In still photography this doesn't really come up because, if you want the most control, you shoot in raw. Case closed. All of the information is there for you to adjust to your hearts content without sacrificing any image quality. You can increase or decrease exposure, contrast, saturation. According to still photographers this is the ONLY serious way to shoot. Right? You tell me. My brother in law Joe Photo is an amazing, award winning photographer. He shoots jpegs (at least the last time we talked about it he did and if you look at the images he creates it doesn't seem like he should change just because everybody else says that he is doing it wrong). If you want to see for yourself check out his website or his blog.
What does this have to do with shooting video with my HDSLR you ask? I'm getting to that, be patient.
I hate putting up blog posts without any visuals so here is a video that we love:
What this means to shooting video with your HDSLR is this (see I told you your patience would be rewarded): Don't believe what everybody else is telling you to do. Test it for yourself. Let me repeat that. TEST FOR YOURSELF! That's how it's been done in the business for years because it works. Test it with your workflow from beginning to end. It doesn't matter who you get your information from - Stu, Shane, some random video you saw on Vimeo...all of them are doing their own testing and finding what works for them. Each of them has a point but the point they make is different - one says that "superflat" is necessary for getting the "best"(there's that word again) dynamic range out of an image - while another says it was "a BIG HUGE mistake" and "it buried me. Consequently, we underexposed 25 or so shots trying to gain contrast. I will never repeat that mistake again!" So which is right? (if forced to choose, I would go with the professional cinematographer, the member of the ASC, the one that has shot many feature films, including a tentpole studio film, but that's just me).
There are too many differing factors to decide on the "Best" or "Only" picture profile. Should it look saturated or de-saturated? Should it look "true-to-life" or should it have a fantasy look to it? What type of post process is it going to go through? Is it greenscreen footage? Are there visual effects? Is it a documentary? Is this an element that has to work with other footage that was acquired from a different source?
As much as we are pioneering a new workflow there are some things that the industry does do right. Be prepared, do your homework and never trust what someone else says is the "BEST" or "ONLY" way to do things.
Of course, soon HDSLR cameras will have fast enough processors and be able shoot RAW like the RED camera. Then we will have to rethink the whole thing.
Cheers!
Daniel and Brigitte
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