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(Page 6 of 6 pages for this article « First < 4 5 6) Filed under: Cameras •Post Production •Production •Tips •Training • RED’s Blue Noise: Where It Went, and Other Color Anomalies You Should Know AboutWhat you didn’t know you didn’t know about color and the RED ONE
I don’t know for sure that RED is manipulating the blue channel to eliminate blue noise in Build 20. I have no proof. All I’ve shown in this article is that I can make the color channels of a RED shot under daylight match those of a RED shot under tungsten light by mixing color channels together, and I’ve theorized that this may be how they are eliminating blue noise under tungsten conditions. The important thing is that somehow they did eliminate blue noise under tungsten light. That makes Build 20 a BIG DEAL(tm). What’s not open for debate is that these tests show that the RED still has some serious color issues under tungsten light. Let me be clear that I’m not slamming RED. I like RED. I use it a lot. It’s a fun camera. It has its problems, but so does every camera. The difference with RED is that its marketing has convinced thousands of people that this is the best camera ever made. It is not. It is the best 35mm-sized single-sensor camera you can get for $17,500. There are cameras that undeniably create prettier pictures than the RED, but they cost 10 times as much. That’s the RED’s strength. My goal is to learn as much about how cameras work as I can, as that makes me a better cinematographer. I can play to each camera’s strengths and avoid their weaknesses, which results in prettier pictures and repeat clients. As RED is not as forthcoming about their product’s glitches as they are about its benefits, I’m filling in the gaps. And I have to say that I am a better DP for it, because I’ve learned more about how cameras work by watching RED solve problems with each successive software build. I’m a big fan of Build 20. I’m still nervous about shooting the RED under pure tungsten light. If you wonder why, just look at any of the waveforms in the previous pages. The daylight waveform traces are narrow and strong, while the tungsten waveform traces are fuzzy and indistinct. That’s noise, and it makes me nervous. I’ll have to go through my tests and see if I can determine at what EI the RED’s noise under tungsten light matches the RED’s lack of noise under daylight, but that’s another article. To sum up, I’m going to repeat what I’ve said several times before:
That’s an important distinction. Most projects don’t call for accurate, and pretty goes a long way on its own. What these tests tell me is that if I want brighter, more saturated and accurate colors out of the RED, I need to use 5600k-balanced light. If I shoot it under tungsten light I should expect less accurate and less saturated colors because there’s some green mixed into the blue channel and some red mixed into the green channel. This may be why colorists consistently say they take more time to grade RED footage than footage from any other high-end camera: under tungsten light it’s hard to get a pure color because all the colors are, to some extent, mixed together. None of this is proving to be a significant problem for anyone who uses the RED on a daily basis. Unless you’re comparing it directly to another camera’s footage you’re probably not going to notice the difference. But there may be times when these color anomalies will cause problems. The more I know about how the camera responds to light and color, the easier I can dig myself out of a situation when these anomalies work against me. This article started out as an exploration into how RED solved their blue-noise-under-tungsten-light problem. It turned into something much bigger. I hope it’s been educational. I don’t mean to make anyone’s brain hurt, so if this article is too complex then please let me know so that I can work on making future articles more accessible. Art Adams is a director of photography who respects all colors equally. His web site is at www.artadams.net.
(Page 6 of 6 pages for this article « First < 4 5 6) 
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