Cinestyle

thats called over exposure..

I fucking hate cinestyle.. heres why:

Shooting flat is a concept that comes from film. Specifically high end raw cinema cameras that have a very wide dynamic range to immitate film and reach as much information as possible. The idea is to capture more light ranges to then have more info to grade.

heres the problem on dslr's: Your codec is not raw! its a shitty h264 compression and most dslr's lack what is needed to have good color correction/ grading.

Reds shoot flat because they are raw, and they have what dslr's are missing which is:

Good color depth (over 8bits)
Color space (4:2:0 is not flexible like 4:4:4)
No compression

basically what Im saying is that shooting flat on a dslr is the equivalent of shooting a white wall underexposed and raising brightness in post. All you are doing is taking one away to add one in post.

Yes on camera you will see more detail everywhere but to have a nice looking shot you need to play with your levels and boom everything is lost.

my rant on flat picture styles, there it was.

so do you shoot just basic neutral most of the time? s

All true, but the thing I like about it is that it seems to give me more control in post with Magic Bullet. This was my first edit shooting cinestyle and I found I picked up more detail in the snow than usual:

I shoot as close to the final result that I can. I dont want to twist my codec too much.

Now with my fs 700 I have so much dynamic range that I do shoot a bit flatter and the codec can handle grading a bit better

You're wrong though, you just "think" you're pulling out more detail because your shots are just correctly exposed. You do no gain any new detail with a flat image, it just allows you to adjust levels more liberally.

I like to get as much out of my cam as possible so if I don't want to do a ton of grading I do not have to. No point shooting flat then adjusting contrast if you can just do it in camera...


As for the OP picture, your shot is just overexposed.

op are you using magic lantern too?

The way to pick up more snow detail is to create contrast between mids/highlights when grading. Cinestyle literally doesn't give you any more detail. It simply compresses an image into a bit depth that is already narrowly defined in the first place.

The whole Cinestyle fad is like taking apart a sandwich and claiming you've made more food because it's spread out more, with complete disregard to the conservation of matter. You aren't gaining anything.

8-bit cameras need to be tweaked in-camera to look good. You can get away with basic adjustments in post, but the Log-C (shooting flat) methodology is purposely designed for cameras with more dynamic range, bit depth, and color space. To apply the same technique to an 8-bit 4:2:0 camera is just plain laughable.

And if you are going to ignore my advice anyway, at LEAST underexpose by 1 stop. The "flat" look people desire is the result of A) soft light and B) technical underexposure. Lots of DSLR shooters have this mindset that everything needs to POP off the screen (just stop), which directly conflicts with the diffuse aesthetic your purportedly seek. As a result they shoot flat but try to pump up the colors and contrast and the whole thing becomes a mess.

If you want a good flat look on a Canon DSLR, shoot in neutral with sharpness and contrast turned all the way down (leave saturation and tint alone), and underexpose everything by about a stop. The image will look good prior to hitting your hard drive and it will save you the hassle of trying to stuff 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag.

Nope, I downloaded it, tried it, got a little overwhelmed, and deleted it because I had a shoot the next day. Thinking about re installing soon. Worth it for sure?

Just wondering because the zebras on my t2i were not accurate with highlights so it would look like the image was properly exposed according to zebras but the highlights would still clip

What'd you have highlight clipping set to?

And mat I really appreciate that post. Although I only shoot flat(not really that flat, just neutral profile) cause I often want to keep it that way.

No idea, noticed it after a bit and just underexposed by a stop

Are you sure it's actually clipped? And not just on the edge of the scale? Could you decrease the exposure in post and see detail? If so just reduce the highlight overexposure %?

Yes I'm sure, I don't have the camera anymore so i don't care. Just wondering if op was having the same problems as me, but he isn't