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GH2 - INDOOR - FILM MODE
  • 2many2many

    I have had my GH2 for a few days now and I've come to this conclusion concerning which film mode to use when lighting for indoor:

    Film modes like smooth, nostalgic and even standard seem to have a stop extra in the blacks, which you can see here: (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicDMCGH2/page12.asp)

    I think the sensor of the GH2 isn't capable of giving this dynamic range naturally; I think the image processor does some kind of a shadow pull inside the camera with banding and other ugly artifacts as result.

    So, when lighting a scene indoors (especially low-key scenes), I think it is best to use the dynamic film mode because it gives up a stop in the blacks. This means that it shouldn't (in theory) do the shadow pull like with the other film modes and thus it should give less banding and other shitty artifacts.

    So imo, it is smarter to accept the fact that the GH2 isn't a dynamic range beast and work with the dynamic film mode, giving up that extra stop. If you do this, then you can forget about worrying about noise, artifacts and banding in the -3 stops zone and concentrate fully on making sure you light the scene the best way you can while having the low dynamic range quality of the camera in mind. If you light it well, no one will notice the fact that you're only using 7 or 8 stops dynamic range in stead of 9 or 10, but it will make the footage look a lot better without the ugly artifacts. Your underexposed areas of the frame will be clean, just like the correctly exposed parts of the frame.

    I haven't been able to test this theory but when I get a hold of some good lights to test with, I'll do some serious testing.

    REMEMBER:

    Back in the day when film was still young they also had dynamic ranges of 6,7 or 8 stops, but the photographers of that time knew their 'limitations' and where thus able to light for it and still get amazing looking results!

    When filming outdoor you can use smooth or nostalgic because there won't be so much underexposed parts because when the sun makes a shadow, it will always look black, whether you have 7 or 9 stops DR, it won't matter.

    Any thoughts on this? Am I making a bit of sense here?

  • 2 Replies sorted by
  • 2many2many

    I have done a small test. It wasn't the best test, but I think it confirms my theory.

    this is at iso 320 and notice how nostalgic has a stop extra in the blacks but look at the macbook: to my eye there are more artifacts with nostalgic

    Screen shot 2012-05-25 at 11.53.42.png
    1440 x 900 - 895K
    Screen shot 2012-05-25 at 11.53.49.png
    1440 x 900 - 1M
  • 2many2many

    my conclusion is that even dynamic has a little bit of blocking in the -3 zone but shows only black in the -4 zone. Nostalgic gives that extra stop at -4 but look at the blocking and the introduction of what seems to be greenish colored noise / blocking?

    To me it seems that the blocking is most evident with nostalgic/smooth in the -4 zone especially bright objects that are well underexposed show colored artifacts. (things like white walls, a macbook, skin, ...)

    I will try to do some further tests with underexposed faces etc..

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