GH4 - 4k Skin Tone Tests

[Juan Guerra]

I performed some skin tone tests with a GH4, and for some reason have mixed feelings about it. Check it out at: 

[andrgl]

Looked pretty good to me. Anything I didn't like was very easy to iron out in Resolve.

[Christina Ava]

 the colour tones of the first scenes look washed out, generally i would say needs more skin tone!! darker- more beige/brown and more cowbell, 

but thats just me that im obsessed with warm colours  :P

also im not familiar with the  skin color of the student, does the film resemble her actuall skintone? or has she gone the lumix clinical treatment?(whitewash)

[jonpais]

This topic belongs in the Panasonic users films, tests, reviews and opinions  thread.

[jonpais]

@Christina Ava, we know you love your Canon, but no need to go attacking Panasonic when a reader is asking for constructive feedback on their video. Also, my understanding of clinical is that it refers to resolution and more specifically to lenses (especially digital correction of lens abberations), not to color rendition, but maybe you're onto something there. Maybe if he did some lens whacking, you'd enjoy it more.

 

Here is a 2-minute test I did with the much-maligned GH3 to see whether allegations of whitewashed skin tones had any validity or not. I'm quite aware of my limitations as far as color correction goes. Hopefully they've gotten better since then. 

 

Would you care to post some examples of your results using Canon?

[Inazuma]

Is there some sort of consensus  that I'm unaware of about what makes a good skin tone? Because I can't shake the feeling that this whole thing is very... racey. Like how do viewers that didn't do the shoot know how the person's skin is supposed to be? Are we just all pushing the tones to what we personally deem "nice"? Should we be pulling in some more reds or blues for Asians "so that their skin isn't so yellow"?

[odie]

I performed some skin tone tests with a GH4, and for some reason have mixed feelings about it. Check it out at: 

>

... What do you guys think??

[andrgl]

Are we just all pushing the tones to what we personally deem "nice"? Should we be pulling in some more reds or blues for Asians "so that their skin isn't so yellow"?

Essentially, yes.

While there are some studies that establish references for different skin pigmentation. They are culturally biased. Your expectations of what someone's skin colour should look like will likely vary from someone else's on a different continent.

Ultimately it's the client who determines what looks best. :)

[varicam]

Is there some sort of consensus  that I'm unaware of about what makes a good skin tone? Because I can't shake the feeling that this whole thing is very... racey. Like how do viewers that didn't do the shoot know how the person's skin is supposed to be? Are we just all pushing the tones to what we personally deem "nice"? Should we be pulling in some more reds or blues for Asians "so that their skin isn't so yellow"?

 

The trend is to make people look orange.http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.ca/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html

[jonpais]

Just like actors on set are lit according to the story the director wants to tell, colorists base their decisions on the story, mood and setting to determine how the characters should appear. Is the character gloomy, moody, dreamy, anxious? Is the setting a western, science-fiction... If my skin tone test were a story, people sitting in the post office would be warm if I wanted to convey a pleasant or nostalgiac atmosphere, maybe bluish if I wanted it to appear cold or threatening. And if you look at advertising here or in Korea (the two countries I'm familiar with), Asian actors and actresses have complexions as white as ivory. :)

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

 

 

@Christina Ava, we know you love your Canon, but no need to go attacking Panasonic when a reader is asking for constructive feedback on their video. Also, my understanding of clinical is that it refers to resolution and more specifically to lenses (especially digital correction of lens abberations), not to color rendition, but maybe you're onto something there. Maybe if he did some lens whacking, you'd enjoy it more.

 

Here is a 2-minute test I did with the much-maligned GH3 to see whether allegations of whitewashed skin tones had any validity or not. I'm quite aware of my limitations as far as color correction goes. Hopefully they've gotten better since then. 

 

Would you care to post some examples of your results using Canon?

No need how? Attacking or praising (i.e., giving opinion of) Pansonic is in fact the only point of a thread about judging Panasonic's skin tones.

If someone does not like how Panasonic deals with skin tones in their color-science, they have the right to say that in a thread about Panasonic skin tones. And I find it unacceptable if the forum management does not acknowledge that right. 

Some of us like X's colors more than Z's, and vice versa. It's a forum, for sharing opinions, you know?

__________________

Back to topic. I like how the gh4 renders skin tones so far. The extra 4k resolution and color information compared to Canons, give me much more headroom when adjusting the skintones to my liking in post. So I usually end up with superior (to 5D's) skin rendition with the GH4 as a final result. Canons give more pleasing colors if footage is used straight out of the camera, which I never do, so starting with a less pleasing image that I can push to my liking is for me better than starting with a good image I can't tweak and adjust freely. That's just me. 

This is a frame under good conditions, where I see it (gh4) produced pleasant and accurate skin tones:

And here's one under worst conditions possible to a camera system in terms of skin tones, extremely high ISO + under sodium-vapour lamps as the only light source: I thought it cleaned up very well for an h.264 4:2:0 file



Basically, I have no complaints for the Panasonic's GH4 color in terms of skin rendition or overall color science. It compares extremely well to our beloved 5D :)

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

*

[jgharding]

It's probably good enough for what most will use it for, and if you need morte colour you can go for external recorder

[Christina Ava]

hello guys! i was in paros island and i lost the conversation, 

im not attacking anyone im not a tiger :D , i had the hacked GH2 and i found it clinical when put next to my other footage,

clinical meaning more bluish-colder in tones,(like the inside of a hospital.) also some purple/magenta in skin tones,  As i said its my personal opinion as i am a fan of warm earthy colours (this is subjective.)

i noticed on the said clip that the people on the beggining have very whitish skin tones, i dont say that you cant bring the colours in post, was talking about the specific clip and my experience with out of camera footage from lumix..Thats the drawback in lumix, you need to be an excellent colourist, otherwise your footage looks strange.

 

this is something i shot on saturday in paros island at a ceramics workshop by chance.

no color correction straight out of the sensor, handheld unplanned, has 100 mistakes, blurs, but i dont have to worry about the colours that much,

i love using out of camera footage and not spending any time in post, thats just my personal style

 

By the way i read on the ferry "If its purple someone is going to die"  on film colour theory, i think most of you will love it, and every shot a rembrandt  one of the best books on cinematography out there, very interesting stuff in there!

[jonpais]

 

No need how? Attacking or praising (i.e., giving opinion of) Pansonic is in fact the only point of a thread about judging Panasonic's skin tones.

If someone does not like how Panasonic deals with skin tones in their color-science, they have the right to say that in a thread about Panasonic skin tones. And I find it unacceptable if the forum management does not acknowledge that right. 

Some of us like X's colors more than Z's, and vice versa. It's a forum, for sharing opinions, you know?
 

@Ebrahim Actually, when I first read Juan Guerra's post, it didn't sound to me like he was asking for an opinion about Panasonic's color-science -  I thought he was asking about his color grading. Evidently, andrgl, who took the time to grade Juan's clip in Resolve, thought the same. After all, how could anyone judge a camera based on a single outdoor shoot under uncontrolled conditions and then graded, without even anything to compare it to? I am however very eager to hear what Tim Naylor thinks about the GH4's colors once he's had a chance to test it.