Steps, Stops, LUTs, and Looks:
The Transition to Digital Cinematography


Date & time: Sat., Oct. 25, 2008, 9:00am-5:00pm
Venue: Deluxe Toronto
Presenter: Charles Poynton

A publication-quality flyer is available in Acrobat PDF format. It's intended for printing onto 2 sides of a US Letter sheet, in color. Print it and tack it up on your bulletin board; or, print page 1 (the front side) at 140% onto 11x17 paper and it's a poster!

Description

Cinematographers and their colleagues — camera operators and assistants, colorists, and others — are in the midst of the transition to digital acquisition. Digital imaging technicians (DITs), digital intermediate engineers, and digital intermediate technicians are also involved. All of these people are engaged in translating aspects of film into the equivalents in digital technology. Many questions arise. How many stops of exposure latitude does a digital camera offer? What exposure index should be used? Where is the “film look” imparted? Why does noise arise, and what steps can be taken to minimize it? Should I record “log” or “linear”? Is it valuable to have an on-set display, or is that practice unnecessary? Where do the LUTs go? Who determines their content? Is on-set colour grading feasible?

In this 1-day Seminar, Charles Poynton will introduce digital cinema acquisition in a manner that’s accessible to cinematographers and related craftspeople. He will describe various D-cinema workflows. He will introduce logarithmic coding, and relate that to conventional photography and to digital cinema. He will describe camera sensitivity and ISO/EI ratings. He will describe the zone system, and discuss what aspects of that system are valuable in connection with digital acquisition. He will discuss the tone scale modifications that impart the “film look,” and he will discuss the roles of camera controls (“gamma“) and lookup tables in achieving these modifications.

Who Should Attend

The attendee should be familiar with digital video, HDTV, and/or digital cinema. Knowledge of mathematics isn’t required; nonetheless, we’ll show some equations and graphs! The Seminar will be suitable for people in positions such as these:

Registration fee is CAD 220 (plus GST). SMPTE members are offered a 10% discount. Handout notes will be provided. To register, telephone Lowell (PS Production Services) at +1 416 462 2482 or send e-mail to lowellschrieder@psps.com.

For further information, send e-mail: concatenate surname at surname dot com

Charles Poynton - Courses & seminars
www.poynton.com/notes/events/
2008-10-08