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X5R = Color Grading

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Mar 20, 2014
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In case it's not obvious, RAW means you need to color grade for usable footage.

Add it to the list of 4K RAW requirements, but in my opinion, figuring this stuff out for the first time, the end results are worth it.

Used DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Beta 2 & 3 for grading on this last one and after watching some YouTube grading tutorials, I managed to get some decent results I think.

Sample (re-colored after my first pitiful attempt in Premiere using the LUT panel):

 
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Have you tried grading it with Adobe Camera Raw in After Effects? I posted a brief rundown of the steps involved.

It's a giant pain in the ***, but I find the results are far superior to the Lumetri panel in Premiere Pro.

have to agree. I find it much easier working in Camera Raw, maybe as a photographer its just what I'm used to. Haven't tried editing a different image other than the first yet but will do this weekend.
 
Nice bump in quality. Big difference from what I remember for the light house.

I grade without luts on my x3, x5, and p4 cameras. I have not been satisfied with any luts so far.
 
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I find LUTS to be disappointing at best and dangerous at worst. There's no shortcuts.

Is the exposure metadata working with Resolve after the latest firmware update? I realized FCPX is not the right place to grade or even edit CinemaDNG.

I am thinking the flow could be:

Card > cinelight > resolve > ProRes > FCPX.
 
I find LUTS to be disappointing at best and dangerous at worst. There's no shortcuts.

Is the exposure metadata working with Resolve after the latest firmware update? I realized FCPX is not the right place to grade or even edit CinemaDNG.

I am thinking the flow could be:

Card > cinelight > resolve > ProRes > FCPX.

I'm sticking in Resolve. I just bought the Studio version. They have some absolutely INSANE performance with the CinemaDNG workflow, somehow managing to let you operate directly with it and it's buttery fluid. If things do get choppy for some clips that need the full care package of lens correction, horizon tilt rotation correction, stabilization, color grading and effects and transitions applied, the switch to work with half or quarter sized proxies is just a menu option away.

They make full use of my dual D500's, built in motherboard graphics AND CPU in my Mac Pro. I can scrub through 4K RAW footage like it was SD. Renders that take 12 hours in other software takes 8 minutes here. Makes me want to shed a tear of joy. Full tender round trips are a cup of coffee away.

Having said that, Resolves' editing world is still evolving. The stabilizer, titler, transitions and effects are pretty meat and potatoes basic. Their color grading of course is great.

So I'm giving the "stay in Resolve" a go. We'll see how long it lasts :)
 
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I'm sticking in Resolve. I just bought the Studio version. They have some absolutely INSANE performance with the CinemaDNG workflow, somehow managing to let you operate directly with it and it's buttery fluid. If things do get choppy for some clips that need the full care package of lens correction, horizon tilt rotation correction, stabilization, color grading and effects and transitions applied, the switch to work with half or quarter sized proxies is just a menu option away.

They make full use of my dual D500's, built in motherboard graphics AND CPU in my Mac Pro. I can scrub through 4K RAW footage like it was SD. Renders that take 12 hours in other software takes 8 minutes here. Makes me want to shed a tear of joy. Full tender round trips are a cup of coffee away.

Having said that, Resolves' editing world is still evolving. The stabilizer, titler, transitions and effects are pretty meat and potatoes basic. Their color grading of course is great.

So I'm giving the "stay in Resolve" a go. We'll see how long it lasts :)

So the studio version is worth it? One quick question: is there no way to access the color correction features in the free version of Resolve? I wanted to do some shadows / highlights etc but they were all disabled when attempting to edit the DNG sequence in Resolve, only letting me do a curves adjustment. I would like to do the color correcting in Resolve because from what I gather, it's the best! Thanks! - Dave
 
Free version give you full RAW control, you must have been trying to use RAW settings on a compressed video which will be greyed out. Check if you're indeed editing an actual raw video.
 
Free version give you full RAW control, you must have been trying to use RAW settings on a compressed video which will be greyed out. Check if you're indeed editing an actual raw video.
thanks for the info! I had the camera settings to MOV and exported on the default DNG option so I assumed this was raw? I went to FILE>IMPORT MEDIA and selected the sequence which Resolve then spit out a nice single video thumbnail on. It let me adjust curves but nothing else, it was all greyed.....

Cheers!
 

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