Blackmagic Forum

Whenever i want to use BMD false color, i find myself pausing a bit more than i should, i think, because the readout can be confusing.

I was hoping that Blackmagic could update the false color coloring system across the board to something more real-time legible.

Arri has a readout that is pretty straightforward:
RED - 1/3 stop below clipping
YELLOW - 2/3 stop below clipping
PINK - 1 stop over 18% middle gray
GREEN - Middle gray
BLUE - edge of shadow detail
PURPLE - Noise floor

source:

BMD does use the Arri system...

And then BMD puts different shades of gray in between areas that’s hard to tell what those different gray readings mean.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m an idiot.
I’ve never used Arri before.

Adam Langdon wrote:And then BMD puts different shades of gray in between areas that’s hard to tell what those different gray readings mean.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m an idiot.
I’ve never used Arri before.

Well, I'm an idiot too then. I often vary the aperture just to find yellow, green, pink to try to determine which grey I'm looking at. I think I would be fine with the suggested change with only colors that are readily recognizable.

It's best not to think of them as stops.

They are in % where 100 is clipped. BMD have a different mid grey than Arri for example so it's the same mid grey, but the actual IRE / % number *is* different, but the scale is the same.

Like with Arri I think of it as...

Red = Unrecoverable highlight detail
Yellow = Nearly unrecoverable highlight detail
Pink = where an engineer in a TV studio with perfect studio lighting thinks skin tone on a Caucasian should sit
Green = Mid grey, typically where I would more likely sit a Caucasian skin tone...in LOG this is not at 50% like people assume that "mid" grey would be but actually at 38.4%
Blue = Nearly shadow clipped...where you actually want to place anything that's meant to print as black...
Purple = Unrecoverable shadow detail

JB

John Brawley wrote:

Red = Unrecoverable highlight detail
Yellow = Nearly unrecoverable highlight detail
Pink = where an engineer in a TV studio with perfect studio lighting thinks skin tone on a Caucasian should sit
Green = Mid grey, typically where I would more likely sit a Caucasian skin tone...in LOG this is not at 50% like people assume that "mid" grey would be but actually at 38.4%
Blue = Nearly shadow clipped...where you actually want to place anything that's meant to print as black...
Purple = Unrecoverable shadow detail

JB

This is how I based it too. Glad I’m doing something right.

Get used to it.
False colors make sense and work great.
Don't change a horse mid stream.
They're consistent. Just get used to them.

And, if one wishes, they can always create their own False colors with a LUT.