I only watched I Came By on Netflix because DIT Alix Milan and Kit Fraser (DoP) were two of the expert panelists at an HDR demo sponsored by Dolby at the BSC Expo last Friday. As it happens, the entire picture came off like an advert for Scatter, a plugin highly recommended over at the... Continue Reading →
Rec.2020 was never intended as an actual display color space
Pointers Gamut In 1980, Michael R. Pointer published a gamut for real surface colors, establishing a highly regarded target for color reproduction. Visually, Pointers Gamut represents the colors of the natural world. HDTV and Rec. 709 Rec. 709 is the ITU Recommendation for HDTV. Much smaller than Pointers Gamut, it was considered ill-suited for digital... Continue Reading →
Assimilate Player Pro Studio cDNG Update
Assimilate Player Pro Studio ProRes RAW to CinemaDNG is available for testing as of now. The app has made Nikolaj Pognerebko's overpriced RAW Convertor with limited functionality completely irrelevant.
HDR Panelist Calls Colorists Children
At a BSC panel on HDR back in 2016, a speaker loses his mind over what will become of all of his beloved muddy DVDs and Blu-rays once they are remastered in high dynamic range, condescendingly referring to professional colorists as 'kids'. ARRI colorist Florian 'Utsi' Martin, sitting beside him, looks very uncomfortable.
Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8X + RED Komodo (15 sec.)
There are 30-minuteYouTube tutorials on de-squeezing and aspect ratios but it looks like it’s done automatically in Resolve. It automatically chose 1.8 pixel aspect ratio upon import! There's a link to the original footage in the video description for those who dislike YouTube compression as much as we do. https://youtu.be/LtgHhejy8Hw
RED Komodo 6K Footage
There's a link to the original movie in the description for those who dislike YouTube compression as much as we do. The clip was minimally graded (reduced exposure, removed green tint) in ACES, no noise reduction in post. https://youtu.be/2oO4wRRevkk
It is extremely rare to find anyone who is finishing only in SDR
In an interview with the editor of Film and Digital Times, Greg Smokler, Director of Cine for Creative Solutions, says that few productions are only finished in SDR nowadays. Creative Solutions is a subdivision of The Vitec Group and is comprised of Teradek, SmallHD, Wooden Camera and Lightstream. Jon Fauer: Do SmallHD customers ask more for... Continue Reading →
HDR Requires Larger LUTs
JD Vandenberg, Director of Post Production @ The Walt Disney Studios, found that 33X33X33 LUTs developed for SDR are too small for working with HDR footage. So what’s the minimum size 3D LUT required to minimize visual artifacts in PQ HDR content? Vandenberg’s study concluded that 10-bit material necessitates the use of LUTs that are... Continue Reading →
Just how common is highlight clipping in SDR content, anyhow?
Apparently, very common! According to the paper published by Michael Zink and Michael D. Smith, who analyzed hundreds of titles from the Warner Bros. catalogue in order to study outlier pixels, clipping is quite common in SDR, while its occurrence in HDR content is exceedingly rare. We should add that the SDR titles were in... Continue Reading →
Ganglands: Finally, A Commendable HDR Release
We love us some gritty French action crime drama, and Julien Leclercq's Ganglands (Netflix) doesn't disappoint. The HDR presentation is very effective but, like too many HDR shows, the blacks are crushed, which doesn't bother us at all in this series, but it might annoy some. In season 2, there are countless shots where the actors’ faces... Continue Reading →
At Last! A Metric To Describe The Color Volume Of WCG Displays
Since the ICDM has unequivocally endorsed gamut rings and the CIELAB color gamut volume for display measurement, it is hoped that we will see more meaningful comparisons of the actual color volume between different displays in the future, as current methods are meaningless for today's televisions, monitors, tablets, phones and laptops. From the Information Display... Continue Reading →
BBC: 12 Stops Required for HDR Programs
From the BBC Academy Guide: “The content needs to be captured in UHD. Specifically this means: • using a camera and lens that can deliver a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels • capturing at least 12 stops of dynamic range If you’re making a live BBC programme you’ll need a camera that outputs hybrid... Continue Reading →
How To Avoid Outliers In HDR Static Content Metadata
It's definitely advisable to embed static metadata in your HDR10 videos, but doing so can actually end up making the picture worse on the viewing end if care is not taken to avoid outlier pixels - pixels that are unintended that fool the consumer's display, resulting in a dimmer image. Why don't current methods for... Continue Reading →
You Don’t Want BT.2020
"To be honest, the full gamut of 2020, I don't think we're ever going to see it. 95% of the Pointer's gamut, which covers most of the naturally reflected colors in nature - trees, fruits, skin tones and everything - it's about P3, it's slightly larger than P3. Those primaries of 2020 gamut and with... Continue Reading →
HLG’s Lack of Saturation “Not Very Commercially Compelling”
During a presentation (May 18, 2021) on the future of live HDR production, broadcast industry expert Prinyar Boon explained his decision not to go with HLG for live football and rugby events (ca. 2019): "We kind of quickly... actually, did not use HLG, because at the time, the - let's call it the natural look... Continue Reading →
Financial Review: Atomos settled sexual harassment suit, made staff ‘drugs mule’
According to reporting by the Financial Review, employees at Atomos confirmed the existence of a drug culture at the tech company, writing: "Atomos agreed to pay out $60,000 to a staff member who alleged a former employee sexually harassed her and expected her to make cocaine and cannabis available to staff, amplifying the troubled tech... Continue Reading →
Jarred Land Announces KOMODO Monochrome
On his Instagram page, Jarred Land announced the long awaited KOMODO Monochrome. The s35 6K camera has around double the sensitivity of the original Komodo and should be able to record as much as 20% more detail. With the traditional Bayer pattern color filter array (CFA) found in most cinema cameras, each pixel captures only... Continue Reading →
DCI: Colorists Have An Aversion To Colors Beyond P3
When the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives), a joint venture of Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios, published its recommendations for next-gen HDR theatrical presentation in High Dynamic Range D-Cinema Addendum Version 1.0, a black level of 0.005 cd/m2 and peak brightness of 300 cd/m2, for an overall contrast ratio of 60000:1,... Continue Reading →
Pick Up Free Exposure Chart DCTL For 18% Middle Gray
Cullen Kelly's free chart includes 14 different tone curves, including ACES, Arri, Slog3, Log3G10 and DaVinci Intermediate.