mercer

Which Contax Zeiss did you decide on?

Were these tests with your new lenses or with your Nikkors?

1. FS5 2. D5500 3. 1DC

Did you get rid of the NX500?

This conversation occurs once every 6 months and it usually ends with disagreement. Digital has not surpassed film. Cinematic and filmic are different and independent of one another. A movie can be cinematic but not filmic. A movie can be filmic but not cinematic. Or it can be both or neither.

Once I've discovered 28mm and 35mm f2 lenses, I can see why someone may use only one lens. You can get tight for close ups with some nice depth, or pull back and focus to infinity for your wider shots. I am going to be testing this one lens solution out in an upcoming project.

I have the Magic Bullet film demo and it is great. I was able to get a lot of the "looks" I am after and I tried the same thing by attempting to emulate what Film did. It definitely helped me. And I actually learned a little trick. By using the demo, you can use FCPX Color Match to closely emulate the processed footage through Film and then tweak it a little more to get it closer. To be honest, I have no problem using one of these "looks" programs. My only concern is the quality of the look. I have a plug in called cinelook from color grading central that I like a lot, it gets the image to that stylized look I am after, but it seems like it may be degrading the image, I don't know. For instance this shot... That is directly from the camera and when I add the cinelook plug in to it, I get this... I also added a layer of curve adjustments. It seems like this tutorial will help me to get there, without using the plug in. We'll see. Thanks a lot for replying, I find coloring to be extremely difficult, so any pointers or tips are greatly appreciated!!!

Hey, I wanted to thank you for giving me the link to that tutorial. I had watched the first part of it about 6 months ago when I first got the Color Finale demo, then when I upgraded to the full version, I forgot to go back to it. I just watched the first 20 minutes of it and I swear I have gotten better in the last 20 minutes than I have tinkering with Color Finale for the past 5 months.

I like the look, but I assume that plug in will degrade the image quality, so I have been trying to reproduce it by using conventional grading. Plus that CineLook plug in brings my Mac to a grinding halt. Thanks for the tips, and interest in my neverending tests... It's really appreciated!

They look really good. Great job!!! Davinici seems like an amazing program. My problem is that I am not that serious about grading. I am a screenwriter that also loves shooting, so I am looking for an outlet for my writing and a look for my films. For instance, here is a grab from a recent test shot with the same Tokina lens. CineLikeD with everything dialed down... Here it is with a minor curve adjustment and a little hue adjustment with red and yellow... And here's the next level adding the CineLook plug in. That last one also has a touch of gorilla grain.

Thanks a bunch. I have always wanted a pocket cam and I may have a little extra money in a couple weeks, so I've been contemplating picking one up. But I'm not sure. Do you shoot Raw with it or prores? Are the raw files dramatically better than the prores?

I agree, my goal is not to fix in post, I am trying to get it as flat as I can, without ruining the image, so I can pull as much information as I can from the footage. I really love the subtle nuances in shadows. Like many, I started with Canon as well using Prolost Flat. On most occasions, I'd only need to add a little contrast and that was it, and even lens choice played a bigger part in the look. With these newer cameras, there is so much more latitude and that extra stop or two is like fool's gold. Anyway, thanks for your help, I'm going to use that tutorial series to help with my next round of tests.

Thanks jagne, that helps a lot.

I noticed the same thing too. I had a good bit of latitude, but then... One more little tweak... and it fell apart... quick. And you are so right about the light. The problem I had with these shots were it was just bright enough to use an ND, but there was just enough pockets of shadow that I really had to be careful what I decided to blow out. Do you use zebras? I have mine set at 100, but I remember reading somewhere that you should set them at 80 or 85 when filming people. When your filming a person outdoors, do you set them at 80 or 85 and then use the histogram to help expose the rest of the shot?

Bio, do you have the BMPCC? If so, do you think it is easier to learn to grade with a more robust codec? Or is it better to sow your oats with 8 bit and learn how to manipulate a more fragile codec?

Yeah, I think I'll give that a go. Thanks!!!

Cool, thanks. I'll keep at it. I swear the more I try, the worse they turn out.

Yeah, he has a Scottish/Irish heritage. He isn't red headed or anything but he has freckled, blotchy (for lack of better word) skin.

Haha, I'll have to remember that. I was blaming my girlfriend because she kept talking to me while I was trying to nail the skin tones. But yeah, this Tokina lens is awesome. I didn't expect much from it when I bought it, but I'm a sucker for 28 and/or 35mm f2 lenses. Those look great, so you didn't use any LUT at all? I was getting the colors close, but they ended up looking too flat, how did you get that finish polish or sheen to it? Is it simply contrast? Thanks!

Panny, thanks that looks better than mine. The first version was the ungraded and the second was my graded attempt. I Color Finale, a plug in that works inside FCPX. I did not color balance, which may be why I am having so much trouble with it. I like the brownish almost golden background, but when I get that looking good, the red in it turns his skin too orange. I'll keep at it. Thanks. I also lifted the blacks a little because his jacket was very faded, almost grey. There seems to be a lot of information hiding in the shadows, but I think for my next tests I am going to ETTR.

Thanks Bio, I think I may have watched part of that a while back but I'll go back and give it a thorough watching. Do you use Color Finale?

As you can probably tell from a recent post of mine, I have been attempting to do a little color grading. You can probably also tell that I am not that good at it. So, I was wondering how many people would recommend, to a beginner, LUTS or a plug in from Red Giant like Magic Bullet or Mojo? I am in the middle of writing a script that was originally intended to be a short but has now ended up as a feature. There are few characters and even less locations, but is a high concept script and very feasible to shoot on an extremely low budget. For the past few weeks I have been running tests and trying to nail down a look for the movie. I have had the most luck using a plug in from Color Grading Central called CineLook, but it is extremely computer intensive and my Mac practically comes to a halt while editing. So, I decided to try my hand at grading some of the tests. In some ways I can come close to what I'm looking for, but it's still off, so to make a long story short, do slider plug ins like Magic Bullet degrade the image at all? Or would a simple LUT or FCPX "Look" be better? Or should I just bite the bullet and practice, practice, practice until I get better at grading? Also, would using a color chart to balance my color make my efforts more fruitful? Anyway, thanks.

Just got Vimeo's Newsletter emailed to me. It's basically a big pat on their own back. But one line seemed like an acknowledgment toward the complaints... "We’ve also done our best to give creators as much control as possible over their videos and how they present them to their audience." And that was it. To me it seemed like they acknowledge the complaints, but too bad because they have always tried. I would imagine it would take a drastic and huge movement of subscription cancellations for Vimeo to step back at this point. I assume all of the complaints were forwarded to the department who was the brain child of this new restriction... They will never admit fault, so unless a massive amount of subscribers unsubscribe and they see the drop in their quarterlies, it will be business as usual.

I found another clip that has Contrast at 0, and everything else dialed down, if you wanted to give that a try as well. I threw a LUT from SmallHD on top of it and adjust the curves a hair.

If this camera had a mic input, 24p and the Flat profile, I would seriously consider it... Especially at this price.