Why “Exposing to the Right” Works on the RED

Art Adams | 09/27- 09:14 AM

There’s been a lot of talk about “exposing to the right” in the RED community: instead of relying solely on your meter, the idea is to watch the RED’s histograms and use whatever room is available on the right side. If your meter says to shoot at 2.8, and there’s nothing hitting the right side of the histogram, open up the stop and move all the values over until something clips or you run out of stop.

I did this on my last two RED shoots and it worked great. Using REDSpace as my color and gamma preset allowed me to see more-or-less exactly how the image would be seen once processed using those settings in post, and by setting the zebras to come on at their maximum of 103 (I assume that’s 103 ire on a scale of 0-109) I could use them the same way I would on any other HD camera. Processing the footage through RedRushes using the REDSpace preset resulted in images that were very close to what I saw on location while still offering me all the grading latitude that I’d expect from RED raw footage.

This white paper on Adobe’s web site explains what “expose to the right” is and why it works. I highly recommend it.

Review: Panasonic AG-HPX170P 1/3”, 3CCD P2 Camcorder

Adam Wilt | 09/21- 06:39 PM

The Japanese word “kaizen”, usually translated as “continuous improvement”, applies to Panasonic just as much as Toyota. Just as the HVX200 built on the success of the standard-definition DVX100, adding multiformat recording and multiple frame rates, the HPX170 takes the best features of the HVX200 and builds on them. The 170 makes a better picture. Added functionality, like HD-SDI, more frame rates, and Dynamic Range Stretch, makes it more versatile. Its lighter weight, refined ergonomics, and built-in waveform monitor make it an operator’s delight.

RED Workflow Redux

Art Adams | 09/13- 09:53 PM

I haven’t yet found a manual for working with RED footage. The methods that I’ve discovered have been cobbled together by searching through thousands of posts on Reduser.net (which has a very low signal-to-noise ratio), hundreds of posts on the Cinematography Mailing List, and just making stuff up.

New Red Camera Adobe Support

dhelmly aka DavTechTable | 09/10- 04:16 PM

For a few weeks now I have been checking out the new Red Camera Adobe Importer plug-in for Premiere Pro, AfterEffects, and Encore. For their first Adobe CS3 plug-in, they’ve done some excellent work. Their importer plug-in makes using the native R3D file type as easy as any of the other tapeless formats we currently support with CS3. As with our P2 and XDCAM support, importing is as easy as drag and drop or you can still use the standard File>Import dialog. The Plug-in gets installed in the Adobe Common MediaCore folder and is shared by all Adobe video applications. Yes, there are plug-ins for both Intel Mac and Windows. Windows users might consider using Vista64 so they can address more than 3.6 GB of RAM for the larger frame sizes(yes - currently CS3 can only address upto 4GB of Ram on Windows ** stayed tuned ** we’ll have a better answer - more on that later) Vista users, just remember to turn off all of the friendly Vista helpful messages like “Cancel or Allow?” )

Free Book

Jay Rose | 08/22- 08:09 AM

I just learned that BeachTek is giving away copies of my recent Producing Great Sound for Film and Video (3rd Edition, Focal Press, March 2008), if you buy any of their products from their online store.

What Wired Didn’t Understand about Depth of Field

Art Adams | 08/16- 04:33 PM

In the Sept. ‘08 issue of Wired Magazine, in an article about the RED camera called “A Star is Born,” the author states that the difference in depth of field between film cameras and HD cameras is due to “analog versus digital,” with no other explanation. I’ve written this for him and for anyone who wonders why 35mm film and large sensor HD cameras have so little depth of field.

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