Zen & The Art of Mastering LOG & RAW Exposure 

Damn! I'm saving this video to reference again and again. Truly appreciate the effort you put into this! Killer!

THE MOST informative and productive video of explaining the relation between log exposure and waveform. I really appreciate the video man.

Excellent approach to explaining this complex topic! I really appreciated the use of visuals and presentation style. I can see myself revisiting this video repeatedly in the future.

bro this video was amazing, it deadass taught me a ton. ty for making this!!

A fantastic video with lots of well-researched information, thank you!

Great video! Thanks for educating the community!

After watching this, I think I need a drink. I use a Panasonic BS1H. I shoot in Log, and I over expose. I think I'm doing the right thing.

For me the best way to expose log is to set the contrast ratio on set and ETTR the sensor so that you just need to pull down in post, while also keeping the depth of field at a reasonable level.

Great video!! Thank you, sir!!!

I love dale with all my heart! - You’ve helped me with this video and in person! - river

Small mistake I noticed was using the HDR Palette in Resolve while not having the Timeline Color Space set properly. In the project settings it was set to “sRGB” but it should set to whatever Color Space/Gamma you’re working with. Unless you manually change it in the drop-down menu of the palette, it is set to “Use Timeline”. When correctly setting up the HDR Palette, you should be able to only use the global exposure wheel (it works in stops) to match between your images and do the exposure compensation.

Thanks for the excellent and interesting explanation!

Just wanted to say thanks and the new studio setup looks good (maybe a bit dark for me).

I think Joel from Phantom LUTs touches on the over exposing caveat. If I remember correctly, color rendering can be affected particulary. Awesome info mate!!

Thank you for making this

Thank you!

Just super

Can't you just use something like LUTCalc to make an offset LUT? That's what I've been doing and now I'm questioning whether I've been doing it wrong.

So if you have a pocket camera...When your outdoors, you should set your ISO to 1000 and ND just below clipping but at night set it to 1250 and add as much lights as needed?

Hi, Have you seen what Ed Lachlan has created ? The EL zone system. About lights, Prolycht ( and now Dedo ) brought us the RGBACL color accuracy system which I find quite interesting.

Great. Really great. I've been studying this for sometime now. I just go a Shinobi to use the false color. My comment/question it this. I've heard before about over exposing 1 to 5 stops. That seems so extreme. How do one know when he should go for a 5 stop over exposer. It seems like the wild west of exposing. I guess it's trial and error. Now I use the GH6 and the Sony Z90 both shoot log.

Great video. It has been on my plate for a long time to share some of this information. There is so much misinformation or half guesses out there. One area where I want to add some input is that sometimes the base exposure is desired and it’s ok to use noise reduction in post to manage it. All cameras have used some form of noise reduction. Either in camera or in post. It’s a hassle to use noise reduction in post and it can take a long time but sometimes highlight detail is desired. One of the beauty’s of the Pocket cameras is their ability to shrink the middle gray point to map the stops to prioritize shadow or highlight detail. Sometimes that is desired for some shooting scenarios. Sometimes the shadows have nothing of interest and all the desired detail is in the highlights. That’s why it’s important to have the flexibility to exposure as needed. Some scenarios should be shot over. Some should be shot at base. It’s important for users to understand that need. I shoot with a Canon R6 and it’s amazing how much this camera that typically gets panned in reviews can actually do. Canon chose a native ISO of 800 which is rather high and clearly prioritizes highlights over shadows. BMD uses ISO 400 and at the end of the day the R6 and clog3 which typically get a lot of criticism for noise is about the same as the Pocket cameras at ISO 800. Shoot Canon and clog3 just one stop over and they are again a pretty good match in terms of slightly reduced highlight detail but much better shadow detail. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t realize this and just think of shooting over as a kind of a hack when it’s not. It’s a way we can remap the stops just like BMD does for us automatically. Canon R6 and clog3 look stunning for rec709 when shot 2 stops over. Other thing to factor in is when reviewers measure dynamic range they are doing so shooting at base exposure. A lot measure dynamic range based on shadows and noise. Base ISO 800 is going to have a lot more noise and skew the dynamic range reviews but that’s not telling us the full potential of the Canon sensors. Sure Canon could make better sensors for their non cinema cameras but alas they don’t. We still have the ability to use those sensors to greater potential. I wish more reviewers would test dynamic range of cameras across different exposure levels. I really think Canon already starting very high at ISO 800 could surprise a lot of people when shot two stops over and measuring dynamic range. There is zero noise in the image. Sure the highlights clip a lot sooner but for rec709 that is likely not a big deal for many situations. One last point is I work with a lot of HDR and I’m shifting my priorities from shadows to highlights. That’s another reason I’m starting to become a fan of shooting normal exposure and using NeatVideo in post. If most of the noise can clean up which it does since it’s minor then this allows us to get the full 13.3 stops of clog3 while still giving us a lot of brightness in HDR or more potentially for smoother rolloff for rec709.