"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 →
Why We Got Rid Of The Asus PA32UCX
Re-reading an article we'd written back in 2019, we were reminded of just one of the reasons we ditched the Asus PA32UCX - it was impossible to find an affordable way to calibrate the thing. In 2020, Calman would at last release their own 3D LUT calibration, but at the time, it was for Rec.709... 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
DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Public Beta Color Page Additions
Per-Timeline Resolve Color Management Timelines using custom settings now allow you to override color management settings on a per timeline basis. This allows setting of independent timeline and output color spaces per timeline along with other color management properties. Any existing custom timelines are automatically initialized to color management settings from the project. Set Composite... Continue Reading →
Samsung Display: The Display Industry Must Switch From P3 To BT2020
From the '2023 OLED Korea Conference' at UBI's '2023 OLED Korea Conference' held in Incheon on the April 13th: “Quantum Dot (QD)-OLED production has exceeded 90%,” said Seonho, vice president of strategic marketing, large-scale Samsung Display. Samsung Display raised the QD-OLED production rate to more than 85% in the first half of last year.“To implement... Continue Reading →
We Try Out The Ninja V + Komodo
After nearly a year, we finally got up the nerve to connect our Ninja V to the RED Komodo and to our great surprise, it didn't fry the SDI port! While our tinkering around with the Atomos Ninja V & Komodo didn’t produce great art it did allow us to discover that, although RED’s creative... Continue Reading →
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 →
The Daejeon Chronicles 