My Favorite Picture Profile For the Sony A7Sii, FS5, a6300, & a6500 (MattFlat)

I've decided to call this picture profile "MattFlat." Because it rhymes and is fun to say.

Three months ago, I started making wedding cinematography training videos to help others film weddings. It took about a week after uploading my first video for me to discover that there is a massive community of wedding cinematographers out there that want to get better at their craft. As I produce more videos in this series, I find that I am asked even more questions in comments and emails. These messages are added to an ever increasing list of videos that I will be making in the future.

By far though, the most popular question I have received is, "Which picture profile should I use when shooting with my A7Sii?" This is definitely a complicated question due to the sheer depth of the picture profile menu on the A7Sii and FS5, as well as how many differing opinions there are across the many blogs and forums across the Internet. Your train of thought may have been something like mine: "Do I shoot with the new fancy SLOG3? But doesn't that cause noise in the shadows? What about SLOG2 instead? Isn't that going to cause an odd green tint in some images? Maybe one of the Cinegammas then? Aren't those called Hypergammas in the higher end Sony Cameras? Why is everything so different? Am I crazy? Does this even look better?"

I'm excited to say that today I have an answer for you. After extensive testing, and reading throughout the vast corners of the Internet so you don't have to, I have found an ideal picture profile. Please keep in mind that while this may be my favorite picture profile, it doesn't have to be yours. You can have a different opinion from me, and that is alright.

I wanted a picture profile that would suit my needs well. It needed wide dynamic range, a flat image for color grading (but not too flat!), and be versatile for the wide variety of shooting locations I typically go through on a wedding day.

Those needs almost immediately cut SLOG2 and SLOG3, with their minimum ISOs of 1600, and their bright exposure requirements, from my list of options for picture profiles. Incidentally, the 8-bit codec of the A7Sii in SLOG3 can also cause banding in the finer color gradients like blue skies etc. I wanted to avoid this as well.

If you don't feel like watching me ramble in the above video for 6 minutes about picture profiles, here are the settings for my favorite picture profile:

SETTINGS FOR MY FAVORITE PICTURE PROFILE FOR THE SONY A7Sii and FS5

Reset PP8 to default.
Change the Gamut from SLOG3 to CINE4.

That's it! Congratulations, you're now shooting in my favorite picture profile! Leave all the other settings as they are. Go try it out and see how you like it. I'll be making another video soon, showing how I color grade this picture profile.

Special thanks for Marien Breithouwer for originally sharing this picture profile.

Music licensing sites I recommend:

I’m required to state that I'm a part of affiliate programs for Amazon, B&H, SoundStripe, ArtList, Musicbed, and Adobe and that some of the links above are affiliate links.

[YoungBlaze]

what profile do i pick to get a beard like that!

[tanner_films]

Finally something straightforward that gives flexibility and ultimate quality. Thank you for the simple solution!!

[whoismatt]

HOW TO EXPOSE THIS PICTURE PROFILE:
A lot of the questions I receive on this video are about how to properly expose your videos when shooting with it. I generally keep my exposure between .3 and .7 stops over on the built in exposure meter. I also film with zebras on and set to 100+. If the video looks bright, but it is only saying .7 over and there are no zebras then I know it will look good.

Hope that helps you! :)

[HaydenGoldsworthy]

Yet another wonderful and informative video, Matt. Keep it up!

[joekilleen]

Why are you such a legend?? Absolute hero for these Sony uploads!

[video]

Do you still recommend picture profile for sony a7iii in 2020?

[jonathanacuna]

Matt!! You’re Amazing! Always coming back to your videos 🙏🏼

[tatawaki]

Biggest difficulty is colour grading for me. I find using Slog2 and running film convert is quickest and easiest as it has the slog2 profile all ready to go. very minor tweaking if any after I apply the LUT.
- I try to keep exposure around +1 stop and never had any issues thus far in post.

Waiting for your colour grading video to see which is a faster process while maximizing DR.

thanks for the Vid!

[rowangallagher]

Your videos on the A7s II have been a life saver. Such a great quick start guide for newcomers.

[Ottschke]

perfect...exactly what I was looking for!! Thanks man for this great video!

[MarkHoltze]

Funny how people love to debate brand tech. Sony, Canon...who cares. Use what works for you...I run A7SII and C100MK2 ... love them both for different reasons.

Nice video mate, appreciate it.

[eirikstor]

Also a great video! I shoot Cine4 too. Do you underexpose when shooting Cine4? I think Phillip Bloom says that he does that in the A7s seminar.

[simplyheavenlymedia]

Man I've been binging on all your vids and on Kraig's vids all week! I'm so thankful for guys like you educating the new and upcoming wedding videographers out there! Keep it up!

[andrearusky]

I was watching the philip bloom video about picture profiles for the sony 7sii and he was saying to change the gamma to cine4 too but it was using the PP1 settings.. Do you know what are the differences between PP1 and PP8. As usual, sony menus are so complicated and overwhelming. I like canon UI more

[Adamg]

Hey, Matt! I just got my A6300 and I have enabled this picture profile on my camera and I love it!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

[moreapropos]

Thanks for posting this. Your reasons for not wanting to shoot SLOG aren't that far from those shooting a film. In a sense, much independent filmmaking is like shooting a wedding. Not a lot of light, changing conditions, not much time because no permit, etc... So this is spot on help.

[KeatonWard]

After 6 years you still like shooting weddings? My hats off you, sir.

[matgeek]

It's videos like this that makes YouTube great. Getting my A7s II tomorrow and I'll give this a try first thing. Thanks!

[Bigboytravel]

another thing to note is that if you are mixing it with DJI drone footage you can more easily match the look in post since DJI allows for Cinelike-D shooting

[ralphgeronilla]

This is actually the best general description of Log profiles. I’ve had to find out the hard way about banding and grading artifacts if you don’t use an external recorder.