Auto Iris or Manual Iris for Workprinter?

Post by **Dave Anderson** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:20 pm

What is everyone using? Which works better?

Thanks

Dave Anderson

YouTube · Post by **Andreas Wideroe** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:42 pm

I'm always doing everything in the all-manual-mode. However, I've received feedback that some people claim to get better lattitude/contrast when using an automatic setting.

/Andreas

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:47 pm

I'm using manual. My reason being this:

I figured that if you take a normal film or video with auto iris, the change is nice and smooth while it takes time to adjust. If you used it on the workprinter which has plenty of time for adjustment on each frame, then the playback would show a more 'jagged' iris change. This is what I imagined, though I haven't actually tried it. It'll be good to hear what the more experienced users say on this.

Post by **mattias** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 6:09 pm

nobody has tried my latitude/contrast suggestion yet? come on guys, i'm really curious. make two transfers, one exposed for the shadows and one for the highlights, and composite the darker one on top of the other using the luminance as alpha. if you don't know how to do this (a luma key filter with a high tolerance value works fine), just transfer twice and send it to me and i'll do it. it will give you the latitude of a rank if all works the way i expect it to...

/matt

Post by **rhcvatni** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 6:22 pm

i think Mattias is on to something here. Please try it and leave some feedback on this forum.

I'm one of the people who wrote Andreas about the auto/manual Iris thing. Whats most important the way I see it, is that every single shot is sett individualy. Don't adjust the iris for the first shot and keep that for the entire roll.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 6:32 pm

nobody has tried my latitude/contrast suggestion yet?

I've only just got a Workprinter and haven't heard about your suggestion. I'm using Dodcap to capture and have Pinnacle Studio for editing. I don't know what you'd need to try your idea. sounds interesting.

Post by **mattias** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 6:48 pm

Barry wrote:I don't know what you'd need to try your idea.

you'd need a compositing program. premiere will do, and maybe even quicktime pro, but fcp or after effects works better and offers more control. my offer to do it if you just send me the files stands though. just transfer a short clip (just a few frames) twice, once underexposed and once overexposed, upload it here or wherever and email the link to mattias@beauty.se.

/matt

Post by **sigr** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 1:08 am

Matt,

Your idea sounds intriguing. How do I use Premier to do the compositing? I have version 6.0

Thanks,
Sig

Post by **mattias** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 3:29 am

put the darker version on track 2 and play with the compositing mode. i don't remember all the settings in premiere, but there should be some way of copying the luminance to the alpha channel or simply tellign the program to use the luminance as transparency. using the luma key filter set to "key out darker" with a high tolerance might work, but i honestly don't remember if those settings are available.

come on, just send me the clips... ;-)

/matt

Post by **Dave Anderson** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 2:43 pm

mattias,

Your idea sounds like it would work in theory. I understand how to do what you're saying in AfterEffects. However on the actual transfer, would you recommend that one 'baby sits' the transfer process and adjust the exposure for each scene (if needed)?

Thanks

Dave Anderson

YouTube · Post by **Andreas Wideroe** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 2:57 pm

If you want a "neutral" transfer, set the shutter to Ie. 1/50, do the whitebalancing on the light from the bulb before you thread your film, set the aparture to Ie. 0 or 2.8 and do a manual focus.

If you require red, blue, green, darker or lighter images you can play around with the whitebalance.

PS! Check out this thread for more info: Click here!

/Andreas

Post by **mattias** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 3:26 pm

Dave Anderson wrote:would you recommend that one 'baby sits' the transfer process and adjust the exposure for each scene (if needed)?

not really. the idea is to capture all the contrast of the emulsion, and unlike reality there's nothing blacker in there than black or whiter than white, so you'll have all the information needed to color correct properly digitally. this is how a "low contrast" rank transfer works. it looks pretty awful and flat before the "tape to tape" session. the constrast and d-max of k40 is so extreme though that i suspect that even a low con scan will look good...

/matt

Post by **rhcvatni** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 4:25 pm

I know it's extra work baby sitting the transfer and adjusting the iris for each scene, but just try it. It WILL give you better results. And mattias' suggestion will probably give you even better results, but can someone with a workprinter just try this. It worked for me just filming the projection, so it should provide pretty good results with the workprinter.