There is a lot of talk and quite a few videos out there comparing the different picture profiles of the Sony cameras
But it's all a bit too subjective and opinion oriented for my tastes
So today we're going to take a look at the scopes and see what's really going on
Let's get undone lol
What's happening everybody I'm Jael dun dun and resistance is futile today. We're going to look at three things
The first is the noise level and dynamic range of the popular picture profiles for Sony for video using the a7 3
I'm gonna say picture profiles for that first part. We're going to focus on the gamma selection second
I'll give you my pick for the most well rounded picture
Profile and third I'll dispel a couple minutes about picture profiles in general along the way
So let's not monkeying around and get right into the samples
so for each one of these we're gonna have the gamma that was used here which in this case is movie or like I said,
You could set picture profile to off as well as the ISO and the f-stop and then we just have some
Increasing power of Lights and then over here. We're gonna have the scopes now
We're using the luma waveform right now, which will show us a few different things each
One of the lights is obviously going to show a step here. And then this example would be what happens when something is clipped
So we can see there's four different lights
That are all above 100 or above 255 and they're just showing us flat clipped lines and over here
You can see that they're just bright white lights and they're pretty much indistinguishable
And then as it comes down to the bottom here this bar is gonna be our black level
that's basically the rest of the black and the scene and the higher that goes the higher the black level will be and also the
noise may encroach upon it or
Overtake it and also this will count as a stop itself
But if say this bottom stop here as you can see the stop on the left, you can't you can't make it out
It's buried within the black level and this stop is pretty much being eliminated by the black level as well
this is what you would look for to decide if this gamma is going to give you enough information to work with for what you're
Trying to do as well as the noise values
so the next one we have here is cine 2 now Sydney 2 is one that I personally like but
something that should let you know is that all of these first ones were done at ISO 800 and that's the reason primarily why both
movie and
Cine to have some clipping ascending to has less clipping
There's only 2 of the stops that are pushed all the way up over 100
But the reason why we used ISO 800 is because s law and s log to s log three
They require a minimum of ISO 800
So in order to evaluate these things evenly we're gonna do ISO 800 first
but then
We will utilize the lower ISO that we can for the picture profiles that allow it but let's start off with just a XO 800
Once so sending two we have a better a better shape here less contrast
It's not being pushed to the extreme and you know, we get decent lower stops and decent upper stops
but again, we could set a better exposure because we're not required to do ISO 800 now, let's go to
Sydney for just to compare similar idea the top two stops are being clipped and
we get kind of a similar roll off but there's there's two differences here City four has more contrast which again we can see because
the middle area is being pressed apart further and
The black level is lower as well. If we jump back to Sydney 2 we can see the black level is higher
But there's a disadvantage here, which is that on Sydney for our lower stops are having difficulty
You know erupting through that black level and if we look at the image itself
We can see this the lower areas here in the shadows
There's fewer of them that are pronounced compared to the city to
Which we can clearly make out some more of the shadow areas better
So those are the trade-offs there between city 2 and city for both are okay
I think that's any two gives you more to work with and it's much easier to just push down those levels
Afterwards and you'll actually end up with a cleaner result, but we'll get into that when we have the better ISO settings
Alright, let's jump ahead to this one, which is s log 2 now
We can see with s log 2 that we're nowhere near clipping anymore using the exact same
exposure settings of ISO 800 and F 2.8
We're only reaching 80 Ayari and it's rollin off, you know
Rather nicely and let's just compare that real quick test log 3 over here s log 3 is giving us more shadow information
We're getting higher bars. The the higher the bar that you're seeing here is basically going to suggest that there's more information there
So as you can see, these stops here are reaching higher than if we go back to s log 2, they're lower
So we're gonna get more shadow information out of s log 3
But the high light bars aren't reaching quite as high as s log 2 is so we'll get more highlight
information out of s log 2
but there's some trade-offs here if we just kind of look at the noise in the scene here and then we jump over to
Log3 we can see this clearly a lot more noise in the scene
And when we zoom out the black level like we said is different
This is gonna have an impact where yeah, we can see more shadow tones, but and fewer in s log, too
But the image is dirtier now the common recommendation for shooting s log would be to shoot it
more exposed and then bring it down afterwards if you want or to clean up your shadows because if we bring our shadows and our
Black levels down that's going to hide a lot of that noise, but it's still not going to fix it perfectly
So now let's jump over to this one which is still s log three and it's still iso 800 but it's f one point four
So it's two stops brighter and that allows us to get our highlights to come almost all the way up to
100 and this is sort of I would say I want to call it a myth but something that's commonly done is the idea that
You can just over expose your s log and then you just push it down and it's fine. It depends on what you're shooting
Let's push our shadows down here and our blacks down
So now our noise levels are a little bit better
But now we're getting to the point where we're actually losing almost a full stop of the shadows
Now the advantage of s log is that you're probably going to gain that stop up on the higher end and if we clean it
Up a little bit more and push it even further, you know, we can get a pretty nice-looking image
but we've almost completely lost that last stop now and this is this is just what happens generally if you want to get rid of
The noise from an s log image you're gonna have to probably crush your blacks out, which is fine again if you're shooting
you know a nice bright outdoor scene or something with a lot of light but it doesn't work the greatest in a dark scene because
It can kind of get muddy and crushed and hard to really make the details out. Okay moving right along
Let's jump over to HL G now
This is HL g 3 and this is probably my favorite
gamma
For the Sony's and I'll explain why so first off you'll notice right away that we get all the way up to the 100 255
while keeping the ISO 800 F 2.8
Setting and then also
We can come all the way down here with a nice smooth shape
And our bottom stops are doing pretty well to keep above the black level and H LG also has the advantage
Unlike s log where we can have a lower ISO just like we come with the cine gammas
And so let's jump into the lower ISO situation now and talk about reducing some of the noise. So, this is ISO
800 F 2.8 if we jump over here, this is HL g 3 again, but ISO 200 at F 1.4
So it's the same exposure but we shifted those stops on to the f-stop instead of on the ISO
And this is usually good for blackened areas
But something interesting about the hlg profile is that it doesn't have as big of an impact on
hlg as it does on other
Gammas the 201 obviously this is iso 200
So this should have lower noise and I'll just give this a bit of a play for you. So look at the noise over here
And now let's do that same thing. But on the ISO 801
You might find on the switch back and forth note that it's not that big of a difference and this is one thing that's great
about hlg
Is that even if you have to kind of get there with ISO?
despite what I was just saying about s log is it doesn't punish you as much as other gammas do
By getting there with ISO now a quick thing. Let's just compare to the other hlgh. Og3 ISO 200 F 1.4
Let's notice the shape over here
Now let's jump over to this one, which is HL g 2 you'll notice that there's very little difference at all
All I see is at the very top stop is just being pushed down a little bit
So let's jump back
See it a little bit higher a little bit lower and then the other difference would be the black levels and the noise
let's take a look at HL g 3 look at the bottom where the black level is and then hog2
So just comes up a little bit. So I would just say that HL g 2 is just slightly inferior
It has slightly worse blacks and noise and slightly worse whites. So there's not really any reason use that one in my opinion
I would just stick with hoz 3 based on what I'm seeing here on the waveform. Let's go to HL g 1
Now that's just even worse if we compare that even to the second one
This is 2. This is 1 the black levels go up even higher and we're clipping
Two-and-a-half to three stops on the upper end here and then lastly HL g straight no number
it's very very very similar to HL g 3 let's jump back to hoz and
Then just HL G so the shape is fundamentally the exact same on the two of them and we're getting very similar values
but the black level is higher on the straight HD LG one now this could indicate to you that maybe
You would be able to push that down a little bit and get you know better noise reduction
but there is
one thing to consider which is if we look at how much our lower stops are coming up out of the black level and we
Compare that they chose e3. We are getting a little bit a little bit more separation on our lower stops at Hou
We are on
Hlg so even if we did have more room to bring that down, we're also gonna be bringing down our lower stops as well
I don't think that one or the other here is gonna really make it or break it
I think that hlg three maybe is slightly slightly more versatile, but they're very very close
But I wouldn't use hlg one or two. I don't really see much reason for that now, let's jump over here
I've got some better exposed cine ones. This is cine four
I was able to use ISO 200
The lowest you can go on Cindy for is ISO 200 and with Cindy 2
You can go down to ISO 100. And then like I said hlg is like 125 or 160
So if we look at this one, it's definitely not clipping like it was earlier
Where was our previous city for was this one? Right? Yeah, so see we have this pushed all the way up
So we have an advantage of not having that happen
But we still have the issue where there's definitely more contrast and a lot of our lower tones are you know being faded into oblivion?
Let's compare that to a better exposed cine - same ideas what we saw earlier where there's more more shadows
We can see them here versus the cine 4. I actually kind of like the way that the highlights are being handled here
We're sending two over the city for and the lowered contrast again
I feel like it's gonna give you more to work with afterwards in Sydney for wood
You could argue that cindy 4 would be more deliverable right out of the camera
But it's not that hard to add a little bit of contrast and change your black and white levels
So I think that Sydney 2 is going to give you more to work with and you can have a full-stop lower ISO
Which will probably make a difference
So if we were to just drop down
The blacks a little bit on cine - and the shadows a little bit and then compare that to 74 we still have more
More shadows, we still have more different stops in the darker area
now you are gonna get better dynamic range on the SLR profiles if we compare this cine - which is pushed down to
This s log 3 which is pushed down we can see that you know
We're getting better dynamic range out of the s log 3
But the s log is harder to work with and there is still something to be said about the fact that the s log
Might band and cause blotching artifacts sooner than the cine would just because of the 8 bit
limitations of the smaller Sony mirrorless cameras
Where with cine I don't think that you're really going to find that happen as easily and again
You don't even have to push it as hard to grade it
Because it's less extreme than s log to begin with throwing this all together though
I think I would still go with the hlg which you can see here. I didn't push this one down at all
So let's just do a quick comparison between the h LG g3 the city to push down on the s log3 push down
This is HL g3
this is s log3 and
This is Sydney to now we can definitely see that we're getting better dynamic range out of the h LG 3 and s log 3
but the H LG g3
Compared which by the way, I did nothing to it compared to the s log 3, you know
we're getting most of what's already been done to the S log 3 with the HL g3 rate out of the camera and we can
achieve lower ISO so we don't have to push down as far and if we look closer into our darker areas here, let's
Zoom in here and compare this to the s log 3 we can definitely see that we're retaining more
With the H LG g3 than we are with the s log 3 and again with that whole 8 bit
Banding blotchy artifacts thing the H LG will be less susceptible than the s log 2 that because we don't have to push to this
far and so to answer my second point where I said
I would tell you what I think is the most well-rounded picture profile gamma
I would use HL g3 and as a runner-up
I would go with cine 2 for hoz 3 I would use the BT
2020 color and not the rec 709 the BT 2020 just has a better rendition and allows for more versatility and more
Applications in the future and it's pretty easy to conform down to rec 709 in post
Ok
Now point three I said have a talk about a couple myths one of the first ones that I see a lot
is that it depends which picture profile you actually put your settings in so some people say like if you're gonna use
You know cine to make sure you put it on picture profile 6 because it that stuff doesn't matter now
It is possible that on your camera
There are different settings for the different picture profiles that are deeper and like in some of the details and advanced stuff
Where if you just changed the gamma that it's gonna look different than just changing the gamma on another picture profile
But if you make the settings the same
Exactly the same on any picture profile. It will look the same as any other picture profile with the exact same settings
But if you don't believe me, I've got a couple decide by sides here to show you
This one here is cine for set the picture profile 1 everything exactly the same and this one here is Cindy for picture profile 9
Everything said exactly the same if we look over here on the scopes
Which we would see if there was a difference and we click back and forth
They are exactly the same and then for another example providing an actual image
Here it is. Again. The when I think I used picture profile two and eight just to mix it up
and so this would be picture profile two and
This would be picture profile eight and the scopes look exactly the same and the image looks exactly the same as well when I click
Around you can't even tell them clicking. So trust me. There is no difference
If you set all the settings the same regardless of what picture profile number used now
I also went through and looked at all the different color modes and try to make some evaluations on that to pass on to you
But I'm not going to bother with this because color is so subjective and I'm not gonna tell you what might look better to you
Or not do whatever you like the best. There's a lot of different color options in there
I can say which ones I think are
you know the most versatile like I told you the BT 2020 I think on HL g3 is the right way to go and
For the cine ones. I actually think that cinema color might be it's a little bit flatter
It might give you a bit more to work with some people like pro color and that kind of thing
But I think if you want, you know a better
Starting point a more open starting point. I think cinema would be the way to go
But if you want some specific look that come right out of the camera
That's gonna be up to you
And this is a perfect point to talk about my final myth
Which is that adjusting the knee to have a point of 80% and a higher slope?
will really improve your image and my answer to that is
Not really
There are definitely some looks out there that people try and sell or you know
Give you downloads for Lots and that kind of thing where there are specific settings
That would probably work best with that lot, but I think just as sort of a general statement
You're more likely to worsen the image than improve it by adjusting those things
These aren't magical options that are going to increase your dynamic range or widen your color space and I think in many cases
They're advised by people that I don't think fully
Understand the downsides for example crowding a lot of information into that 80 Ayari area if you have lighter skin like me
Can make for really murky highlights and blotchy skin tones
so my advice is to leave everything on auto or zero or whatever neutral setting there is and stick to the more important things like
White balance and nailing exposure because those actually will have real
Serious advantages on your final image and your dynamic range the one option that is good to adjust though is the detail I would push
That all the way down to minus 7 because sharpening is usually best left
Off-camera and done in post where you can adjust it after the fact and non destructively
But if you truly want to get good at choosing profiles and grading your footage
You're just going to have to practice and base it off of what looks good to you
There's no quick fix
And I think starting with the neutral HL g3 with BT 2020 color or cine - with cinema color is a good safe
Versatile launch point, but if you drew different conclusions from these tests based on your own needs, then that's okay, too
There aren't any miracle settings out there that you can just put into your camera and not have to think anymore
It's always gonna require a thoughtful attention to detail, but hey
That's what makes it your video and not someone elses but that's gonna be it for me
I hope you found this video helpful or at least entertaining and if you did make sure you leave it the old thumbs up and
Consider subscribing if you haven't already, but if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining feel free to hit the dislike button twice
Now alright
I'm done
