Panasonic Lumix S5 Advanced Exposure Setup
Photo Moment - February 26, 2021
The LUMIX S5 is an incredible camera, with powerful tools that you may not realize existed. I'll show you how to use the waveform monitor, scopes, zebras and the spot meter in ways you've probably never considered!
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The full story…
The Panasonic LUMIX S5 is an incredibly powerful camera, and many of its best features are buried deep in the system. In this video, I'll show you how to verify accurate white balance by using the vectorscope, show off how different color profiles look on the scopes, show the waveform monitor for monitoring exposure with a grey card, and then give you something truly amazing — a way to use zebra stripes to ensure perfect exposure while shooting V-Log, and then combine that with the Luminance Spot Meter to ensure you never overexpose!
The vectorscope is designed to show you where your colors (Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow) fall in the scopes, but it also will show you if white is actually white. This is a fantastic way to quickly verify that your white balance, whether a preset, manually set, or a custom WB, is actually perfectly accurate. It's also an interesting way to see how certain color profiles might shift your colors for “true” or natural. For example, if you switch to a Vivid profile, what's actually happening to the colors? Have the blue colors become more saturated? Have the greens shifted towards yellow? You can see all of this at a glance using vectorscopes.
Then we'll explore the waveform monitor. I'll start by explaining how it all works. What the dotted and dashed lines mean, the differences between 0 IRE (zero IRE) and “video black,” where pure white is on the waveform, and what to watch out for so you don't clip your highlights, and finally, how to identify middle grey, at 40 IRE, and ensure your exposure is perfect when using an X-Rite Color Checker Video or X-Rite Color Checker Video Passport.
From there, we'll get into very advanced use of Zebras. You're undoubtedly familiar with using them to ensure you don't overexpose by enabling zebra stripes at maybe 80% or 90% or even 100% to be warned when your image is getting too hot. However, there's also a way to set zebras to only show up in a specific range when shooting in V-Log. This means you can set your zebras to highlight the parts of your scene that are exactly 42 IRE (which it turns out is the middle grey for V-Log, and not 40 IRE like it is for non-Log), which when paired with a grey card, is incredibly powerful! Then, just to be even more careful and accurate, you can enable the Luminance Spot Meter to ensure you don't overexpose your highlights — which when shooting V-Log is pretty hard to do since you can go as much as +6.3 stops above middle grey and –8 stops below middle grey, for a total of 14.3 stops of dynamic range! Having over 14 stops is fantastic, and knowing how to use these tools will ensure that every shot you get is perfectly exposed — especially when shooting in V-Log!
Finally, in case you're wondering… your LUMIX camera may have V-Log L, not V-Log. V-Log L is the “light” variant of V-Log that's found on cameras like the GH5 and G9. This is a slightly lower dynamic range variant of V-Log, however it is still Log. The S-Series full frame cameras like the LUMIX S5 and LUMIX S1H have full V-Log, just like the Varicam (professional Panasonic cinema cameras) do. In fact, the “V” in V-Log and V-Log L stands for “Varicam”!
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📄 Full Video Transcript
1. I would like to set my zebras for the maximum highlight..so when they appear I should go low.. what would be the porcentage? 85 or 95?
2. I wonder if exposing for vlog and Raw Pro res (with the atomos V) is it the same way? Max highlights 6.3 stops and shadows Min -8stops?
thank you
Is there general rule how to expose whole scene or skin colors in VLOG? I got light meter so that way I can easily check the exposure ...
I tried to trick it with manual focus zoom, but in that mode Spot Luminance or Zebras does not work :(.
I guess I have to rely on zebras, although with 18mm color card is so small (even pixel to pixel) that it's hard to guess it's really properly exposed :D.
Seems it shows 0.0 EV with base level zebras when whole scene is at -1EV, so maybe that is the hint. And VLOG assist (with REC709) LUT is also helpful, so :D.
Worse case scenario I can use false colors on my Atomos :D.
I recently changed to Panasonic from Sony and I'm really impressed with it so far.
I've noticed something interesting when using auto ISO in manual mode. It looks like the camera will push the exposure histogram to the right ( as if you were 'exposing to the right').
I haven't seen this documented anywhere.
Am I dreaming?
It's the same on S1/S5
I forget what way my Sony worked, my buddy is going to check his.
But I've never noticed Auto ISO to push to the right before on a camera.
It's really slick
I should have mentioned that I was shooting stills, with the standard profile.
I hope you understand what I mean.
With kind regards
Jimmy
I came to some sort of solution for protecting the highlights in V-Log by experimenting with the wave form monitor and observing at which percentage adding more light starts compressing the wave form at the upper end - and that was around 95%. So, I set my zebra to 90% to be on the safe side - and overexposed footage was gone!
And, now I learned from your great tutorial, that the luminance spot meter on the S1H in V-Log mode exactly measures the stops of the light. I just did the test with my S1H while watching your video. It is a perfect fit: when the zebra for 90% comes into action the spot meter is around +6 stops, leaving me 0,3 stops lee way.
I really ask myself where those stupid recommendations come from saying one should overexpose V-Log by 1-2 stops in principle, especially with such precise measurement instruments in my hands.
Question: You set the zebras to around 40, and when they appeared on middle grey, you established that exposure was perfect. You then used the spot metering to show that white was at 2.1 stops over. But then you increased brightness til you reached 6.3 stops over. 1) Why would you want to increase brightness if the scene was already perfectly exposed? 2) If you push brightness upwards, wouldn’t you cause the perfect exposure of middle grey to be ruined? And finally 3) Most other videos state that skin is at 60-70 IRE. Isn’t that the level I should set the zebras at in order to get perfect skin exposure (instead of at 40 for middle grey)?
I apologise if these questions make little sense to you, I’ve probably misunderstood something 🤷🏽♂️😃
Comments
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for your fantastic vids!
I’ve set my S5 to V-Log yet since them, for some reason I cannot fathom, my shutter angle has gone whacky to 288 and I cannot for the life of me reset it. Given no one anywhere as far as I can tell actually shows step-by-step, showing all buttons clearly, how to actually do this, I only figured it out randomly on my own to begin with – now can’t figure out how I did that. This is so basic for filmmaking, so ingrained on basic iPhone apps like Filmic Pro yet it’s shrouded in mystery – and not even on Panasonic’s page. Can you please help explain how to set it – whether one is in V-Log or not? Many thanks!. Kal
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