Sony color science is always a hot topic and is often the stick used to beat Sony fans. The standard refrain of Canon colors being beautiful out the box and Sony being a lot of work is well worn. Whatever you make of that way of thinking there can be no doubt that the settings you choose on your camera can make a dramatic difference.
Baking in a picture profile might save time but using some of the flatter picture options, such as SLog, will improve your dynamic range and give you more flexibility in post to adjust your color. So which option to choose?
Robby Boyd has made a video comparison of the different options, so let’s have a look at his results.
The main options being tested here are Cine 2, Cine 4, SLog2 and SLog3 and adjusting the picture profile between Pro, Cinema, SGamut, and SGamut.cine.
Robby points out that Cine 2 and 4 should have a stop or two difference in dynamic range but in his tests appear similar. He also thinks that Cine 4 in Pro has better results when considering skin tones.
Image tests
SLog 3 seems to come out as the winner for Robby despite it being rather “intimidating” to color correct. Despite the fact that this particular color profile gives you the most flexibility when it comes to color grading always try to overexpose your image properly if you don’t want to deal with the atrocious noise artifacts later in post.
I struggle somewhat with some of the descriptive terms used in this video i.e. SLog3 being “more filmic and sophisticated” and the mention of textures. Comparing skin-tones is also quite subjective.
Sony Colour
I watched a few other videos on Robby’s channel and really enjoyed them but there is really one man I always go to for Sony information.
Alister Chapman does a lot of work with Sony and he really knows his stuff. I have been to a couple of his talks at UK events and this guy knows more about Sony cameras than I know about pretty much anything. Check out @stormguy on twitter for some cutting edge Sony color science.
[source: Robby Boyd]
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