Demystifying Log ISO, Exposure, and Noise by Horshack (I briefly covered the video in my last weekly recap):
Have you ever wondered why Nikon cameras force you to use a higher ISO when shooting N-Log video, and why that ISO is described as the “native” ISO, when you know the sensor’s native ISO is actually ISO 100 or 64? Or why N-Log is often noisier than standard video? Or why the new Lo.1 and Lo.2 N-Log ISOs reduce dynamic range, and how those expanded ISOs actually work?
In this video I do a deep-dive into how ISO and exposure work in N-Log video, answering each of the questions posed above. Rather than just provide you a set of rules to remember, I explain the actual theory behind how log exposure works, hopefully leaving you with an intuitive sense about how to expose that you can apply when shooting log on your Nikon camera. My goal for this and future installments of this series is to make N-Log as understandable and easy to use as regular video.
Here are the topics covered:
- Introduction
- Photography exposure analogy
- Log ISO vs Sensor ISO
- Why Log uses a higher native ISO
- ISOs above native ISO
- ISOs below native ISO
- Why Log has more noise
- How Expanded ISOs work
- Overexposing Log (ETTR)
- Additional Technical Details
- Conclusion
This video showcases N-Log but applies to all Log encoding formats, including those from Canon, Sony, and Blackmagic.
