HDR Processing with Only 1 Take?

It wouldnt be the same result, but then again theres no way to do HDR videography unless you have a RED or something that can take simultaneous dual exposures. To do what your talking about would still require a RED or similar to get RAW video. You'd be better off shooting film for the latitude it would offer to attempt such a thing, but you can already achieve a similar effect using curves.

Um, that should be "i cant afford red so i'll look into film". Editing at 32bit wont make any difference if you didnt capture at 12bit or above (all consumer/prosumer cameras capture at 8bit, which is compressed playback depth). I think you mean video DSLR's, which might sample the sensor at a higher resolution, but still only offer 8bit. Your going to need at least a six figure budget to get what your looking for. That or just shoot all timelapse.

[David Ghast] "Um, that should be "i cant afford red so i'll look into film""

No, it correctly should be "I can't afford film so I'll look into Red." Otherwise there would have been no market for Red at all. Instead they are transforming the industry.

HDR tonemaps more than 8 stops of latitude down to approximately 8 stops for the delivery codec. As David said the only way to get HDR in one take is to use a camera that records greater than 8 stops of latitude so you have something to tonemap. Those options are essentially film, red, or regular 5-8 stop video cameras with a beam splitter as in your example.

Red has just released the Epic which can do HDR in one take natively. Red cameras are also the only digital camera that shoots in raw format.

DSLRs do not compare to red or film cameras. If you like the look of the video you posted, and your delivery is web video, then get two dslrs and a beam splitter and forget red and film. If you are looking for more than a web video, high quality for mass distribution in theaters or bluray, then consider film or red. You can rent a red camera for a few hundred a day. But it's not a point and shoot camera, you need a crew to run it, or at least an experienced DP, as with film.

Cory

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Corporate Video

[Max Jackson] "What I find interesting is that in that video posted the guy only had a total latitude of 4 stops.

Not quite. The canons have 6-9 stops of latitude, depending on who measures them (naturally questionable), lets say 8 stops. They used two cameras in order to stagger those 8 stops; two above normal, two below. Thus they came out with 12 stops of dynamic range, then tone mapped it down to ~8 stops for delivery.

The Red One will give you 11 stops of dynamic range natively. Film can give you 11-15+ typically. Red Epic in HDRx mode can give you 18.

What I learned from a separate tutorial is that it's important to have 32-bit float to be able to have deep luminance information beyond a simple 8-bit rez.

Your delivery codec is going to be 8-bit, and thus ~8 stops. During render, the DR will be either compressed or clipped into this window.

If you work in an 8-bit color space in AE, then AE will automatically throw away color information before you can even work on it. By working in a 32-bit space, you have all the color information to work with, and can control what is thrown away and how (by using the color grading tools) when exporting to an 8 bit delivery codec.

As David said, if your source footage is 8 bit, as from a DSLR, working in 32-bit usually doesn't do much for you. However if you are working with a 12 or 14-bit red raw codec in an 8-bit space, you're wasting the time and money you spent on Red.

It's a bummer that a high-end DSLR can't provide that high of a rez for broadcast level output. I would think HD is HD. ?

"High end DSLRs" are high end still cameras that happen to take video. The professional 1dm4 is a great, professional still camera, but it's a consumer class video camera. Their effective resolution is about 500x500 pixels delivered with hardware aliasing into a video codec set at 1920x1080p. HD is more of a marketing term for them.

Sony and Panasonic make real HD cameras that can deliver truer 1080p (measured at >800 lines of effective resolution) at ~8-10 stops of DR.

Red One blows away HD, delivering 4k (4,096×2,304). Red Epic delivers 5k (5,120×2,700 - 32% more).

You would pick red for either high dynamic range, or resolution, or those plus shallow depth of field, or the raw codec.

Cory

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Corporate Video

Beamsplitters cause discoloration in the splitted image, how is that going to help with HDR?

Yeah my cameraman got back to me about RED. He told me not to even get him started on how much hassle they are (not to mention $$$). He said that and both RED and DSLR cameras skew like mad when panning. I told him they're all pretty much still shots, but anyway...Trying different options.

I saw the tutorial by Andrew Kramer taking a raw image into AE and pulling more value out of a bright sky. Fascinating stuff.

Thanks Jim!