a_reynolds Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 Hello. I've been following this blog since last year and it was such a big help to decide which serious video camera to choose! so, thanks guys. I have a GH4 and today I got my first video freelance interview and that is something that my film school just isn't preparing me for. The job is to cover outdoors events, focusing on people. So I went out and grabbed some footage outdoors in direct sunlight. Now, how would you, experienced people, grade this? I've been reading a lot of books and experimenting but just seeing your colours would really help mainly because of the skin tones. https://www.dropbox.com/s/know5akvpklxzqv/P1010768_teste.mov?dl=0 GH4, internal 4k UHD and Natural profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantsin Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Your footage is overexposed (clearly visible in the scopes as lifted shadows and clipped highlights), and the white balance is off (too warm and too green). If you record internally, I'd really take care of good exposure and white balance since 8bit material can't be corrected that much. Here's an attempt to normalize the picture, correcting lift + gain and color offset, followed by attempt of a more stylized look (still based on the previous normalization.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Maze Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Its not clipping. In fact its perfect. With any digital image you really need to expose as hot as possible without clipping. When you pull the exposure back down to normal...all the noise that would have been there gets crushed and goes away. You did everything right. Here is a video of what I would do. Even have a way to give it a "look" at the end if you want. You really nailed the shot actually. Looks great. Liam, dahlfors, Davey and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantsin Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Of course it is clipping, just look at the highlights in the RGB parade (there's a hard clip in the peaks) and look at the roof of the booth on the left where all detail is blown out. And no, exposing to the right (ETTR) is not what you should do with an 8bit Rec709 image because you will get less than 8bit in your grade. An 8bit Rec709 image should always be exposed as the final image. It's a different story with 10bit, Log and Raw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 The question was about about grading, not how the shot was exposed. Although I do agree with what Dave said. I kept it warm as it's a sunny day, reduced saturation slightly, adjusted the greens and reds and I hate crushed blacks so.. Fredrik Lyhne, a_reynolds, Beritar and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Coffee Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Quick balance with my normal Panasonic workflow Premiere Pro - Neat Video with a little sharpen, .4% guassian blur, Film Convert gh4 profiles, about 40% grain and 80-90% film colour, quick balance in the lumetri panel on this one to kill the highlights/whites a bit - then to Resolve for RGB curves, more highlight/contrast/black balance, lum/sat and sat/sat curves.. this one I cooled the colour temp a bit, no windows or sharpening in resolve - barely touch the colour wheels anymore, prefer to play with colour temp and saturation curves only these days. Quick worklflow now it's up and running, even with this rescue job a few minutes got me to a good starting point.. having to squash the highs on these cams tends to kill the mids alot too.. Source footage definitely way overblown:) was fun to try and tame the highlights on this one! a_reynolds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bunk Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 The footage slightly clips, besides that here is my go at it. @Michael if all other grades look completely weird to you, you might want to check your monitor as your grade doesn't look like the describtion you gave on both my monitors. Michael Coffee and a_reynolds 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Coffee Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Yeah, I am on a bad monitor here at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronChicago Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 It looks like only the guy's white shirt and the vendor roof are clipping which is fine. You can still make out shadows and detail in his shirt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Members Mattias Burling Posted July 7, 2016 Super Members Share Posted July 7, 2016 I lowered the colors to isolate the people playing. dahlfors, benymypony and a_reynolds 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBounce Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Here a quick grade... a_reynolds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I desaturated to b&w to correct exposure, then raised the saturation to -5, and balanced the mids, then did a curve and raised my blacks a touch, then pulled my lows a touch towards yellow and my highs a touch to blue. Of course i have a sneaking feeling I may need to calibrate my screen... a_reynolds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Maze Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I dont know. I was taught to always expose to the right but I was taught that om RED. With Sony SLog too that is obviously the case. Granted...if youre not in your base ISO anyways its pointless. When we shot on 5d2 we all under exposed because the DR was crap. I know now with my Canon Log I get the best skin tones when exposing to the Right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPC Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Very quick grade in FCPX + https://www.fcpeffects.com/products/white-balance-plugin (which I like a lot). I would suggest using Paul Leeming's LUT http://www.leeminglutone.com/ and following his advice on exposure. This will correct the Panasonic oranges that are clearly seen in your footage. It looks pretty soft to me too. mercer and a_reynolds 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 1 minute ago, DPC said: Very quick grade in FCPX + https://www.fcpeffects.com/products/white-balance-plugin (which I like a lot). I would suggest using Paul Leeming's LUT and following his advice on exposure. This will correct the Panasonic oranges that are clearly seen in your footage. It looks pretty soft to me too. Looks good. I have that wb plug in as well but I haven't tried it in a while... but i remember having the same opinion. My friend loves their grain, but i haven't tried it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a_reynolds Posted July 7, 2016 Author Share Posted July 7, 2016 wow guys, THANK YOU so much for all your answers and your grades!!! I will take in consideration all your advice!!! I noticed that i tend to overexpose because I'm always afraid to underexpose and then I'm in trouble but I will set the zebras a little lower for 70% for scenes like this! DaveAltizer, you even made a video!!! wow, thank you so v much!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilmMan Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Was at the old computer and thought to give this pic a go. Gave a very quick grade. Eyes see spots at times so don't laugh too hard at my attempt. Cheers. mercer and a_reynolds 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhurba Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 This is a personal taste, of course. And not only that, it should be related to the mood of the piece, So here's my attempt at that, just some basic correction, boost on skin midtones, muting the rest of the colors and adjusting blues and greens slightly to the teal. All with Color Finale in FCPX. a_reynolds and mercer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaylee Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 I called stu maschwitz and he was like ADD A VINGETTE a_reynolds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardo_sousa11 Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Ill give a try on this when I get home, love this stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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