Dynamic range at iso 800

[friano75]

I did a short test and again I was really surprised about the dynamic range. I could see detail in darkest shadows of trees and in brightest clouds near the sun. Amazing!
I decreased gamma in my shots. How do you grade without a big decrease of dynamic range?

[dopepope]

those are some great shots! and show quite well what people can expect from shooting in similar conditions, thanks for uploading the video 'flat', though I bet you could flatten it a bit more if you wanted.
A grade will virtually always decrease your DN by its very nature. You are choosing what you want to show, and how you'd like to show it. Your flat image is actually a grade of the raw info the camera captured.
For a finished product, it's not very important to see the entire dynamic range of an image, but the dynamic range is handy when you are grading so you can pick and choose what you'd like to show. Obviously more DN means more info in highlights/shadow even in a graded image.
I think our 5D3's in RAW are probably giving us roughly 12ish steps of DN, with 9-10 of those being usable (not noisy).

[friano75]

Thank you. So if we once learned how to color correct and grade raw shots we can use this knowledge for an alexa or red too, isn't it?

[dopepope]

the principles of color grading you can use on any footage really. you'll likely use different tools for red and alexa footage, but not always.
different cameras will give you more or less information in highlights and shadows, some will handle colors a bit differently, but the ideas behind a good grade are pretty much the same.