Zebra Settings

M

MEAT

Member
We just got some new cameras and I'd like to set the Zebra setting so you have proper exposure as soon as you see zebras appearing on the flesh or white part of your subject..just a little bit of zebras on the hot spots and it is properly exposed.

My question is what should it be set for?

It defaults to 70%

Thanks for any help. I am the ND in a small market and have shot a lot in the past but never got involved in the camera set-up before.

Thanks for any help anyone can lend.
 
It totally depends on your camera, your shooting style, and most importantly, your paint settings. There isn't a one-size-fits all zebra setting. I use 95% on my cameras, but unless you had the same exact same cameras and the same paint settings, 95% might be completely wrong for you.

I would suggest spending a a 1/2 hour testing your camera with your typical paint settings and figure out for yourself what looks best. That's really the only right way to do it.

However, with all of that said, I'll gurantee you that 70% is too low.

Doug
www.VortexMedia.com
 
does it have capability to do two zebra settings?
on my D55, i do 80% and 100%
80 goes bottom left to top right
100 goes bottom right to top left.

depending on the camera, you can do a lot with zebras and doug is right - take some time and set them up with a monitor so they accurately reflect what you want to see.

it's also important to set the viewfinders up to bars correctly...and make sure every time you use the camera, the first thing you do is check that out. (assuming cameras are shared)
 
Zebra correlates to a level of exposure. Caucasian facial tones are usually around 70 IRE or 70 percent at proper exposure and make for a good low setting. Whites usually start to blow out at 100 IRE or percent, so your higher level could be set here. Usually facial tones are the most important, but you can save yourself by watching your whites. Pay attention to things...you have to learn to look at things in relative tonality and brightness. Reds may look visually bright but are usually far below 70 IRE. Concrete may look relatively bright but is usually around 70 IRE. Don't just look at whites and faces...look elsewhere around your viewfinder and take mental note...it will save you in unusual situations.
 
Contemporary cameras generally give you a choice of two zebra settings, Zebra 1 and Zebra 2. A setting of 70% is for exposing white flesh tones properly, in a relative sense. A setting of 100% is for exposing true white. If you set your camera at 70 you will, as Douglas indicated, probably under-expose a lot of footage. My camera is set at 70 because I do a lot of interviews and I have learned how to compensate with the zebras to expose properly for situations that might be more properly exposed at 95%.

Using zebras is a very inexact science and you should really put the cameras through their paces to determine what's best for you. In every day situations, with relatively inexperienced photographers, I agree with Doug, 95% is probably the best set-up. But your younger photogs will probably over-expose a lot faces.

The best method is to set Zebra 1 on 70 and Zebra 2 on 95 and switch the camera to the most appropriate setting given the situation. But that may confuse some shooters.

Personally I think zebra settings are the perfect impetus for a workshop with all your photographers. Bring them together and go over the rationale for why there isn't one ideal setting. Show them how to program their preferred number into the camera after arriving at that setting via a test you conduct during the workshop. Demonstrate how zebras work in a b-roll situation in outdoor light versus how they work in an interview. Use a waveform monitor -- if you have one -- to drive home the message.

But you have to know something about the video signal first. If you aren't that familiar with it, find a book on the subject and read it. Then have the workshop.

One last point -- someone wrote that white faces blow out at 100%. That's a very high number. White faces, particularly with HD cameras, begin to blow out in the high 70s. If you push them to 100 you've gone waaay past what's usable.
 
if you make the effort to know what they mean, or set to in your camera; what's not to like or trust? My viewfinder gets bumped all the time and the knobs move, people take my camera without asking and change settings. Without Zebras it takes too much trial and error get the VF settings back and trustworthy.

they are a tool know when to use 'em.

mine are set at 70 and 90 ire
 
chicagoshootr said:
I've never liked them, trusted them or used them. Am I alone here?
Click to expand...

Really? Do you use VU meters for your audio? Or don't you trust them either? Zebras are simply VU meters for light.

Unless you want to carry around a waveform montor everywhere you go, zebras are really the only way to determine what the right exposure should be.

Learn about them, set them up, trust them, and use them.

Doug
www.VortexMedia.com
 
lost focus said:
if you make the effort to know what they mean, or set to in your camera; what's not to like or trust?...they are a tool know when to use 'em.
Click to expand...

Word. ;)

It still amazes me how many out there ignore such a great tool.

Use them. I can't imagine shooting without them. Ever.
 
To simplify what's already been said:

MEAT said:
I'd like to set the Zebra setting so you have proper exposure as soon as you see zebras appearing on the flesh or white part of your subject..just a little bit of zebras on the hot spots and it is properly exposed.
Click to expand...

You just described 70%. The default setting should be fine.

chicagoshootr said:
I've never liked them, trusted them or used them.
Am I alone here?
Click to expand...

God I hope so. Not using zebras is like trying to record audio without monitoring your levels.

I had a chief who never learned to use zebras. He just judged the exposure based on what it looked like in his viewfinder. He had to loan his camera out to the sports department, and they adjusted the brightness of his viewfinder. For the next week everything he shot was either over- or underexposed while he tried each day to figure out where it was set before. He bitched and bitched about them not returning the settings like they found them.

Then he had to send his camera off for repair and use someone else's. Everything he shot while it was gone was over- or underexposed because he wasn't accustomed to the brightness of the viewfinder. Later on his viewfinder started failing, getting progressively darker as time went on. He kept taking the camera to engineering, telling them the camera wasn't exposing properly. The engineers would test the camera on a scope, find that it was exposing exactly where it should be and return it to the chief, who assumed that the engineers were all idiots. When his viewfinder finally got dark enough to reveal itself as the problem, he went through yet another week of adjusting and bad exposures as he adjusted his eye to the new viewfinder.

And yet, "I never use zebras," he said. "They're annoying, and I don't have any problems without them."

That guy was an idiot. Don't be that guy.
 
At the risk of being an idiot… I don’t generally use zebras. Exposing by eye is something I learnt and I never have a problem. I find that zebras can interfere with fine focus. Especially if I’m shooting sport. I use a lot of different cameras so setting the viewfinder with bars is part of my routine every time I pick up a different camera.
Saying that I love the switch on the viewfinder that lets the zebras come on for 5 seconds and then go. That way I can check occasionally if I’m unsure about something… but I’m usually right.
 
cameragod said:
At the risk of being an idiot… I don’t generally use zebras. Exposing by eye is something I learnt and I never have a problem. I find that zebras can interfere with fine focus. Especially if I’m shooting sport. I use a lot of different cameras so setting the viewfinder with bars is part of my routine every time I pick up a different camera.
Saying that I love the switch on the viewfinder that lets the zebras come on for 5 seconds and then go. That way I can check occasionally if I’m unsure about something… but I’m usually right.
Click to expand...
I turn mine on and off all the time. Once I get it set, I turn it off and will then sometimes not use it once I know my levels. Then again, I have a XDCam so I can just check the monitor too. I never used them when I shot hockey though.
 
Be aware that on some cameras such as the XDCAM 350 I have, a 70% zebra for flesh tones can still blow out. Like Douglas said, there's no magic number because it depends on your paint settings. I've been burned with 70% zebra on the face (just showing a small amount). The skin had a plastic look to it. The problem? I checked it on the FCP scopes and found that the red channel was clipping on the RGB parade, yet the waveform showed the facial areas reading at about 70. This is the problem with all electronic white balance cameras. Under certain lighting, the relative amplifier gain to achieve white balance can put one channel too high. In this case, the camera had cranked up the red channel gain to achieve white balance.

cm
 
I like my zebras set pretty high. Usually above 85 or 90%. I like for zebras only to be visible when whites are nearly clipping. I typically identify what is brightest or whitest in my frame and adjust the iris right before the zebras fall away. If I know something is supposed to be white, I'll make sure the zebras a just barely on that area. But otherwise, I don't want to see many of those scrolling lines in my viewfinder. 70% on a bright sunny day, especially with snow, is WAY too disorienting for me.
 
I understand there some people who seem to get good results with 70% zebras, so if it works for you, go ahead.

But, 70% is only accurate if everyone has the SAME shade of skin. Does everyone have the same skin tone? Absolutely not.

Is a 70% zebra going to give you the same reading on Obama as it does on McCain? No. Yet, if you set each guy down in the interview chair, with the exact same lighting, the correct exposure should be EXACTLY the same. All other things being equal, the exposure should not be influenced by the difference in skin tones.

The most accurate method of setting exposure is to use a chip chart, 18% gray card, or bright white card. Then the object you are shootiing has a known reflectance vaue. That is the key. Zebras are most useful if you know WHAT the reflectance value is of the subject you are shooting. Clearly any given face does not have a known reflectance value, therefore you can't say for sure if 70%, 68%, 73%, etc. is right for THAT face. That's why good still photographers and cinematographers generally rely on an incident light meter reading.

Here's another example. Suppose you are shooting a dark blue rubber ball sitting on a table top. By whatever method you want to use, you set the perfect exposure, and then you replace the ball with a bright yellow ball. Should you change your exposure. NO. And shooting faces is no different.

Unlike faces, "white" is farily conistent. I look for something bright white in the shot, set my zebra at 95%, and adjust the iris until the whites are just showing the zebra pattern. I know for sure that a bright white object, with a little zebra, means that my shot will be exposed correctly. And then I don't have to guess how "white" somebody's face is.


Doug
www.VortexMedia.com
 
I'm surprised to see so many that love zebras. An 18 year shooter here and I have never used them nor ever liked them and I have never had a problem at all.

I disagree with those of you who insist they must be used.
 
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