Exposure, Dynamic Range and Image Pipelines
Exposing for latitude and building the pipeline from scene to screen: stops and middle gray, meters, waveforms and false color, dynamic range and latitude, log and raw encoding, exposure strategies, LUTs and the ASC CDL, color management, ACES, HDR and SDR delivery, and the DIT and on-set data pipeline.
CINE-202 Year 2 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h
Offered by HSM University · Cinematography
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain exposure in a digital cinema workflow using stops, middle gray, T-stops, ND and scene-referred concepts
- Measure light with incident, reflected and spot meters and calculate exposure, distance falloff and lighting ratios
- Read waveforms, RGB parades, histograms and vectorscopes to judge exposure and color objectively
- Use false color, zebras and other exposure assists, knowing where each measures in the monitoring chain
- Analyze scene, camera and display dynamic range and manage latitude, highlight roll-off and the noise floor
- Explain log encoding, manufacturer log curves, bit depth, raw recording and codec choices
- Apply exposure strategies for skin, day exteriors, windows, night scenes, high contrast and visual effects
- Create and manage technical and creative LUTs, show looks and ASC CDL adjustments
- Apply color management with primaries, white points, transfer functions and scene-referred working spaces
- Design and troubleshoot ACES pipelines, including input and output transforms, ACES 2.0 and AMF
- Plan HDR and SDR mastering and delivery using PQ, HLG, HDR10 and Dolby Vision
- Organize on-set monitoring, data management, dailies and a documented image pipeline with the DIT
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h total · final exam
- 1 Exposure in cinematography 25 min · quiz
- 2 Measuring light: meters, gray cards and calculations 25 min · quiz
- 3 Waveforms, histograms and vectorscopes 25 min · quiz
- 4 False color, zebras and exposure assists 25 min · quiz
- 5 Dynamic range and latitude 24 min · quiz
- 6 Log encoding, raw and bit depth 26 min · quiz
- 7 Exposure strategies for log and raw 25 min · quiz
- 8 LUTs, show looks and the ASC CDL 25 min · quiz
- 9 Color spaces, transfer functions and color management 25 min · quiz
- 10 ACES and standardized color pipelines 25 min · quiz
- 11 HDR and SDR mastering and delivery 25 min · quiz
- 12 The DIT, the on-set pipeline and capstone 25 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Exposing for latitude and building the pipeline from scene to screen: stops and middle gray, meters, waveforms and false color, dynamic range and latitude, log and raw encoding, exposure strategies, LUTs and the ASC CDL, color management, ACES, HDR and SDR delivery, and the DIT and on-set data pipeline.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 2.