How to expose Cine Profiles on the Sony a7S II

The following video will help you understand exposure using Cine profiles:

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Takeaways

• Cine profiles (except Cine2) are beyond the legal mode, and are full swing + super whites – which means they utilize the entire region from 0 to 107 IRE.  (50 IRE 18% grey, 90 IRE white). Cine2 follows the legal range and is designed to be within 100 IRE.
• You can underexpose by up to 2 stops to retain highlight detail, and you should be fine.
• You should not want to overexpose your scenes by more than a stop. It might look okay for sky and foliage. But for skin tones or anything with red-orange in them that go over 87 IRE, you’ll lose color.
• The color mode (color space) to use is ALWAYS Cinema. Don’t mix and match.
• You can play with the detail setting to sharpen according to taste. Some clients like super-sharp images like those you get with the GH4, while others (like me) prefer a softer image and would prefer to add sharpening later in post if desired. I leave mine at their default values for general work.
• The best overall strategy is to slightly underexpose Cine profiles, by a full stop if you have bright highlights. This will yield the best results.
• For Cine1 and Cine2: You get the best results by underexposing by one full stop. This will get you close to 33% IRE for Cine1 (HG4609G33) and 30% IRE for Cine2 (HG4600G30). This will also give you the greatest dynamic range possible with this profile.

In a nutshell:

To expose for Cine profiles:

• Change the C1 zebra Lower Limit to 87+.
• Meter the scene for correct exposure on a grey patch, and underexpose by
  • half a stop for general use
  • one stop for very bright highlights
  • This is not written in stone. Look at the scene and change accordingly
• See if anything important with red/orange color information has zebras on them. If yes, underexpose until the zebra goes away. Else, you can raise the exposure somewhat until it just about appears, and then drop it by a third of a stop until it disappears.
• Now change the zebra to 100+ (For Cine2, 100 Zebra)
• Are any highlights blowing out (zebras will show up)? If yes, underexpose, else, you’re good to go.
• Finally, look at the shadows – are they okay? In low dynamic range scenes, you’ll have more latitude to play with exposure. In high dynamic range scenes not so much.
• For Cine1 and Cine2: Underexpose by one full stop.