8 Cinema DNG shots from Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera raw

[chrisso]

As a stills guy new to video, all of the concepts in Resolve are new to me. Everything in Capture One is familiar.

Capture One is solid on my 2012 iMac, Resolve 10 Lite has crashed a couple of times.

After a quick 5 minute grade in Capture One I'm gobsmacked at the quality of the raw from the pocket camera. My 5 minute grade out of resolve still looks flat and lifeless by comparison.

So far using other people's LUTs in Resolve has resulted in my pocket raw looking garish and OTT.

I'm sort of depressed about this camera for the first time. The look in Capture One is awesome. Everything I want it to be. The look in Resolve Lite is meh.

There is a free video tutorial for every step of the process in Capture One. So far I've seen no proper tutorials for Resolve 10 (free or paid). All being for Resolve 9 which i think is somewhat different.

I've spent two days trying to get my Capture One grade into FCPX. One minute of footage takes about 1 1/2 hours to export from Capture One. FCPX grinds to a halt trying to work with two thousand separate HQ clips.

It might work ok with just over 100 clips, making up 4 seconds of footage.

I'm dreaming over a motion version of capture One, but it looks like I'll have to get to grips with Resolve.

[UltimateMale]

As a stills guy new to video, all of the concepts in Resolve are new to me. Everything in Capture One is familiar.

Capture One is solid on my 2012 iMac, Resolve 10 Lite has crashed a couple of times.

After a quick 5 minute grade in Capture One I'm gobsmacked at the quality of the raw from the pocket camera. My 5 minute grade out of resolve still looks flat and lifeless by comparison.

So far using other people's LUTs in Resolve has resulted in my pocket raw looking garish and OTT.

I'm sort of depressed about this camera for the first time. The look in Capture One is awesome. Everything I want it to be. The look in Resolve Lite is meh.

There is a free video tutorial for every step of the process in Capture One. So far I've seen no proper tutorials for Resolve 10 (free or paid). All being for Resolve 9 which i think is somewhat different.

I've spent two days trying to get my Capture One grade into FCPX. One minute of footage takes about 1 1/2 hours to export from Capture One. FCPX grinds to a halt trying to work with two thousand separate HQ clips.

It might work ok with just over 100 clips, making up 4 seconds of footage.

I'm dreaming over a motion version of capture One, but it looks like I'll have to get to grips with Resolve.

 

 

I too come from a photography background and am quit good with photoshop and lightroom. I graded some of my Raw videos (from 5D3 ML) in lightroom and was really really impress with what i got. But the work flow from lightroom to After effects then into premiere is really long, which is why i started learning how to use Davinci just of recent (4 weeks now).

I can garantee you the Resolve is the way forward as the workflow is really fast and with time as you start to learn little by little, you will love the combination between BMCC and Resolve.

Watch tutorials on Resolve 9 and apply what you learn to Resolve 10, it will work.

 

Something i manage to get while experimenting and playing around with it

 

[chrisso]

Looks nice.

As I write I'm importing my Capture One TIFF's into a demo of After Effects. But yeah, with sync sound and everything, Resolve is probably the way forward on this.

Is there a tutorial series you recommend?

[UltimateMale]

Looks nice.

As I write I'm importing my Capture One TIFF's into a demo of After Effects. But yeah, with sync sound and everything, Resolve is probably the way forward on this.

Is there a tutorial series you recommend?

https://vimeo.com/68340708

 

http://ae.tutsplus.com/author/bran-hvitabjorninn/

 

https://vimeo.com/73658885

 

https://vimeo.com/65617394

 

https://vimeo.com/65347677

 

Hopefully some of these should get you started like it did me, there's also a beginners tut on the Blackmagic website also

[Guy Calaf]

hey Andrew, thanks for this. We've been loving the bmpcc and pairing it as a C camera with C300 and 100 for our events shooting. We shoot a lot of fast turn around videos, at times, less than 24 hours, do you have any advice for matching skin tones between the EOS Cinema and the bmpcc? We're excited to try out raw on it. Only been shooting in pro res. It's such an amazing little thing. So portable. It can really fit in tight places. The Leica M of video, with a nice approach to the market. We like simple stuff and we've been using it with the two panasonic IS lens, 12-35 and 35-100, both 2.8. Good results, I reckon. Easy to use lenses, great built. We've also rigged it with the switronix battery pack, fits two lpe6, little modification to rig it to 15mm rods. 

 

Thanks!

[jgharding]

 

THANK YOU ANDREW FOR POSTING THESE LOVELY IMAGES

 

IMAGES THAT REFLECT WHAT I MIGHT ACTUALLY DO WITH THIS CAMERA, NOT SOME HIDEOUS MONKEYSHIT

 

"Hideous Monkeyshit" is the new official term for bad Vimeo "test" videos

[Inean]

Thank you Andrew for your post, I really enjoy your articles and find them very helpful! I have a question regarding BMPCC. Have you noticed any hot pixels in you camera? It's more obvious in 1600 ISO and in low light situations. At 800 ISO is less obvious, because it's the native but it's still there. I had it with my first pocket camera and I got it still with my replacement. Any suggestions? 

I make again the same question...some users like me are very nervous with this problem...but whe are thinking the posiblility that the earlier cameras dont have Hot pixels problem...Can you help us Andrew?

[chrisso]

No hot pixels here.

But I don't shoot at 1600. I don't think the pocket camera is a low light camera.

I mostly shoot at 400, but 800 is the default of course.

[jgharding]

I had a quick go with a shot, It's great, there's a lot to play with!

 

I don't know how I blew the bit on the sign in such a strange way, but I was going pretty quickly... I think with plenty of post time and good forethought this quality is enough for any film that's worth shooting.

 

[jgharding]

Here's another, the camera (in good hands here) produces lovely images, I'm really enjoying playing with these

 

[gloopglop]

Here's another, the camera (in good hands here) produces lovely images, I'm really enjoying playing with these

 

me too  B)

 

 

 

nice, jg. for me a great word to use is simply: photographic

 

it looks like photography

 

weird how i would want a camera to shoot photographic images i kno lolol

[odie]

is it 

5d miii=bmpcc

[Andrew Reid]

Here's another, the camera (in good hands here) produces lovely images, I'm really enjoying playing with these

 

 

Really nice job dude, and the one before it.

 

Any chance you can tell us more about how these were graded?

[jgharding]

Thanks! :D

 

Yes of course, for these frames I used standard Adobe Camera Raw for initial balance and exposure then tried something different out, that I figured may give an individual look: I used photographic software to process it. This is something you could do to sequences I believe, with Photoshop macros, though it would be complex, but I think the result is very very film like. I'm glad it comes across as a good photographgic style, though workflow wise it'd be slow.

 

The software used was Alien Skin Exposure. 

 

I don't own it personally, an older version (3) is on a work machine. It's now on 5. As you can see, it has beautiful film emulations that are very customisable to create deep looks. http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/index.aspx

 

A blue and red primary shift in ACR are two of the major parts of this particular look, blue goes more teal, red a little orange... maintaining skin tone but twisting the world a little on its colour wheel, no secondary required.

 

The result is the blockbuster epic feel without the ludicrous orange skin you get in Transformers and the like.

 

If you don't mind shipping an SSD or hard drive, or setting up a big download for me, I'd like to experiment grading a full piece in raw like this!

[thedest]

Am I the only one scared about how much crappy footage from the BMPCC people are posting? Its insane. The ProRes files that people are posting makes me scared. I thought that with RAW things would be better, but people can destroy even a RAW file.

 

Thank God I know the science behind this camera, because if I was choosing a camera based on user samples posted on youtube or vimeo I would say that the BMPCC is the worst camera in the human history.

 

And the funny thing is that people always post : "Nah.. is just a test. I did just a quick grade." or "Thats just a sample. Its not even graded just for you guys to see how awesome it is."

 

When I read that what I think they are saying is: "Dude, I have no idea what I am doing! People say this camera is good, so im buying it and posting, even if it looks like crap. But I will say it was just a test so things will be ok!"

 

And who wants to see an ungraded ProRes? PLEASE!

 

I imagine that 99% of the BMPCC owners are probably frustrated with the camera, because they have no idea how to use it. Please people, study a little bit about post processing. Read about color science and THEN start posting something decent.

 

People are making the camera look bad, when its probably one of the best cameras released in the last years for that price.

[maxotics]

Am I the only one scared about how much crappy footage from the BMPCC people are posting? Its insane. 

 

Sorry, thedest, as one of those people posting crappy footage, I say, relax, have a beer or martini ;)  Of course, i would love to post fantastic looking footage.  Who wouldn't?  Am I trying to learn Resolve?  Yes!  But it won't happen over night?  Good film requires good people, sets, lighting, all that stuff.  In the meantime, I'm going to shoot fire hydrants, store-fronts and my wife walking the dog.  You may think this footage is bad, I don't.  Compared to other cameras, it is awesome.  Maybe you'd call it, at best, marginally less crappy.  And I'd agree.  Yet what all the BMPCC footage I've seen, and the BMCC before it, shows me, is dynamic range, natural colors and lack of artifacts. Certainly someone new to this might not see the difference.  But I believe anyone serious about film can see through the issues you mention.

 

Anyway, I'm not the least bit frustrated with this camera.  I'm frustrated that I don't have great stuff to shoot.  ABSOLUTELY.  The camera?  Even shooting a tree is thrilling, if I've shot that tree with any other camera before.

 

Even ungraded ProRes has a low contrast look that simply cannot be duplicated, in my experience, by any H.264 camera.  I'm not saying it should be anyone's final goal.  The camera is new.  We're all learning.  Did I say I love it!? :)

[maxotics]

Here are 2 RAW frames (DNGs) from my BMPCC, using the inexpensive 14mm Panasonic pancake.  Yes, there are not the best videos, but these are SINGLE FRAMES!  I could not get close to this still-image quality from a frame grab from any H.264.  How can anyone not be blown away by this?  All in a camera that fits in any coat/jacket pocket I have?  A camera that is probably better than the video camera used to shoot "Clone Wars" 12 years ago.  I simply cannot get over it.  

 

 

Check out all this detail!

 

[thedest]

Im not even talking about good content. Im talking about being able to do a decent grade. Grading ProRes is easy as hell. RAW is even easier.

 

I only need 5 basic steps to get a decent ProRes footage:

 

 

Those 2 DNGs are very decent. Do you have a link for your videos?

 

It looks like for most people its IMPOSSIBLE to get a real-life look. The WB is always off, the footage is always dull, with no real blacks or whites, no contrast and the colors look totally wrong because the only thing they do is just to raise the global contrast, and thats not the right way to do it. So they use the excuse that they did a "cinematic grading". Bullshit. Its just a bad grading. To do a cinematic grading the first step should be to recreate a natural grading, then you add your split toning etc.

 

Most people are not using ProRes now and they are only using RAW, wich is overkill in many situations - and they are doing that because they dont want to learn how to work with it. ProRes is simply perfect.

 

Is it really that hard going from LOG to LINEAR? That was done in seconds and im only a hobbyist.

 

[maxotics]

I could do a screencast of me using Resolve, but I'm fairly sure you'd piss your pants in laughter! :)  Seriously, if you want to do any tutorials I WILL WATCH!  And so would many others!

 

Here's the video that contains those two shots.  

 

[chrisso]

For professionals grading and colouring is a full time job, for a separate individual with years of experience. It's ridiculous to complain about home filmmakers not doing a good job. It's an art, and requires skill and experience, not to mention properly calibrated monitors costing $thousands.

We've really been thrust into this with cameras like the BMD Pocket camera.

I think people are doing the best they can.

It's the same across the creative community. Bloggers are challenging newspapers and magazines. Musicians are recording, producing and mastering instead of just playing their instrument.

It's often not pretty, as workers with great experience and skill are being bypassed by the need to produce work on low or no budget. 

A mastering engineer in music is similar to a grader/colourist. I've been a professional musician for 30 years and have no mastering experience. Needs must, but I'm under no illusion that my masters are anything like as good as a professionally mastered track. It's often the choice between releasing my music, and not releasing it.