Blackmagic ISO Explained: How to get the best exposures out of your camera | With Practical Examples 

Haha, it's quite the swiss army knife of a camera. And there are lots of great ways to maximize on its capabilities!

Same.

Thanks! And the beauty is, assuming you can isolate and control your value ranges, as long as you're shooting low ISO you know the data is there in case you want to pump up the shadows a little bit later! I'll generally stick at 200 all the time, only popping up to 800 to perceptually check the data range.

Awesome! This is what I like to hear! Better than just explaining some technical thing, I love the thought of giving folks tools and techniques you can take with you to explain these things concisely to the next person. Thanks for the comment, this really made my day!

Thanks! Let me know how it works out for you.

Thank you! Was explaining this to a lot of clients and fellow shooters; figured it was worth making a video about.

Thanks, Craig! Glad the video is helpful

Hey, I appreciate the feedback! Always working to get more stuff put together and uploaded for everyone. Let me know if there is anything in particular you'd like to see covered and I'll throw it on the stack!

No problem! Thanks for the feedback.

Happy to help!

You're most welcome!

No problem! Thanks for the feedback!

Awesome, gkad to hear it! And thanks for the comment! There's more stuff like this coming soon (workflow and film / lighting techniques). Would love to hear your thoughts on those when they come out!

@@starsieve sounds good man, subbed 👍

Thank you so much! Narrative filmmaking is my absolute favorite, and I'm working to bring as many tips and tricks that I can to my audience. It doesn't take crazy expensive tools; but it does take time, patience, and a whole lot of creative problem solving to do it on a tight budget!

Thanks Niko! That means a lot.

😁🤘

Thank you, Sittipong Kongtong!

Glad to have ya among the subscribers! I'll be kicking out more guides and info videos in the coming weeks. Let me know if there is anything in particular you'd like to see!

@@starsieve well knowing this iso trick my footage is 10x better already! Not sure if It’s possible but whats the best way to get rid of bands near a sun clipping and grain after color grading?

@@brandan_fpv Glad to hear it's helping! In terms of the hard clipping at points of pure clipping / specular highlights... there will always be a limitation of dynamic range when your key light source is in the frame. There is a trick in Resolve I use that really smooths the transition from bright areas surrounding and leading toward any clipped highlight. I'll be making some color grading videos on my channel to showcase some of the solutions for things like that.

@@starsieve thank you I’ll be looking forward to them😉

Thanks, Rasmus!

Thank you! I'm glad the info and examples were helpful! Yeah, when I shoot outdoors I'll work with an ND filter; if there is an internal ND, I'll tend to stick with that otherwise I'll use an external ND filter. This is more to allow me to keep the shutter angle/speed and the aperture where I want them to be (for aesthetic reasons) than to keep from crushing shadows or clipping highlights. That's more of a dynamic range concern, which is what the higher-ISO-in-daylight trick helps to offset. It's also worth noting that if you're using an external ND filter you'll want one that specifies that it is a "hot mirror" or has "IR-cut" in order to stop infrared light from polluting your image (which shows up as blacks - especially black clothing - turning a sort of muddy reddish brown).

@@starsieve Thanks again for your prompt reply and helpful comment. Yes, I have watched many videos recommending the IR-Cut filter when using ND filter. I’m planning to buy Bmpcc 6k pro for real estate videography, your method will help me preserving true colors even though I’ll be shooting during daylight. I look forward to watching more videos on the same camera. Best of luck, Clifton 👍 Edit: Bmpcc 6k native iso are 400 and 3200, I thought you were using that camera. Anyway, same idea applies to it.

Hey Doug. Awesome; love talking shop with VFX artists (y'all are the other half of the visual collaboration that makes films truly magical). But I digress! As long as you are shooting braw, yes that is absolutely correct. You can do the test yourself, if you'd like. Shoot a couple shots (all same iso/framerate/aperture settings) at 100 ISO and 1000 ISO, then change both to 400 in the raw adjustment tab in Resolve. Same goes for anything ISO 1250 and above.

thanks for the help! Subscribed. :)

For bright sunny day, yes. I'd say 800 is the sweet spot, specifically for the 4.6K sensor. Unless you are going for a high-contrast look! Then lower the ISO, expose for those skin tones and highlights, and let the shadows do what they do darkly.

Yeah, I'll put together a grading / post process video for sure. Getting back in the swing of things (and I have a few tricks up my sleeve I'd love to show with everyone!)

@@starsieve thanks

Has more to do with the contrast range of the available daylight. Direct sunlight / harsh shadows? ISO 400 or 800 (in addition to whatever I can do to get some diffusion and fill light involved). Overcast? Probably 200 or even 100. Indoors, depending on the lighting conditions I generally stick with 1250 for cleaner blacks, yes.

The DR chart shows this, actually. The range (number of stops) the camera captures remains the same; you're just adjusting where the "middle" reference point is for how the color/light data are being processed and displayed. Notice on the Pocket 4K dynamic range chart, the actual size of the dynamic range remains the same up until the "native" threshold jumps (i.e. 100-1000 ISO is based off native 400, but 1250-6400 is based on the 3200 native): preview.ibb.co/hjFcEU/Screen_Shot_2018_10_11_at_09_56_14.png It's purely perceptual. The data is there; which is why you can change your ISO in post, within the range allowed by the referenced native.

That all depends on your shooting style! Personally I like to stick to ISO 200 and 1250 and shoot in braw so I can raise the shadows and midtones in grading, if necessary. If I'm shooting in ProRes and handing off to a client, I may stick with 400 and 2500 or so (in order to give a little headroom to lift shadows, but without compressing the low end too much). If you prefer more room to color grade, shoot lower ISO and take the time to light your scene or control the natural/available light. If you prefer to simply see all of the data on screen at once, stick to the native ISOs and just make sure not to underexpose.

That's a great idea. I can definitely throw together a white balance video; something a lot of shooters could benefit from.

@@starsieve id definitely watch it

In ProRes, the data is baked in so it does not quite apply the same. That being said, it is still a practice that will result in cleaner, richer footage in ProRes as well (you just won't have the same recovery latitude; so don't grossly underexpose or overexpose). The true power of this ISO information lies within the braw workflow.

Yep! That's a great approach. When noise is present you're definitely more likely to see it in shadows and low midtones than highlights and bright areas. This is a major part of my argument for using lower ISO for dark/night scenes (ones where you *want* much of your frame to be shadows / dark areas). You're right on the money!

@@starsieve Absolutely. It gives you more latitude in those areas also.

Yep! Same applies to the G1.

Nope. The BMPCC (4k|6k|6k pro) have a so called Dual-Gain-ISO-Mode (two native ISOs). First is ISO400 and second is ISO3200. Be aware that you switch from first native ISO to the second one between ISO1000 and ISO1250.

@@daniel-alan Tnks! Dany

You're overexposing. If you are getting 100% clipped highlights at ISO 800, and you change to ISO 100 (without changing any other settings), your clipped highlights will still be clipped. That's precisely what I show in this video. If you're referring to your high midtones and lower range of highlights, then adjusting your ISO may preceptually recover these, but you are still over exposing. There *is* a limit to the dynamic range of all sensors. If you're shooting at ISO 800 in direct sunlight, and stopping down your aperture to give you good sky exposure leaves you with a muddy, dark, or silhouetted subject in front of that sky, then you need to add some fill light by supplementing with either a bounce card or additional light(s) to bring some detail back into your shadows.

use ND filters.

In documentary work, as available light is failing, I'll often stay at 1250 (which is "pulled down" from 3200, in the case of the Pocket 4K) and just ride a variable ND filter; reducing the level of density as we lose available light. At a certain point, it is inevitable that the director and/or producer on these sorts of projects (shooting in remote locations with only available light) wind up trying to shoot until total darkness. As long as they are fine with a certain level of pixel noise, I'll ride the iso as high as 3200. But once that's dark, I generally call it a night. Unless they want the film to look like Skinamarink 😜 But yeah, oh the URSA Mini, I never use 3200

This sounds like something Blackmagic customer / technical support should be able to help you with?

watch it again

😂

In summary (not 100%) he says: The camera (BMPCC...) always shoots in native ISO for RAW format (either ISO 400 or ISO 3200, depending on selection). In post-production, the ISO setting can be changed in the selected range (e.g. ISO 100 to 1250). It doesn't really matter exactly which ISO setting is used for filming on set. BUT: the ISO you set will affect the visual contrast, tonality and thus your lighting decisions when monitoring a scene.

Also, because the dynamic range doesn't really change within the ISO bands, it means all the ISO is doing is moving where the mid-grey point is within the overall dynamic range. So at ISO 100 you can only get 3.5 stops above mid-grey before it will clip - however you get 9.6 stops below it which means this is great for showing detail in a dark scene. Whilst at ISO 400, you have 5.5 stops above mid-grey, so if your scene has a lot of bright stuff which you want to see the detail in, then that's a better ISO for you. This also means that just putting the camera to ISO 100 and then trying to film clouds will be really counter productive, as unless you underexpose the scene (ND filters, aperature, etc), you will clip. This is all a bit strange compared to 'standard' photography where you generally want to always use as low an ISO as you can get away with, but it does offer up a lot of artistic possibilities. I guess some rules of thumb are: - Shoot dark scenes in as low an ISO as you can expose properly (but if you can't go below ISO 250, then try 1250 instead as it has a higher dark dynamic range) - When wanting details in highlights, shoot as high an ISO as you can before noise becomes a factor, and whilst still keeping enough detail in your shadows - There's little reason to go above ISO 3200 since you will get a lot of noise, not a huge amount of stops below mid-grey, and you want to be in the first band for dealing with highlights. Of course, it could be done for artistic effects, but that'll be rare.

Haha, I'll take that as a compliment!

@@starsieve Certainly. Mind was thoroughly blown.