Barry Goyette
Second Officer
Flight distance : 14928 ft
United States
Offline
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Hey Houston,
I'm guessing, (but you might want to clarify) that you are working with the H264/5 codecs and not ProRes? D-Cinelike is a typical Wide DR Rec 709 gamma, meaning it has a softer curve than traditional Rec709 and thus gives a flatter result with less compression in the highlight and shadow areas. D-Log is a Log gamma which is designed to give a "raw-like" post experience (by raw like, I mean in the sense that Raw allows for exposure changes in post). Log Gammas have very little compression in the highlights and shadows, essentially the curve is a long flat "midsection" with a minimal toe and shoulder. This allows for "exposure" adjustments in post processing, and lets you see more accurately where the highlights clip.
which is best? Well that really depends on your situation. They actually have similar DR, although D-cinelike will compress the highlights and shadows in a way that make it appear like it has less DR, Log will show you the full recorded range, but requires more correction to make the image look "normal" -- and most people end up correcting the Log image back to look something like the D-cinelike image (using a LUT, or color correction). That said, D-log gives you a little more flexibility for doing secondary corrections, and for adjusting exposure during grading.
But there is no free lunch with D-log, especially in the H264/65 version. As it's a highly compressed 8 bit codec (this may be why your research is suggesting that it's less useful in 4k, although I don't find that to be really true) -- at 8bit...a 12-13 stop log encoding is problematic...the compression and limited number of gradations tend to introduce banding as you try to push the image into shape. My experience with the two gamma's is that in 8 bit, I get a good result with d-cinelike, and that it grades well. If you're trying to hold bright skies, then you need to experiment with exposing a little darker in D-cinelike, at the expense of add'l noise in the shadow areas. With D-Log, it's easier to judge the highlights, but if you are doing strong, saturated grades, you will likely see some banding and other color areas.
With the X5s, shooting D-log is best done with ProRes, or Cinema DNG, but you'll need the licenses for that. In the future we should be seeing a ProRes Raw update for your camera. |
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