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I am wondering the best pipeline for exposure readings on set, when shooting in Log (or raw) and using false. I like to use false color, and specifically El Zone, to read my contrast ratios in the frame and set highlights. However, El zone turns the monitoring LUT off and reads levels off the Log image. This would seemingly throw off contrast ratios later in the grade, once converted to rec709 and contrast is added. Is this a problem? What am I missing here?
What is a good monitoring workflow when using false color and viewing Luts? Do you use a different false color tool that reads levels with the Lut applied?
I also completely see the benefits to using a meter as well, for those who prefer working that way. I am trying to adopt a workflow without a meter the moment. Thank you!
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Let’s say you are lighting a face for a ratio, say 4:1 or something. Does metering the contrast levels reference the LOG image, or the image after converted to rec709,etc.? For example if you do use a light meter to light these ratios exactly, will converting to 709 or P3 crush those levels even more?
Different manufacturers have different LOG curves but they all only serve the technical purpose of storing the best possible information into a compressed file. LOG is not ‘viewing ready’. It needs to be converted in an image that our eyes perceive as ‘normal’ (display), only then contrast ratios will represent what you have measured on set.
To do that you need to know what color space / gamma your monitor is in and use the appropriate conversion. Your external camera monitor might be Rec.709, your Macbook Air would need a Apple P3 (P3 D65 + sRGB gamma) conversion and so on.
A stop is a stop regardless of the color space you view it through, as long as you are always referring to a stop of light in the real world, and not measured through a display that has its own gamma curve.
The camera cannot possibly know what processing or contrast adjustments will be made after the fact, but if you meter a 4:1 contrast ratio in real life (using a meter), the EL system will show that exact contrast ratio.
The whole point of EL system is to free you from the various log encodings and different values that camera manufacturers use for false color
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