Hope this quick video is helpful to you. While these ideas are nothing new, I have found it interesting the number of people who have commented or asked about their Fuji F-Log2 footage looking more noisy than desired. I also haven't seen a lot of helpful info from other Fuji users about how to both maximize dynamic range but also eliminate noise from the get go in camera as NR in post is not always the move. This video aims to be just one piece in the equation of how you might choose to expose whatever you are filming. Thanks for being here!
Well done! Just picked up the XS20 and have been searching all over for these tips! Coming from Sony it seems to be roughly the same process. Thanks for your valuable lessons!
I've been overexposing my fuji footage by +1/3 when shooting 400% Eterna (gives the same result as flog1). So, it is good to know that the same principle applies here with flog2 even if we are overexposing a tad bit more. A lot of people just say to denoise but that slows down the timeline so much when I just want to chop and deliver the project.
Great content as always. I've been shooting with my X-H2S for a while and it's always nice seeing how other people handle F-FLOG2. I typically overexpose by at least a full stop - so long as I'm not clipping any highlights - and then bring the exposure back down just like you showed in this example. Regarding the issue you ran into with underexposing when using an external monitor, I've actually made my own LUTs that intentionally bring the total exposure down by a full stop. That way, I'm already accounting for that one stop of pull--down that I know I'm going to do in post and seeing a more accurate version of the image on my external monitor. As always, cross reference that with the zebras on the camera monitor to be safe. I hope that helps!
Thanks Steve! I actually did the same thing since making this video and totally agree having luts like that on the monitor are a great additional tool. Love to hear that is working well for you too!
One trick with the XT3 is to research which ISO values are the least noisy. Most people think the higher you go the more noise. That's not true. In the case of the XT3 the cleanest values are 640 and 2000. You can go a tiny bit higher, but never go a little lower. 2000 looks significantly better than 1600. Zoom into a darker area and compare.
I seriously recommend against overexposing Log footage. If you know how log manages to cram the linear light levels from the scenes which create a massive amount of data into log using lower bitdepth than what is required from linear, you'll know that isn't done without sacrifice. With log this is achieved by compressing the tonal range of the highlights and shadows while the midtone is wider with it's tonal range. Meaning if you don't place the scene where it's supposed to be in the log curve but instead overexpose, you'll end up compressing the light levels massively leading to less tonal range in the image. This is much more noticeable with HDR. Log and RAW are supposed to be noisy if the noise reduction is off or toned down. Avoiding noise entirely causes issues down the line. So if you can keep noise within manageable levels, your footage should do well. I highly recommend studying the log curve you work with
@Rholmes2010 each log profile has it's own white paper/datasheet. I recommend reading up on it and also using exposure tools such as a grey/white card combo. Exposure is like a science you have to study and master
Love your content man, it's always helpful. I noticed your white balance is set to daylight. Do you have a recommended white balance setting or do you change it per the scenario? I have an xt4 but I figured majority of this info would apply to flog1 also.
Thanks so much. Yeah I am switching it per scenario. I use the daylight preset a lot for daylight scenarios. For anything warmer, I like to dial in the Kelvin value. Occasionally will also use AWB and then the AWB lock feature to make sure it doesn't shift on me mid take. Hope that helps!
Thanks for this dude! I’m having trouble sending a receiving a 6.2k open gate signal to the Atomos Ninja V +. It automatically converts to an HD signal even after your recommendation in this video. I’m simply looking to view this on my Ninja not record on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hey dude! I don't have experience with the Ninja. Only things I know to do would be to toggle on and off the HDMI Output Info Display. If that doesn't work, I am not sure what to try next!
Good note. I don't think I can as Resolve still doesn't have native support for F-Log 2 just original F-Log. Let me know if I am wrong on that but didn't see a way to select that? Selecting F-Log 1 does help it behave more linearly but still not exactly.
hmmm true. sometimes it helps to find some lut native in davinci that get a look similiar to what fuji gets you. for example the arri lut is pretty similiar to the panasonic v log lut @@blasepivovar
Yo! So yeah anything more than twice your fps will have less motion blur. In this scenario, sitting and talking to camera the difference is negligible and was the quickest way to demonstrate. Could have done the same thing with adjusting the aperture or using an ND but results would be the same. There are certain projects where I don't think cranking the shutter is bad. Others were I like to keep it at 180* - hope that helps :)
I imagine it is the X-Trans CMOS III sensor / processor in the camera. When Fuji release the X-Trans CMOS 4 with the XT3 there was a big bump in video quality.
Thanks for all your tips! I watched your video where you were recommending to have your high ISO NR in +2 when filming flog2 to avoid doing NR in post. Is that something you’re not doing anymore for a particular reason?
Good catch. I am always tweaking things and updating people as I go. I've really been liking NR at 0 and overexposing like I demonstrate here in this video as of recent. Hope that helps! Do you remember which video it was?
H265 will compress dark areas more than bright ones, so just wonder if the result would be the same with ProRes 422 HQ? If ProRes behaves differently (as it should be the case), it'd still be recommended to expose skin tones for the right IRE value.
Amazing! Have you worked with s-log 3 much? How do you find the noise and dynamic range compares? Also slightly confused as I've read and seen in tests that the xh2s actually has better dynamic range over the fx3 in s-log 3 which confuses me as the clipping point for f-log 2 is 85 while s-log 3 is 94 so should slog not be better? Anyways such a helpful video, thinking about picking an xh2s up pretty soon!
Glad you found it helpful! I have not worked a ton with slog-3 but I imagine it feels similar. When it comes to dynamic range I'm not the best with all the technical info so not sure what exactly would contribute to the XH2S having more latitude. Both look great when exposed well and graded in my opinion :)
@@blasepivovar yeahhh okay sweet as thank you for the insight. Just looking to actually sell my fx3 to pickup an xh2s which ik is technically a downgrade so finding it hard to commit to but feel it would suit me more and the 6.2k being able to crop for phone would be sooooo handy! Plus fuji colours and processing of colours I find so much more pleasing. Anyways absolutely ranting lmao but you’ve been a big inspo seeing the images you’ve been getting out of it :))
So you’re filming 24fps at 200 or 800 shutter instead of 48/50? Why would you do that? What about proper SS? Is there a good way to expose it for that?
Thanks for the video! Question: What is the highest ISO you would be comfortable to shoot F - log 2 at? Also, Is there a make-do second base ISO for the XH2s?
Yo! Maybe not what you would expect, but for anything that requires a high ISO / low light I actually prefer to switch to classic chrome. I feel comfortable pushing up to ISO 6400 with CC if its really needed. When filming in F-Log 2 I am almost always keeping it at ISO 1250. In CC, There is a dual gain at ISO 500 that cleans up quite a bit. But just google XH2S Sensor Measurement charts and take a look at the data on those. Hope that helps!
I was really confused about the second base ISO. Some websites like, Moment, mentioned that there are no second base ISO for XH2s. Thanks for the clarity on this. Really appreciate it.
Happy to help! Yeah I don't think it is a true "dual base iso" as Fuji doesn't really market it as that, but others have found that it cleans up at that point through testing. Gerald Undone's review of the camera has some good visual examples@@fais_ireland
23.976 is/was the standard for US broadcast so i just go with that. 24 would look exactly the same you just don’t want to mix both in the same timeline as you may run into sound sync issues the longer a video is.
Yo! I am on a 2021 Macbook M1 Pro and am running Resolve Studio and things run pretty smoothly. If you are filming in ALL-I instead of Long-GOP that can also slow down editing
@@blasepivovar thx man, yeah i also use long gop but as i read it's more a nividia problem how it handles 'hyperthreading', there are a lots of complaints recently. Thx for this video had a lot of learnings and could have gone longer for even more details. Keep up and happy to see more Fuji content!
@g.y.creationsgoldentwins ah i see. yeah computers keeping up with the cameras is definitely an interesting thing folks don’t always think / talk about. thanks so much for the encouragement.
@@g.y.creationsgoldentwins H265 is not meant to be a codec that you edit with. It would be very intensive on your system (as you've seen) to do so. The proper workflow would be to convert all of your footage to a format like ProRes before you start editing. The reason that these cameras offer ProRes recording internally is so that you can skip this step and start editing right away. But it doesn't take very long to batch all of your footage in Adobe Media Encoder and convert it all to ProRes.
@@blasepivovar Trying converting all of your footage to ProRes or DNxHD before you start editing and see how much faster and smoother the editing goes!
Hope this quick video is helpful to you. While these ideas are nothing new, I have found it interesting the number of people who have commented or asked about their Fuji F-Log2 footage looking more noisy than desired. I also haven't seen a lot of helpful info from other Fuji users about how to both maximize dynamic range but also eliminate noise from the get go in camera as NR in post is not always the move. This video aims to be just one piece in the equation of how you might choose to expose whatever you are filming. Thanks for being here!
Well done! Just picked up the XS20 and have been searching all over for these tips! Coming from Sony it seems to be roughly the same process. Thanks for your valuable lessons!
Love that. XS20 is a sweet camera. Glad to hear the vids have been helpful!
I've been overexposing my fuji footage by +1/3 when shooting 400% Eterna (gives the same result as flog1). So, it is good to know that the same principle applies here with flog2 even if we are overexposing a tad bit more. A lot of people just say to denoise but that slows down the timeline so much when I just want to chop and deliver the project.
good to know. i haven’t shot a ton with eterna but that makes a lot of sense
Great content as always. I've been shooting with my X-H2S for a while and it's always nice seeing how other people handle F-FLOG2. I typically overexpose by at least a full stop - so long as I'm not clipping any highlights - and then bring the exposure back down just like you showed in this example. Regarding the issue you ran into with underexposing when using an external monitor, I've actually made my own LUTs that intentionally bring the total exposure down by a full stop. That way, I'm already accounting for that one stop of pull--down that I know I'm going to do in post and seeing a more accurate version of the image on my external monitor. As always, cross reference that with the zebras on the camera monitor to be safe. I hope that helps!
Thanks Steve! I actually did the same thing since making this video and totally agree having luts like that on the monitor are a great additional tool. Love to hear that is working well for you too!
Is there somewhere I can download this flog2 one-stop-over monitor lut?
absolutely nice content man, binge watching your channel rn
thanks so much! appreciate you checking them out :)
expose to the right for slog3, glad to know I can expose the same for flog 2
🫡 yes sir
I’m still rocking the xt3. But imma watch anyways!
Dope. Yeah same process would apply to Flog-1 although you might not have as much latitude to overexpose. Love the XT3
One trick with the XT3 is to research which ISO values are the least noisy. Most people think the higher you go the more noise. That's not true. In the case of the XT3 the cleanest values are 640 and 2000. You can go a tiny bit higher, but never go a little lower. 2000 looks significantly better than 1600. Zoom into a darker area and compare.
@@matango1979 I switched to lumix but if I ever get another Fuji xt3 I’ll use this.thanks
This exactly what I needed! Thank you for making this!!
aye! glad to hear :)
very much needed video. helps a lot
glad to hear it!
I haven't bought this camera but the way I'm invested on. Learning everything before buying it on black Friday 😅
Haha yes, gotta do that research! Holler with any questions once you get it
I seriously recommend against overexposing Log footage.
If you know how log manages to cram the linear light levels from the scenes which create a massive amount of data into log using lower bitdepth than what is required from linear, you'll know that isn't done without sacrifice. With log this is achieved by compressing the tonal range of the highlights and shadows while the midtone is wider with it's tonal range. Meaning if you don't place the scene where it's supposed to be in the log curve but instead overexpose, you'll end up compressing the light levels massively leading to less tonal range in the image. This is much more noticeable with HDR.
Log and RAW are supposed to be noisy if the noise reduction is off or toned down. Avoiding noise entirely causes issues down the line. So if you can keep noise within manageable levels, your footage should do well.
I highly recommend studying the log curve you work with
thanks for the insight. you should make a video on this
So expose for about zero on the exposure scale? Or just expose to the right and avoid clipping highlights?
@Rholmes2010 each log profile has it's own white paper/datasheet. I recommend reading up on it and also using exposure tools such as a grey/white card combo.
Exposure is like a science you have to study and master
@@shueibdahir Thanks!
Thanks so much
Glad it was helpful!
потрясающее просто
thank you
Love your content man, it's always helpful. I noticed your white balance is set to daylight. Do you have a recommended white balance setting or do you change it per the scenario? I have an xt4 but I figured majority of this info would apply to flog1 also.
Thanks so much. Yeah I am switching it per scenario. I use the daylight preset a lot for daylight scenarios. For anything warmer, I like to dial in the Kelvin value. Occasionally will also use AWB and then the AWB lock feature to make sure it doesn't shift on me mid take. Hope that helps!
Thanks for this dude! I’m having trouble sending a receiving a 6.2k open gate signal to the Atomos Ninja V +. It automatically converts to an HD signal even after your recommendation in this video. I’m simply looking to view this on my Ninja not record on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hey dude! I don't have experience with the Ninja. Only things I know to do would be to toggle on and off the HDMI Output Info Display. If that doesn't work, I am not sure what to try next!
you shoot decrease the exposure in the hdr wheel with the right gamma settings cause than its true linear ^^
Good note. I don't think I can as Resolve still doesn't have native support for F-Log 2 just original F-Log. Let me know if I am wrong on that but didn't see a way to select that? Selecting F-Log 1 does help it behave more linearly but still not exactly.
hmmm true. sometimes it helps to find some lut native in davinci that get a look similiar to what fuji gets you. for example the arri lut is pretty similiar to the panasonic v log lut @@blasepivovar
By having your shutter speed over the fps, are you not getting a jumpy feeling in your video?
Yo! So yeah anything more than twice your fps will have less motion blur. In this scenario, sitting and talking to camera the difference is negligible and was the quickest way to demonstrate. Could have done the same thing with adjusting the aperture or using an ND but results would be the same. There are certain projects where I don't think cranking the shutter is bad. Others were I like to keep it at 180* - hope that helps :)
My xt2 iso800 is Little bit noisy… i dont know why
I imagine it is the X-Trans CMOS III sensor / processor in the camera. When Fuji release the X-Trans CMOS 4 with the XT3 there was a big bump in video quality.
Thanks for all your tips! I watched your video where you were recommending to have your high ISO NR in +2 when filming flog2 to avoid doing NR in post.
Is that something you’re not doing anymore for a particular reason?
Good catch. I am always tweaking things and updating people as I go. I've really been liking NR at 0 and overexposing like I demonstrate here in this video as of recent. Hope that helps! Do you remember which video it was?
Hi Blase! Yes, the video is called “ how to set up the Fujifilm XH2S-best settings. I will try this new setting you’re sharing ☺️
H265 will compress dark areas more than bright ones, so just wonder if the result would be the same with ProRes 422 HQ? If ProRes behaves differently (as it should be the case), it'd still be recommended to expose skin tones for the right IRE value.
Totally could be. I don't really ever shoot ProRes so didn't do any testing
Amazing! Have you worked with s-log 3 much? How do you find the noise and dynamic range compares? Also slightly confused as I've read and seen in tests that the xh2s actually has better dynamic range over the fx3 in s-log 3 which confuses me as the clipping point for f-log 2 is 85 while s-log 3 is 94 so should slog not be better? Anyways such a helpful video, thinking about picking an xh2s up pretty soon!
Glad you found it helpful! I have not worked a ton with slog-3 but I imagine it feels similar. When it comes to dynamic range I'm not the best with all the technical info so not sure what exactly would contribute to the XH2S having more latitude. Both look great when exposed well and graded in my opinion :)
@@blasepivovar yeahhh okay sweet as thank you for the insight. Just looking to actually sell my fx3 to pickup an xh2s which ik is technically a downgrade so finding it hard to commit to but feel it would suit me more and the 6.2k being able to crop for phone would be sooooo handy! Plus fuji colours and processing of colours I find so much more pleasing. Anyways absolutely ranting lmao but you’ve been a big inspo seeing the images you’ve been getting out of it :))
Hey dude, what lens do you use for making your UA-cam videos like this one? You use manual focus or Auto? Thank you
most of the time the sigma art 18-35 EF and yes AF
@@blasepivovar amazing how it looks with this settings.thanks man
I don't understand how footage can be less noise when you overexpose on the same base iso ...
Help me understand please.
Yo! I'll call on @EvanSchneider for his wisdom
So you’re filming 24fps at 200 or 800 shutter instead of 48/50? Why would you do that? What about proper SS? Is there a good way to expose it for that?
For things where motion blur is noticeable, yes 48/50. Variable ND filter for setting exposure
@@blasepivovar of course ND. I brainfarted that one lol
Thanks for the video! Question: What is the highest ISO you would be comfortable to shoot F - log 2 at? Also, Is there a make-do second base ISO for the XH2s?
Yo! Maybe not what you would expect, but for anything that requires a high ISO / low light I actually prefer to switch to classic chrome. I feel comfortable pushing up to ISO 6400 with CC if its really needed. When filming in F-Log 2 I am almost always keeping it at ISO 1250. In CC, There is a dual gain at ISO 500 that cleans up quite a bit. But just google XH2S Sensor Measurement charts and take a look at the data on those. Hope that helps!
@@blasepivovar Thanks. And you are right, I really didn't expect that.
For F-Log 2, the 2nd base ISO is at 3200 so if you needed to go above 1250 it would be best to jump up to that.
I was really confused about the second base ISO. Some websites like, Moment, mentioned that there are no second base ISO for XH2s. Thanks for the clarity on this. Really appreciate it.
Happy to help! Yeah I don't think it is a true "dual base iso" as Fuji doesn't really market it as that, but others have found that it cleans up at that point through testing. Gerald Undone's review of the camera has some good visual examples@@fais_ireland
why not just 24p instead of 23.98?
23.976 is/was the standard for US broadcast so i just go with that. 24 would look exactly the same you just don’t want to mix both in the same timeline as you may run into sound sync issues the longer a video is.
How do u handle the 10 bit 422 with 265, to get a smooth playback even with my rtx 3080 it's really tough to get it smooth
Yo! I am on a 2021 Macbook M1 Pro and am running Resolve Studio and things run pretty smoothly. If you are filming in ALL-I instead of Long-GOP that can also slow down editing
@@blasepivovar thx man, yeah i also use long gop but as i read it's more a nividia problem how it handles 'hyperthreading', there are a lots of complaints recently. Thx for this video had a lot of learnings and could have gone longer for even more details. Keep up and happy to see more Fuji content!
@g.y.creationsgoldentwins ah i see. yeah computers keeping up with the cameras is definitely an interesting thing folks don’t always think / talk about. thanks so much for the encouragement.
@@g.y.creationsgoldentwins H265 is not meant to be a codec that you edit with. It would be very intensive on your system (as you've seen) to do so. The proper workflow would be to convert all of your footage to a format like ProRes before you start editing. The reason that these cameras offer ProRes recording internally is so that you can skip this step and start editing right away. But it doesn't take very long to batch all of your footage in Adobe Media Encoder and convert it all to ProRes.
@@blasepivovar Trying converting all of your footage to ProRes or DNxHD before you start editing and see how much faster and smoother the editing goes!
why is your shutter speed so high???? it should be double you FPS, isn't this supposed to give you the most cinematic video
in a scenario where your subject and the background aren’t moving (this video), there is no difference in filming at a higher shutter