This guide provides an in-depth look at Sony's SLOG 3 picture profile, emphasizing its benefits for maximizing dynamic range and color accuracy, while detailing crucial techniques for proper exposure and post-processing to achieve optimal results.
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If you shoot on Sony and you want to get
the best image quality out of your
camera, your choice is SLOG 3. But as
usual guys, there is a ton of nuances.
So today, I'mma break it down for you.
So this is the ultimate SLOG 3 guide.
Let's go.
Log format was invented to basically
squeeze a pretty big dynamic range of
your camera into a pretty small dynamic
range of the container that we can
record our videos in. And that is why
the log video is not contrasty and
saturated, but later on you can
definitely bring it back and make it
look as good as possible. I've already
made a pretty popular SLO 3 workflow
tutorial about 5 years ago, but nowadays
we have new functions and features of
your Sony cameras and this video will be
much more in-depth. Why would you use
SLOG 3 with your Sony camera? Because
only in Slo 3. Cinei, you get the most
dynamic range if you use the native ISO
in Slo 3 of your camera. For example,
here we have 800 on the FX30 and the
Sony ZV1 which is filming me right now.
It has 640 as the native ISO in SLOG 3.
It means that if you use any other
picture profile, your dynamic range will
be shrinkedked and you won't get the
best performance of your camera in the
dynamic range department. And one more
important note is that the raw video
does not extend the dynamic range. It'll
be exactly the same in the SLOG 3S Gamma
3 Cine and in RAW video. What RAW does
is it allows you to change the white
balance after the fact. But if you set
your white balance correctly while
shooting in SLOG 3 and not in RAW,
you'll have pretty nice results and you
can even tweak the white balance a lot
in post. But also RAW disables the in
camera noise reduction which can be
pretty aggressive and you can reduce
this noise with neat video for example
in post and get slightly better results.
One of my favorite YouTubers, Gerald
Undone, also did multiple tests on the
color reproduction in each and every
picture profile. And he found out that
the SLO 3 is the most color accurate
picture profile. It has the most
accurate colors overall. And here is my
own comparison of the HLG with SLOG 3
and the PPF. And you can tell the
difference in the color reproduction and
especially skin tone. So I would say
that yes, SLOG 3 is definitely the best
in terms of the color from your Sony
cameras. Also, at higher ISO values,
SLOG 3 is cleaner than HLG or PP off,
especially if you use the correct
exposure. And it is crucial to expose to
the right with SLOG 3. We'll talk about
it in a second, but right now, you can
see the difference in different ISO
values of the SLOG 3 compared to picture
profile off and HLG. And to my eye, the
results are very obvious. The next
advantage of SLOG 3 is of course the
flexibility in post. So you have
captured the best dynamic range, the
biggest dynamic range of your camera and
then in post you can decide do you want
to keep the highlights or the shadows or
both. But for example, if you were to
shoot in PP off, you would have to
decide beforehand should you protect the
highlights or the shadows. In SLO 3, you
can decide it in post and keep both
highlights and shadows in the shot
exposed correctly. And you can also
manipulate the color a lot, especially
if you have the 10- bit codec. I do not
suggest using SLO 3 with 8-bit cameras
only. And for 8-bit cameras, I would
suggest using ASL 2. And I have a huge
tutorial about the 8-bit cameras and ASL
2 workflow. So you can check this video
in the description below. And one more
important thing guys, bit depth, 8 bit
and 10 bit as well as the color
subsampling like 444, 4:22, 4 to 0, they
do not have any impact on the dynamic
range of your camera. It doesn't matter
in which format you shoot. Dynamic range
does not depend on those numbers. In
modern Sony cinema cameras like the Sony
FX30, we have three ways of engaging the
log shooting mode. First of all, we have
the lock shooting mode itself. We can
enable flexible ISO or CI mode. And we
also have the traditional picture
profile mode. So you pick the picture
profile from 1 to 10. For example, it's
just the container and then you pick SLO
3 as gamma 3 CI inside of the container.
And that's basically it. And here's the
comparison of the flexible ISO, Cinei,
and PP10, which could be actually any
picture profile just set to SLO 3S gamma
3 Cinei. And as you can tell, guys, we
have exactly the same exposure, dynamic
range, everything is exactly the same.
And the only difference is in the
details because in the picture profile,
I didn't set the details to minus 7. It
was set to zero. And that is why we have
a bit more sharpening from the camera
itself. But if I were to set it to minus
7 in the detail department in the
picture profile, it would look exactly
the same. And also, if you use picture
profiles, you can set different settings
and make the image look a bit different
for your likings. And here is another
comparison. My Sony ZV1 in flexible ISO
mode versus the PP10. And the same story
here. We have only the difference in the
sharpening department, in the detail
department. And basically those two
images are exactly the same. Even if you
see like super slight deviations in the
lightness of the image or the
saturation, those are negligible. So
basically, Cinei, flexible ISO and PP,
if you set the SLA 3S 3C are exactly the
same. So Cinei is not some magic mode.
It's like exactly the same as the
flexible ISO. And I would prefer using
the flexible ISO for very particular
reasons which I'll be sharing right now.
So in Cinei, you are stuck to 800 and
2500 ISO if you use Sony FX30 for the
native ISOs and you cannot use any other
ISO values. It's pretty cool, but it's
not really worth it because ASL 3 needs
to be exposed correctly or overexposed
slightly quote unquote. Not really
overexposing, but exposing to the right
as high as possible. So the image should
be pretty bright and later on in post
you have to lower the exposure and
suppress the noise. That's the key point
of shooting pretty clean and nicer
looking log footage on any camera, not
only in SLOG 3. And yes, guys, log
footage does have some noise, especially
ungraded log footage. And even graded
log footage can have some noise in it
because if you have a pretty poorly lit
environment and you didn't have enough
lights and your ISO value was already
pretty high and you didn't have any
faster lens, for example, and you didn't
expose log footage correctly, you will
have some noise in the image. It's fine.
It's okay. Any footage can be noisy if
you have pretty badly lit environment.
Just keep that in mind, guys. But also,
you can use some post-processing and
noise reduction like neat video or in
the Vinci Resolve or even some AI tools
to reduce the noise if you cannot live
with the noise in your image. But guys,
just keep in mind that any image should
have certain amount of noise and that it
is normal to have noise. In films, you
have a lot of noise because they are
shot on film and in film you have a ton
of grain and noise. Just don't
overestimate the importance of the
noise-free image guys. And here is the
example of underexposed log footage. So
this is how you shouldn't do it because
we have a lot of information in the
lower part of the waveform closer to
zero and you will have to raise this
exposure in post and get more noise. But
if you expose correctly, your shadows
should be above 25 ideally and then
you'll lower the exposure in post and
get super clean shadows. And because of
this, exposed to the right rule, I do
prefer the flexible ISO because when you
use Cine EI, you are stuck to 800 and
2500 on the FX30 and 640 and 12,800 on
the ZV1 and you cannot go past those
numbers. But if you need to expose
higher, if your aperture is already
open, if you cannot move the shutter
speed, if you don't have extra lights in
in the scene, anyways, you need to
expose higher, you need to expose more
to the right. And that is why you can
raise the ISO inflexible ISO and get
cleaner images. For example, right here
you can see how I exposed at 12,800 with
the FX30. And this camera has the base
ISO of 2500 as the second native ISO,
but still I was getting better results
than in the Cine EI mode because I was
exposing higher or more to the right.
The only thing you need to remember when
using flexible ISO is your native ISOs.
And don't use the numbers that are close
to native ISOs. for example, I don't
have to use 10,000 ISO on the ZV1 when I
can go to 12,800. And I would go to 3200
ISO, for example, on the ZV1. And then I
would switch to the second native ISO
manually. And this makes a lot of sense.
But then if I need to go higher than
12,800, I would go to up to 100,000 ISO
if I need to to expose correctly and to
get better results. Here is one more
example of underexposed luck and
properly exposed luck. Even though we
were having huge ISO numbers like
200,000 ISO, but still we get better
results. It happens because your camera
sees very low exposure and it tries to
apply a lot of noise reduction. But when
you raise the ISO, you raise the
exposure. Camera understands that it
doesn't have to correct it with noise
reduction a lot and you get much cleaner
results. The easiest way to expose
correctly or to the right with SLO 3 is
to use a lot for minus 2 EV. So the lot
will be kind of tricking your eyes and
you'll be exposing higher by two stops
and your eyes will see a normally
exposed image. And for the last five
years I've been using the lot by
Alistair Chapman. It is free and I have
a link down below. Huge shout out to
Alistister. He's a great guy. And
basically this lot resolves the problem
of exposing correctly just by eye. But
we have several different tools which
I'll explain in a second. And also guys
don't forget that with the lot applied
it is much easier to set your white
balance correctly as well. And I also
use this lot for post-processing, but
you don't have to. This lot is just
great for exposing correctly in camera.
Most modern Sony cameras these days have
an ability to import the lot into
camera, and I highly recommend you do
so. But if your camera doesn't support
this feature, just purchase an on camera
monitor, and I've been using, for
example, my Sony A7S3 with a monitor all
times with this Alistister Chapman LUS
and had pretty nice results. There is
one more function in Sony cameras, and
it's so misleading. It is called gamma
display assist. When you enable this
function, the image becomes contrasty
and saturated. But in this mode, you
underexpose like crazy because on the
display you can see that your highlights
are blown out, super overexposed when in
the reality you have a lot of headroom.
And that is why you get pretty uh low
exposure in your shots and a lot of
noise in the shadows as well. That is
why guys never use the gamma display
assist and always use the lot for minus2
EV or minus two stops by Alistister
Chapman for your exposure. If your
camera doesn't support lots, once again,
just use the on camera monitor and
import the lot to the monitor itself.
There is also a function embed lot to
clip. Basically, it bakes in the look of
the lot to the video file itself. But in
my experience, it's not the best way of
using the SLO 3 workflow. And I would
much rather have the clean SLO 3 footage
and then apply the lot in post. And one
of the biggest misleading pieces of
advice that I hear all the time about
the SLOG 3 is that your exposure meter
should always show like plus 1.7 or plus
two stops. No guys, the thing is that
the exposure meter, it measures the
whole entire frame if you pick the
exposure metering like wide and this is
a relative number because all the time
you'll be having different scenes,
different lighting, different amount of
white in the scene, etc. Just imagine
you're shooting in a theater and on the
stage you have one person, you have a
pretty white shot and this person is lit
with a spotlight, pretty bright one and
the background is complete darkness.
What would you see on the Xanometer?
Yes, guys, minus two. And if you try to
put it to plus 2e, you'll have
completely blown out skin tones. That is
why guys don't even look at it. It's a
reference number and it will mislead you
in some situations. And I would much
rather prefer using zebras. Zebra is
your best friend when you shoot in SLOG
because it is precise and you can really
trust it. I keep the zebras on all the
time and mainly I use two zebra values
95 when I expose for the sky. So I need
to retain the clouds for example when
they are lit by the sun. I'll expose as
bright as possible until I see the zebra
and then I'll lower the exposure just a
little bit so the zebra is not appearing
anymore. And the second value I use is
75 for the skin tone. I'll expose my
brightest part of the face in the way
that it is bright, but then I can see
the zebra at 75 and I lower it down just
a little bit. So my skin tone is around
70 to 75, at least for the white skin
like I have right here. And if you use
an on camera monitor, you can also use
the false color tool which will show you
the visual representation of your
exposure or you can also use the
waveform tool, but it's not as precise.
There is one more pretty interesting
factor when you use zebras. For example,
when you use non-native ISOs, especially
the lower numbers, when you go lower
than the native ISO in SLO 3, you'll see
the lines above and below the ISO value.
It means that the dynamic range has been
shrunk and then you have your clipping
point at a lower IRV value. And that is
why you won't see zebras if you use
lower ISO values until, for example, you
go lower in the zebra value to about 7075.
7075.
So this means that your clipping point
has now shifted. And all in all, when
you use non-native ISOs, you kind of
shift the dynamic range a little bit.
For example, if you have lower ISO
values, you'll have more dynamic range
in the shadows. And when you have higher
ISO values, you'll have slightly more
dynamic range in the highlights, but
lower in the shadows. It doesn't really
make sense. It's counterintuitive a
little bit, but just guys, keep it in
mind. If you use the native ISO and the
ND filter, like this one, for example,
you'll be just fine. Just try not to use
the lower values of the ISOs with the
bars on top and bottom. And if you use
the higher ISO values, you can
definitely use those to expose
correctly. As I've been explaining
before, correct exposure, ETR, is much
more important than using the native
ISO. There is one more built-in tool
which is called histogram, but it's
super small in Sony cameras and it's not
very responsive, let me say. So, you
don't understand a lot of things when
you look at the histogram. The only
thing that you can definitely tell when
you look at it is when you overexpose
and the right part of the histogram hits
the ceiling, let me say, of the
histogram itself. I don't use it. I
don't really trust it. I trust the
zebra, my eyes, and my minus 2 EV lot.
But what about the low light? You cannot
use SLO 3 for low light. And I've been
hearing those thoughts from different
people for more than 5 years, guys. And
I've been doing and filming in SLOG 3 in
low light at night with Slo 3 at all
times and had pretty brilliant results.
Once again, here's the comparison. PP
off HLG and SLOG 3 all exposed
correctly. And as you can tell, guys,
SLOG 3 looks much more clean when you
expose correctly, as I've been
explaining throughout this video. So,
when you have your exposure set
correctly, when you expose as bright as
possible, even if you use like 100,000
ISO on your Sony FX3, for example, you
still have cleaner image than if you
were using the PP off, for example, like
at 10,000 ISO compared to 100,000 ISO on
the FX3. It's just the way the log
works. The higher the exposure, the
cleaner the shadows. And then you can
see the comparison and tell that the SLO
3 is actually looking cleaner than the
PPF because it's using a lot of noise
reduction. Once again guys, like a
mantra, if you are in a low light
situation, don't stick to the second
native ISO. Don't be afraid to raise up
the ISO value. You'll have better
results. And one more thing guys, after
watching this video, you might be really
inspired to go and shoot your client
shoot in SLOG 3, but please don't do
this. First do some tests indoors,
outdoors, in your backyard and just
compare the footage yourself. Expose it
correctly, underexpose it as well.
Understand how to work with zebra, how
to expose the skin, how to expose the
sky, etc. First, you do the test, then
you go for a client shoot. You have to
double check everything yourself and
understand that it's easier than it
seems to be. And finally, guys, you need
to understand how to color grade SLOG 3.
And here I have a full in-depth tutorial
on color grading as lock 3 step by step.
So you can check this video next and
understand each and every nuance of it
because this video has been pretty long.
And if you did enjoy it, smash the like
and subscribe buttons and hit the
notifications bell. See you right here,
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