The Alexa 35 is arguably ARRI's most coveted camera to date, but it also the produces the most digital-looking footage of any camera the venerable German manufacturer has yet released. Noise The noise of Alexa cameras is said to have been modeled on scans of actual film grain, resulting in a more pleasing, organic looking... Continue Reading →
Erik Messerschmidt: Why HDR Production Monitors Matter
I didn't find that I was that worried about the toe in general. I was always looking at the highlights, particularly in contrasty situations, so the way that we had the the LUTs built, especially in the black and white version, was when the monitor clipped, the waveform clipped, and the sensor, the camera, told... Continue Reading →
Has anyone else seen this on a YT video before?
Last month, The Verge wrote about the feature: "YouTube's introducing an “enhanced” 1080p HD video quality for Premium subscribers — but it’s only available on iOS for now, with the option coming to web soon. According to YouTube, the new 1080p Premium option is “an enhanced bitrate version of 1080p” that’s supposed to make things... Continue Reading →
Atomos support for Apple ProRes RAW plugins
This is great news for ProRes RAW shooters. From NewsShooter: “Atomos has announced immediate support for Apple ProRes RAW plug-ins. Apple ProRes RAW plug-ins are a new innovation that lets camera manufacturers provide their own ProRes RAW processing pipeline to take advantage of the unique properties of their cameras, sensors, lenses, and more. With the... Continue Reading →
Lift, Gamma, Gain
"It is also worth bearing in mind that the traditional lift, gamma, and gain operators are particularly unsuitable for acting on ST 2084 image data, where 0-1 represent zero to 10 000 cd/m2. Highlights, in particular, can swing uncontrollably into extreme values as a result of small changes. Modern grading systems offer alternate grading operators... Continue Reading →
ΔE ITP for the evaluation of HDR WCG displays
The current metric for evaluating displays, ΔE2000, has been under-predicting perceptual color differences, particularly when used for the evaluation of HDR and WCG displays. Charles Poynton argues that the industry should transition from CIE L* and CIE LAB to ΔE ITP. Poynton writes: A proposal has been made to use CIE LAB to quantify HDR gamut.... Continue Reading →
Priorities
Polly Morgan, who recounts how she ‘fought tooth and nail’ with Sony to be able to add grain to the excessively clean, digital looking Alexa Mini LF footage, was evidently very proud of herself for being able to collaborate on the Dolby Vision master of the excruciatingly dull Where the Crawdads Sing (Netflix), whose HDR, with highlights... Continue Reading →
Tyler Purcell Is A Moron
An old post over at Cinematography.com that never grows old. Tyler can be forgiven for thinking there's no HDR content on Netflix, but 2K deliverables? :))
Spotlight On Erik Messerschmidt, ASC: HDR Monitoring, Lighting Ratios, ETTR
"I used to embrace the romantic idea of a dramatic underexposure and very thin negative and I have gone the other way." Filmmaker Magazine: With the early Red cameras—back in the Epic days—I remember people talking about how you needed to expose to the right on the histogram because if you underexposed you were in... Continue Reading →
RED Komodo: To ETTR or Not?
In just the past 24 hours, there have been something like 175 visits to an old article we posted announcing our intention to return to ETTR with the RED Komodo, so we're guessing it's a somewhat controversial topic! To the best of our knowledge, few DPs on big productions ETTR but there do exist some... Continue Reading →
Working Color Space: What Colorists Aren’t Telling You
Almost without exception, colorists on YouTube who recommend using a working color space other than the native color space of the camera do so without explaining to their followers that this requires making a viewing LUT during pre-production. It’s difficult to conceive how anyone preoccupied with color management could overlook this critical detail. The following... Continue Reading →
Dolby Engineer Answers Our Most Pressing Questions!
We asked Nate McFarlin, Senior Content Engineer, Dolby Laboratories, a couple questions that have been troubling us for a while now: (1) Why exactly is it that Dolby insists on input and output DRTs being set to NONE in a Resolve Color Managed workflow; and (2) When mastering Rec2020 (P3-D65 Limited) ST2084, should the mastering... Continue Reading →
Spotlight on Armando Salas, ASC
Can you share with the group how HDR came into your life? What was your experience, your first impressions and especially how, and if they have changed at all, with the other projects you've done? A.S.: I was hired on Ozark, on season 2. I was finishing another show and I was alternating with Ben Kutchins... Continue Reading →
Adjusting Custom Curve for ETTR Footage
Cullen Kelly has contributed a tutorial entitled How to Fix the Dreaded “Video Look” Using DaVinci Resolve to the Frame.io Insider blog where he shares several tips that we've used with great success since following him on his YouTube channel Grade School; but we advise against making an S-Curve as he recommends if you're exposing to the... Continue Reading →
Working Color Space: REDWideGamutRGB/Log3G10, ACES or DaVinci Wide Gamut?
When it comes to post-processing, using the fewest number of transforms and working at the highest available bit depth in a native color space greater than the display color space are key to preserving the greatest image quality. So, should you be changing your timeline color space to DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate or not? Three... Continue Reading →
RED Komodo-X TBA
Phil Holland writes: Summary of likely things or known things:- Locking RF Mount- Front Side Record button- Very likely still a top screen- Very likely compatible with DSMC3 monitors now, but not confirmed- Very likely CFexpress Type-B media- Unknown Battery Mount- Very likely 6K resolution, S35 or S35+ sensor with higher unknown framerates. Likely 60fps... Continue Reading →
Budget For Highlights: SDR vs HDR
We’ve written a lot about specular highlights, how there should be enough headroom above diffuse white and how studies have shown participants prefer specular highlights appreciably brighter than diffuse white, by as much as 3X or even more. Just how does that figure compare to SDR video? “In traditional imaging, the range allocated to these... Continue Reading →
Colorist: We Don’t Need A Display That Mimics The Sun’s 1.6 Billion Nits
First, we had a prominent colorist proclaim, "That's the conventional wisdom that I hear a lot, like, the conventional wisdom would be like, 'oh, if you're doing a 1000-nit master, your brightest stuff in your image should be a thousand nits, you should have plenty of like speculars and highlights and things in your grade... Continue Reading →
DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Beta Adds Support For Sony XAVC RAW Controls
Not sure how this is even possible, but Alister Chapman writes: “In addition Black Magic design have just release the public beta of DaVinci Resolve 18.5. With this update you can now use the Raw controls in the Grading room to control the ISO/White Balance/Tint etc of S-Log3 footage from the FX series cameras. This... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 