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The list of HDR WCG compatible film emulation LUTs and plugins is steadily growing, the most notable recent entry being Ravengrade from Lowepost, a DaVinci Resolve plugin created by an impressive roster of color scientists and colorists, including Mitch Bogdanowicz, Juan I. Cabrera, John Daro, Douglas Delaney, Florian Utsi Martin, Mark Todd Osborne and Bianca... Continue Reading →
To the best of our knowledge, the brilliant Cullen Kelly is the only colorist who consistently addresses film emulation and the implications of HDR WCG. https://daejeonchronicles.com/2022/01/05/cullen-kelly-disentangles-pfe-befuddlement/
Note: The video should be watched in a pitch-dark room. HDR is supposed to be graded in an environment with ambient lighting at 5 nits, which might help to explain why so many complain about HDR being so dark. Unlike SDR, the PQ curve is absolute, meaning that, unlike SDR, the image can't be made... Continue Reading →
Cullen Kelly's Kodak 2383 PFE LUT works its magic no matter what footage you're working with, but it seems tailor-made for the RED Komodo. However, the look is pretty bold, particularly the contrast, so you might want to scale it back a smidgen. Fortunately for us, Cullen released a video demonstrating how to finesse color... Continue Reading →
Grain is one of the key components of the film look but few things are more distracting than seeing clumps of film grain dancing around on the talent's face. One solution is to use the HSL qualifier to isolate skin tones and use the keyer to de-emphasize the grain. An even easier way is to... Continue Reading →
The viewer’s eye can be drawn to the subject in a number of ways. Two of the techniques employed here are color separation, achieved through split-toning, and obscuring the surroundings using a mask and reducing brightness. Another approach is to create textural depth by accentuating the texture in cooler, darker backgrounds while de-emphasizing grain in... Continue Reading →
Download the version with Dehancer grain added (HDR) here. https://youtu.be/X_b4y5ylmIE
During an appearance on Cullen Kelly’s Grade School, the brilliant colorist Jill Bogdanowicz revealed a secret to accenting texture without it looking over-processed. While working on Joker, the colorist used Live Grain - which separates out the red, green and blue channels, creating grain that resembles scanned film - to accentuate texture in the cooler,... Continue Reading →
A few caveats: first, the original footage was green and overexposed; secondly, we didn't use the recommended DaVinci Wide Gamut; and lastly, as we do all of our grading before the LUT, the original footage looked nuts when we removed the LUT for the grade reveal, so we normalized it for the video. https://youtu.be/3Bv3RUGbwEc
The aggressive compression algorithms of streaming platforms destroy grain, which is why we don’t upload videos with grain to YouTube. Instead, we’re offering subscribers the opportunity to download clips, allowing you to view the picture as it was intended. We recommend throwing the movie on the timeline of your favorite NLE, setting the project to... Continue Reading →
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