Sony A7S skin tone Vs Canon EOS skin tone

[HIFF]

So I am loving my A7S for film making apart from one crucial aspect, skin tone.

 

My Canon 6D videos have great skin tone.

 

I have not been able to match those on my A7S yet.  My A7S skin tones are frequently verging on looking like sun burn, where my 6D captures true realistic skin tones under exactly the same light, scene and ISO/shutter/aperture settings. 

 

Could some of you pros give me some picture profile setting advice.

 

I have tried the standard picture profiles, and various custom profile settings - wow, the options are extensive.

 

I did a lot of googling and found a dozen or so custom settings - many were SLog2 though and I don't want to use SLog2 due to the color grading workflows involved. 

 

If any of you good folks could provide the custom profiles you use to get good video and skin tones on the A7S I would HUGELY appreciate it. 

[hmcindie]

I think you should try the profiles by dvxuser moderator Kholi.

 

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?326049-A7S-PicPro-Settings

 

I had problems too, Kholis settings helped but yes, the canons are still better color wise than what the a7s is outputting. One thing compared to the 5dmarkIII skinwise is that it's quite easy to underexpose the a7s because the LCD on the a7s is surprisingly bad in displaying blacks and output levels. So you have to constantly use the histogram as it's very hard to tell when something goes too low. It doesn't really get any darker on the a7s monitor, it just suddenly clips. So be sure to give a good exposure, that helps a lot. And practice. It does get easier.

[HIFF]

Thanks hmcindie, super link.  Much appreciated.   :)

[JeremyDulac]

Here is the thing...yes, you can get natural skin tones straight out of the camera with Canon, but you don't get even half the image quality you do with the Sony A7s in my opinion. Everything from color to detail is better to me. BUT, to me the A7s requires a willingness to correct the image a bit in post. It is tough to get the skin tones right, right out of the camera, and I feel none of the profiles are COMPLETLY designed to be straight out of the camera ready, other than the rec 709. I use S Log2 with S gamut color and there is absolutely a green cast at times, but it is SO SO quickly and easily removed in post. I think you should just stick with the 6d if you want a solid look right out of camera. The A7s needs a bit of tender love and care - but once you understand how to post process the A7s, it has the potential to look miles better than anything the 6d could ever achieve. All this is just my opinion though  Its not really a black and white issue.

[Andrew Reid]

The Canon is doing something at a low level straight from the sensor which benefits colour, right through the range to the C500 whereas the A7S and GH4 are not.

You can see it in the image, it's obvious without the fiddling around.

See - http://learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/white_papers/White_Paper_sensitometric.pdf

And - http://learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/white_papers/White_Paper_35mmCMOS.pdf

Now if only they'd do the same for as reasonable a price as the A7S.

[AccordingToMe]

See - http://learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/white_papers/White_Paper_sensitometric.pdf

And - http://learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/white_papers/White_Paper_35mmCMOS.pdf​

So you found them—good. 

[jcs]

Those papers unfortunately don't reveal any of Canon's color processing algorithms past de-Bayer to RGB and YUV. There's only one simple linear equation (luma calculation). The papers only apply to the C100, C300, and C500. The 1DC uses a different sensor.

[Terrence Wilkins]

I've actually figured out a decent way to get consistent skin tones, but it requires a x-rite colour passport and Davinci resolve.

I have two work flows depending on the result I want, 

Option one:

Using a custom LUT made by myself. https://vimeo.com/108150808,

Use a custom WB  with the greycard, then record a couple of seconds of the colour checker for reference.

Shooting in S-LOG 2 / S- GAMUT +23 saturation, then using colour matcher with these settings ( Source Gamma: Slog-2 / Target Gamma: BMD Film / Colour Space: P3 D60)

(This gives me a nice teal/orange look) Then applying the LUT and fiddling to your desire.

 

Option Two:

Use a custom WB  with the greycard, then record a couple of seconds of the colour checker for reference.

Shooting in S-LOG 2 / PRO Colour +23 saturation, then using colour matcher with these settings ( Source Gamma: Slog-2 / Target Gamma: BMD Film / Colour Space: P3 DCI)

(I find this gives me a very neutral almost film/canon representation of the colours). Just requires the contrast/saturation to be tweaked.

I may be wrong here as I've only tested this a small amount, but as long as you set your custom WB, you may only need to do the colour checker once. As In you could create a set of LUTs with the WB pre-dialed in to a temperature and should get consistent results as long as a custom WB is set.