From the Color Tour Podcast S4 EP06: Thomas Urbye, Noho, UK, August 7, 2023 Thomas Urbye is the senior colorist and CEO of the Post House ‘The Look’, responsible for shows like Sex Education, Fleabag, Top Boy and Landscapers. They’ve done 20 HDR shows so far, every show they do is HDR, the vast majority being Dolby Vision. “I think what’s interesting... Continue Reading →
Maxine Gervais: I don’t want Dolby to dictate how I work
The other day, Maxine Gervais sat down with Cullen Kelly to discuss her work. My client sees the SDR version first “I’m embracing Dolby, definitely, but in a reverse engineering way; and I think by doing so, it has made my clients embrace HDR way more. And I can give you a hint to my... Continue Reading →
We Overlooked A Crucial Component Of Grading HLG HDR!
While goofing around with specular highlights in HLG, we thought we'd see just how well Phil Holland's philmColor LUTs held up, and as it happens, they're pretty terrific! But it dawned on us that HLG has a boatload less saturation than PQ; so for sure, you'll want to add some in post. But you don't... Continue Reading →
First RED KOMODO 6K HLG HDR Footage & Diffuse White/Specular Highlight Comparison!
“The PQ system was developed by Dolby, a company whose main focus is on the cinema while the HLG system was developed jointly by BBC and NHK, two organizations whose main focus is on television… Television is probably better served by the HLG system that was designed from the ground up by television engineers for... Continue Reading →
Short Takes: Mark Toia Edits in HDR for SDR Deliverables
“Director and DOP Mark Toia flew to Africa to shoot on the RED cameras a stunning set of visuals that Apple showed during the event. The raw footage is for a documentary Apple wanted to use as a test case for the new FCP pipeline. Toia is a highly successful filmmaker who does vast big... Continue Reading →
First model shoot with the Great Joy 85mm T2.9
Not great art, but here are a couple clips from our very first model shoot with the Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8X anamorphic lens. What we like: the lens is solidly built, fit and finish are excellent, the aperture and focus rings are smooth with just the right amount of resistance, it's got markings in... Continue Reading →
Don’t Buy The Calibrite Display Pro HL
Update (macOS Tahoe 26): As of the latest version of macOS, Apple has officially added the Calibrite Display Plus HL to its list of supported meters for calibrating reference modes on Apple XDR displays (Pro Display XDR, Studio Display, MacBook Pro) using the built-in Pro Display Calibrator. My original advice to avoid the Display Pro... Continue Reading →
“I was Given 4 Hours to Test Sony A95L. Here are 12 Things I Found”
HDTVTest got their mitts on Sony's soon to be released flagship QD OLED TV, capable of 1,350 nits on a 10% window and 240 nits full screen. Because Vincent was unable to connect to the same Internet network at Sony UK's office with his own laptop, he wasn't able to calibrate the A95L using the... Continue Reading →
HDR: Disruption or Natural Progression?
“I think cinematographers have always advocated for a better experience for the audience, whether it’s fast film stocks with tighter grain, better projection technology, or higher quality digital-capture and display technologies. HDR is just another step in that direction.” Erik Messerschmidt At NAB 2023, Carolyn Giardina, tech editor of the Hollywood Reporter, sat down with... Continue Reading →
Time for the UHD Alliance & EBU to Update Color Gamut Measurement Methodology
It's been six long years since the UHD Alliance announced their specifications for Ultra HD Premium requiring devices be able to display no less than 90% of the DCI-P3 color space - in area, not volume. Likewise, the EBU published User Requirements for Video Monitors in Television Production, which proposed now outmoded 2-D diagrams for evaluating color... Continue Reading →
Free Fuji 3510 Film Emulation LUT
Cullen Kelly's offering a free Fuji 3510 film emulation LUT for use with ACES and DaVinci Wide Gamut. We can't honestly say we're really fond of the flat, yellowish-green look, but it might work for one of your projects - and free HDR compatible LUTs aren't exactly falling out of the sky!
Beyond the Hype: The Hidden Costs of Grading HDR in Rec.2020
As HDR video becomes increasingly mainstream, the push for wider color gamuts has led to debates over the practicality of using Rec.2020 as a mastering standard. Experts caution that Rec.2020’s wide color gamut is impractical for real-world use. From energy inefficiency and metameric failure to challenges in gamut mapping and a lack of compliant displays,... Continue Reading →
FilmLight Looks
HDR Video Shooters will primarily be interested in the Core Looks, which are divided into three different collections: the C100, C200 and C300. The C100 group is comprised of film emulations based on measurements of real film stocks or film processes. All of the C100 profiles produce a rich color palette with deeply saturated colors,... Continue Reading →
Christopher Nolan Praises 4K UHD HDR
You might say that Christopher Nolan’s a huge fan of HDR. During his acceptance speech upon receiving the DEG Vanguard Award during the 4K Ultra HD Summit at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center in 2018, Nolan recounted how home viewing has impacted the structure of his films and shared his enthusiasm for 4K Ultra HD... Continue Reading →
Sr. Colorist, Marvel Studios: All Streaming Productions Monitored In HDR & SDR On Set
postPerspective's Randi Altman interviewed Marvel Studios’ Senior Finishing Colorist Matt Watson during a virtual roundtable. Randi Altman: Do you often create LUTs for a project? How does that help? Matt Watson: Yes, we create show LUTs for every project. To be specific, we design our looks within the ACES framework as LMTs, which represent the visual... Continue Reading →
Can Your TV Reproduce These Colors?
This twitter account has a number of illustrations of colors that can't be reproduced by HDTV (designated in gray). Photo: dot-color.com
Future-Proof Color Management Strategies
In this excellent seminar, FilmLight's Daniele Siragusano discusses future-proof color management strategies optimized for multi-delivery (SDR and HDR). He's also the first to point out (to the best of our knowledge, anyway), how diffuse white level affects our perception of color. https://vimeo.com/298131298
3D-LUT Optimization for High Dynamic Range and Wide Color Gamut Color Processing
In A Review of 3D-LUT Performance in 10-Bit and 12-Bit HDR BT.2100 PQ, published in the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal in March 2020, JD Vandenberg and Stefano Andriani concluded that HDR requires larger LUTs to achieve error-free interpolation comparable to those used for SDR, writing: "Tetrahedral interpolation outperformed all other interpolations for both SDR and HDR... Continue Reading →
Massive 201″ Micro-OLED Virtual Theater? 4K? Only 79 grams? 1/10th the cost of Apple’s Vision Pro? We’re all in!
One of the biggest issues facing HDR is not so much that flagship TVs by Samsung, Panasonic, LG and Sony aren’t able to display stunning picture quality, but that ordinary people don’t watch movies and TV shows in a room with 5 nits surround luminance, 6500 K bias lighting and walls sitting back 20 feet... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 