G7 Test Grades & Settings

[mercer]

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. 

[André Eriksson]

3 minutes ago, mercer said:

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!

Thanks! No LUT. Just DaVinci Resolves lovely gamma wheel, a lot of saturation, some fiddling with the contrast curve, and then I balanced the individual red, green and blue curves in a separate node. It's very easy to get lost with the individual curves though... 

[mercer]

2 minutes ago, André Eriksson said:

Thanks! No LUT. Just DaVinci Resolves lovely gamma wheel, a lot of saturation, some fiddling with the contrast curve, and then I balanced the individual red, green and blue curves in a separate node. It's very easy to get lost with the individual curves though... 

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

[André Eriksson]

You'll get there. For learning, maybe try to stay away from the LUTs, they can mess up a lot of things. 

[mercer]

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

[mercer]

2 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

Hey Merc!

One thing I recognized, I had to be pretty careful with the color sliders on the Cine D file. Also, light in this scene seems challenging to pull something magical out of this file. We nerds love to talk about thick colors when it comes to the technical side of the digital pipeline. I think thick light would be just as much appreciated. These dull winter days don´t often provide that at them moment. I think one can immediately recognize the magic glow of light by eye. Not talking about magic hour but the very different beasts of light depending on time of the year, day, haze, dust, sandstorm:), region,  whatsoever...:)

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?

[bunk]

18 hours ago, mercer said:

Have at it.

Thanks, I'll give it a try as soon as I'm back home.

[jagnje]

9 hours ago, mercer said:

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?

80% zebras are for skin colors, for white people at least. That is used by default in the ENG world. Zebras at 80% and you let just a hint of them on the forehead/cheek. That is a television standard, at least around here. ENG cameras ussualy have very limited DR and very poor highlight rolloff, so this is a way to avoid a messy shot. On higher DR cameras(dslr an above) I always set zebras to 100% so I know exactly what is getting blown out.

[mercer]

4 hours ago, jagnje said:

80% zebras are for skin colors, for white people at least. That is used by default in the ENG world. Zebras at 80% and you let just a hint of them on the forehead/cheek. That is a television standard, at least around here. ENG cameras ussualy have very limited DR and very poor highlight rolloff, so this is a way to avoid a messy shot. On higher DR cameras(dslr an above) I always set zebras to 100% so I know exactly what is getting blown out.

Thanks jagne, that helps a lot. 

[bunk]

I ended up using my CineD-to-Vlog setting in DaVinci. I think it is close to what Balazer is doing, but without going to an ACER-like colorspace.

Gives a lot of control ...especially to Close-up shot was way easier to grade then using an inverted curve in AE. Attached the DaVinci setting for whio is interested.

I don't think the .drx is needed ...but just in case.

mercer_grade_1.3.1.dpx

mercer_grade_1.3.1.drx

If you are serious about grading drop anything you use now and go for DaVinci ....it's really that good.

 

Cheers.

[mercer]

14 minutes ago, bunk said:

I ended up using my CineD-to-Vlog setting in DaVinci. I think it is close to what Balazer is doing, but without going to an ACER-like colorspace.

Gives a lot of control ...especially to Close-up shot was way easier to grade then using an inverted curve in AE. Attached the DaVinci setting for whio is interested.

I don't think the .drx is needed ...but just in case.

mercer_grade_1.3.1.dpx

mercer_grade_1.3.1.drx

If you are serious about grading drop anything you use now and go for DaVinci ....it's really that good.

 

Cheers.

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.

[bunk]

4 hours ago, mercer said:

And here's the next level adding the CineLook plug in

Looks cool! If it works for you like that I would stick to it. Never change a winning team. looking forward to your first rushes

[mercer]

1 hour ago, bunk said:

Looks cool! If it works for you like that I would stick to it. Never change a winning team. looking forward to your first rushes

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!