RED Cambook

[Will Keir]

wow, you guys are really going beyond my expectations.

[PC Greene]

Hello all,

We are a new RED using shop & certainly understand that we need charts & cards to shoot on set to calibrate our camera as well as in post. At the risk of upsetting someone lol are there any alternatives you think are worth considering for our Scarlet or should we just jump on this book?

As well, any links to info & tutorials for best practices on set & post process use of charts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

PCG

[Graeme Nattress]

PCG - any chart (just about, but please avoid the cheap Macbeth knockoffs) is better than none. The RED Cambook and DSC charts are accurate and calibrated. For use, I like to record (via the chart) any major lighting setup for white balance and colorimetry purposes. A chart doesn't need to be in every shot, but every major lighting setup can be very useful. DSC charts are shiny, which some people think is a pain (but read on for why it's worth it). It is - you have have to orient them properly to avoid nasty reflections. Thing is, a flat chart would still have that reflection at that orientation, altering the brightness of the patches, but you're not as likely to see it. With the DSC you can see it so you can fix it and hence get accurate results.

Graeme

[Josh Beadle]

@Graeme
Good seeing you at NAB. Meant to ask you there: any chance of a Auto Correct button in RCX for use with the RED Cambook? Would be a great speed tool for doing fast primary grades and a good starting point for any subsequent grading

[PC Greene]

Thanks a million Graeme...very kind of you to help being the authority. We will certainly order the book ASAP.

Any advice for setting temp in an uncontrolled environment or just shoot chart & sort in post?

Thanks again...

[Graeme Nattress]

PC, as long as white is reasonably white, it's fine to have a chart in shot just to fine tune wb in post. Generally movies or TV shows will pick a tungsten wb and a daylight wb setting and pretty much stick to it through shooting, maybe altering accordingly, maybe not.

Josh! Always good to see you. Auto correct is a darn good idea and certainly something we've been thinking on. Which aspects of the image do you think you'd like auto-ing off the chart?

Graeme

[Josh Beadle]

@Graeme
Since the Cambook chart has all the primary Vectorscope colors and exposure range grey scale seems like you could have an auto preset that could snap the file into perfect technical HSL calibration. From there we can apply a look as needed. This could be a huge time saver over hundreds of clips where color matching is critical and a real bonus to using REDraw and RCX.

[Bob Wojda]

Is there a vectorscope somewhere in RCX that I'm missing? Since it's essential to using these charts properly it's gotta be in the program somewhere . Can someone let me know where it is?

Thanks,

Bob Wojda
Scarlet #420

[Nils Ruinet]

Agreed, that would be a fantastic idea !

Bob, I don't remember ever seeing a vectorscope in RCX unfortunately...

[Graeme Nattress]

"Since it's essential to using these charts properly it's gotta be in the program somewhere ." - there's no absolute need for a vectorscope. Although the charts work really well with one, they also work equally well with waveforms and eyeballs too. Vectorscopes can also be deceiving as a brighter image is often indistinguishable from a more saturated image on the vector position....

Graeme