Is it better to over- or underexpose when filming your shots?

[leaden patio]

I recorded some footage with my GH6 for the first time not too long ago and the image quality came out rather noisy. I figured it was because I had my ISO set to 1250 on a sunny day, but, after posting some screenshots on Reddit, there were a couple users who seemed to think it was because my shots were underexposed—suggesting that I play around with the contrast/shadows in order to minimize the grain.

This inevitably got me thinking: is it more forgiving to overexpose my shots rather than underexposing them? Obviously both extremes have their inherent disadvantages if you push them to their limit.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out what "proper exposure" actually means; what it would even look like on a histogram.

Is it better to over- or underexpose when filming your shots?

[loud hull]

It really depends on what you are trying to convey with your film. Let's use a horror movie as an example. If you want things to feel mysterious and unknown, underexposing it will help with that. If you want things to feel stressful and chaotic, you overexpose it. Now, you can absolutely change it up and experiment with these types of shots. But, it's ultimately a tool to convey mood and what you want your audience to feel. At least in my eyes.

[stoic widget]

You’re making me feel so spoiled with my false color display on my monitor lol. I would google “exposing to the right”. Without false color, probably the best way for you to set your exposure is to turn the zebra lines on to like 85-95%, set your exposure high, and keep bringing it down until anything you don’t want blown out/over-exposed no longer has zebra lines on it.

You can always darken in post. But you won’t be able to retrieve the detail lost in blown out highlights

[leaden patio]

Someone else on Reddit had suggested using False Color, but I wasn't sure what they meant by that. What kind of monitor do you use; would a feature like that be present in the Ninja Atomos?

[stoic widget]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWSeipM8X5M&t=368s

basically everything that's green-pink is perfectly exposed. it's an incredibly handy tool

[leaden patio]

I'll check it out, thanks 👍

[stoic widget]

looks like it https://youtu.be/F5rfiBWb90g?t=205

[leaden patio]

Awesome! I appreciate you looking into it for me.

[pulsar arch]

That is a step in color grading though!
You shoukd shoot to capture as much data as possible, and then, lower it to get an underexposed look.

[pulsar arch]

The GH6 also natively supports false color https://intrapixels.com/how-to-use-false-color-on-panasonic-gh6/

Inform yourself with some blog posts about how to properly use it 🙂

It's not as simple as pink = good. There's way .ore info in there and it depends on the shot

[leaden patio]

Will do!

[small pawn]

That also greatly depends on the camera. Some cameras can recover more stops under than over exposed. Check the manual that came with your camera, usually the engineers always make one for your camera's dynamic range. For example this could allow you to achieve that HDR look by increasing your dynamic range dramatically by taking advantage of the recoverable stops in post.

This is an extreme example (I don't like the HDR look and not a fan of it but you could take advantage of recoverable stops at least to increase the dynamic range of your shots in post): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJErHvSnAuw

A quick and rough explanation of how to do this: Let's say your camera can recover up to 3 stops under without loss of color or detail. This way, you can shoot 3 stops under exposed and lift the shadows in post by 3 stops or so to a neutral level. This way you have the full spectrum of information on the highlights and the shadows as well after adjusting in post. Either way, it's always recommended to ETTR as a common rule (exposing to the right on the histogram / exposing for the highlights).