Exciting news. We have just upgraded our equipment. From now on we have got 4K and various cinematic styles recording capabilities including S-Log, CINE4 and other picture profiles. But what does it mean for our clients?
4K
Let’s look at 4K or Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolution first. Resolution of your video is based upon pixel size, the amount of tiny little dots that can be captured, and then sent to your screen. Of course the higher quality you capture at source then the better the image will look to the human eye. Standard High Definition is 1920×1080, just under 2,000 pixels, but 4K images have a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels. The videos with 4K resolution have more realistic colors and higher frame rates. It is more expensive to produce such videos, but it gives broadcast quality to your film.
If your videos are designed for online use only, such as social media, email marketing or website, you might think that there is not much benefit from 4K as web is HD at most. But filmographers often use 4K because they can crop down to HD without loss of quality when they need to stabilise a shot or use some other effect that involves cropping or manipulation of the image.
If you are planning to show your videos on large screens, for example, in a theatrical setting, or produce it for television broadcast, 4k is the way forward.
“4K means better quality of picture”
S-Log and Other Picture Profiles
Now, let’s talk about various picture profiles. Picture profiles are one of the tools which, together with colour correction and colour calibration, allows you to achieve the desired look of your footage.
S-Log is probably one of the most important picture profiles. Log was originally a technology for digitizing movie film, which then was adopted by digital cinematography to record, as much as possible, information captured by the large-format sensor. S-Log captures footage with a wider colour gamut, dynamic range, and tonal range than traditional recording formats do. Because of this, it provides far more flexibility in post-production to create the specific look you require.
“S-Log and other picture profiles open up a new realm of possibilities for handling colour and gives more creative possibilities”.
S-Log - before colour grading
Shot in S-Log - colour graded
We are excited about our upgraded capabilities and the opportunities to improve the image quality of our clients’ productions going forward.
For now, we just grabbed our new equipment and tested it on a typical London weather gloomy rainy day. And the initial results are not bad. Watch our quick test of Sony A7S mark II in 4 K and S-log: