An astrologer who shoots his content with a Sony mirrorless camera and who follows Cullen Kelly's YouTube channel asked whether it made any difference if he used Resolve Color Management and DaVinci Wide Gamut or a CST (as Cullen demonstrated in his short DaVinci Resolve tutorial) to which we replied: "They should look identical. However,... Continue Reading →
The Alexa 35: ARRI’s Most Digital-Looking Camera
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 →
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 →
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? :))
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 released 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 →
Apple To Phase Out LCDs and miniLEDs By 2026
According to Omdia, Apple will be completely phasing out LCDs and miniLEDs from its mobile devices by 2026. source
How To Use Cullen Kelly’s Exposure Chart DCTL For 18% Middle Gray
Pick up your free 18% Middle Gray Chart here.
Gamut Rings Greatly Overemphasize Light Areas of Color Volume
“Arbitrarily placing the HDR peak intensity white at L=100 grossly distorts the Lightness curve, and would not be a good Lightness predictor.” Chris Lilley, W3C, 2020 Charles Poynton and David A. LeHoty argue that the color volume metrics used to calculate gamut rings are flawed, greatly overestimating actual coverage, allowing manufacturers to make exaggerated claims... Continue Reading →
Why a 10% test pattern is so signifcant
The luminance just falls off a cliff beyond the 10% window on this display, so it must be useless for grading HDR, right? Actually, it's still used to this day by LA-based post-production houses and around the world for mastering shows for Amazon, Netflix, Disney et al. Read on. Photo: Brian Florian
Sony Announces New Virtual Production Tool Set
From Sony’s press release: Sony Electronics Inc. is announcing a new Virtual Production Tool Set to help improve pre-production and on-set workflows. The new tool set works with the Sony VENICE, Crystal LED and other HDR-enabled LED walls to improve performance and help solve common virtual production challenges such as color matching and moiré to... Continue Reading →
Ambient Light: Impact On Dynamic Range
It’s been a while since the bad old days when we used to binge-watch Netflix shows till the early morning hours, first on an LG C7, then on an LG CX, but we began re-watching the gritty French crime series Ganglands last night in order to see whether we couldn’t formulate a more coherent argument as to... Continue Reading →
DP Jamie Cairney: “ACES, HDR haven’t changed my approach”
Season 1 of Sex Education was shot with the OG Sony Venice and the working color space was S-Log3/S-Gamut3. For season 2, it was decided to use ACES. Moderator Debra Kaufman asks the production and post-production team how working in ACES changed their workflow. Three of the four panelists were new to ACES. Of particular interest to... Continue Reading →
ETTR: A Cinematographer’s Perspective
We still ETTR with the Komodo, but not nearly as much as we used to do in our early days with the Sony a7s III. For years, there’s never been a clip that we didn’t expose to avoid important shadow detail falling in the noise floor, and then some! Interestingly enough, some shots with the... Continue Reading →
If your working color space is ACES or DWG, you need to read this
The following is from a presentation in Poland last month entitled “Protect your Creative Intent with ACES”, but it pertains equally well to those who are into DaVinci Wide Gamut as their working color space: if anything other than the log of the hero camera is going to be your working color space, it's essential... Continue Reading →
LG prevents users from disabling auto-dimming on 2023 OLED TVs
According to Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest fame, LG has changed the service menu interface on its 2023 OLED TVs, including the C3 and G3, and not for the better. Consequently, it is no longer possible to disable the TPC and GSR auto-dimming algorithms. TPC gradually dims down the picture on static scenes and scenes where... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 