aperture and the quickest, most... Continue Reading →
ASC associate member and American Cinematographer contributing editor Jay Holben discusses HDR from the set to post with Polly Morgan, Markus Förderer, Marshall Adams, Erik Messerschmidt, Jay Holben and Dave Cole, followed by a question and answer session in a new series of in-depth interviews entitled Insights: an incredible wealth of knowledge spread across three absorbing hours. In... Continue Reading →
Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part I Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part II Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part III Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part IV I sort of equate shooting in SDR and finishing in HDR [to] shooting on film but exposing it on the video tap. You know you're only looking... Continue Reading →
As the number of online HDR tutorials grows, it becomes necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff. The best way to go about that is pretty straightforward - just have a look at the content creators' own footage: is it noisy? blurry? are highlights clipped? how about tonal gradations, or lack thereof? compression artifacts?... Continue Reading →
Part I: The iPhone 12 Pro Max as a Consumer Reference Monitor Part II: iPhone 12 Pro as a Consumer Reference Display (cont’d) Part III: iOS Devices as Client Reference Monitors Part IV: Consumer Displays: When Your Client is David Fincher We've already talked about how important smartphones can be when evaluating content made for YouTube. Post-production houses... Continue Reading →
Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part I Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part II Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part III Why HDR Production Monitors Matter, Part IV “Unnecessary.” “Not possible.” “Fantasy.” Those are the words of a director of photography, slumming in L.A. since wrapping up shooting of a satirical period piece for Hulu,... Continue Reading →
Looking forward to sparking this puppy up once lockdown is lifted. 🙂
For our friends who are still shooting with the a7 III, here are some exposure tips. First, it is highly inadvisable to shoot either S-Log 2 or S-Log3, with the a7 III. It will result in ugly banding which cannot be removed in post. Those who think banding only occurs in skies are sorely mistaken -... Continue Reading →
Colors are more intense as well as more accurate on the iPhone 12 Pro Max than on the LG OLED 55CX and there's also greater separation between the model and background, possibly because the mobile device is tracking the PQ curve more precisely. If the nails look like they're ablaze on your mobile device, it's... Continue Reading →
We got this arrangement from Bill Holshevnikoff, author of the Arri Lighting Handbook. Since we don't have Arri lights, we placed a Nanlite Forza 300 fitted with an FL-20G fresnel lens perpendicular to the camera and directed it toward a reflector, which then becomes our key light, creating a soft light with gentle wraparound and... Continue Reading →
1. On the HDR PQ curve, 100 nits is a. 10% of 10,000 nits peak level b. 25% of 10,000 nits peak level c. 50% of 10,000 nits peak level 2. The maximum pure blue in SDR is 10 nits. Maximum pure blue in HDR is a. 25 nits b. 50 nits c. 110 nits... Continue Reading →
Vincent Theo of HDTVTest fame recently compared LG's G1 OLED to Sony's A90J, which in an earlier review he announced produced the most impactful HDR he'd ever seen from an OLED TV. Which is best for content creators who can't afford a USD $30,000 reference monitor? Sony's WRGB quad sub-pixel boosting A common complaint of... Continue Reading →
Sherif Mokbel compares Lumix S1H Blackmagic RAW to Apple’s ProRes RAW, with results that may surprise you! Incidentally, Atomos just released a firmware update for the Ninja V enabling white balance and ISO/exposure offset adjustments in Final Cut Pro for the a7s III. The Ninja V currently brings ProRes RAW to over thirty different cameras.... Continue Reading →
In our long list of pet peeves related to HDR YouTube videos, obscenely bright specular highlights in the subject's teeth must rank among the most distracting. And as luck would have it, last night's shoot provides us with a perfect illustration. Peak highlights are brushing up against 400 nits, already several stops ETTR, but still... Continue Reading →
While there are exceptionally few examples of actual living, breathing human beings in HDR YouTube videos, of the negligible number that do exist, too many suffer from one or more of the following: bizarre colors, excessive noise, outrageously intense specular highlights in teeth, eyes or jewelry and an obnoxious lack of tonality, hues, texture and... Continue Reading →
We had to re-upload this video because the soundtrack is being released on a label and the owner revoked the creative commons license. Not sure how kosher that is. https://youtu.be/etGpDFxM9FA
Since we picked up a set of Nanlite Forza LED monolights and started grading ProRes 4444 in DaVinci Resolve Studio 17, it's like we're dealing with a completely new camera altogether! Skin tones are the most accurate we've seen from any mirrorless camera and the image quality rivals that of cinema cameras costing thousands more.... Continue Reading →
Our stab at doing a focus breathing test failed miserably, but gives us a pretext to share some screen grabs demonstrating how to expose ProRes RAW HQ. Avoid bright orange and red of the false color guide of the Ninja V. The touch of red at the top of the clothes rack will be a... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 