Color Graded Watch Impress Footage

[Isaac_Brody]

I was messing around just to see what's doable with the footage.

http://www.vimeo.com/4717531

[jona816]

very nice, comparing your color grading and the original footage is light night and day. good stuff!

[Rakesh Jacob]

Looks good bro, guess no more HF100/Adapter/Upside down WTF issues for us :)
I havnt been able to pickup my HF since the GH1 was announced, I've been shooting other peoples' projects to stay sane.
Can't wait to see what you do, look forward to stalking you and Kholi on Vimeo!

[Isaac_Brody]

Looks good bro, guess no more HF100/Adapter/Upside down WTF issues for us :)

Seriously. :) I sold my HF10 about a month ago. No more upside down shooting light loss guesstimates or ground glass worries. :beer:

[John Caballero]

People that are having doubts at this moment about the GH1 are gonna go nuts about it as soon as they feel they were left behind. Once you figure out the best possible settings for optimum shooting and the proper post work flow this camera is gonna rock. And as Isaac proved you can do a nice grading job to it. I just left a deposit of $600.00 at Adorama, I can't wait to get the phone call when it gets to the store.

[DiscoDapper]

That's an eye opener. Much improved on the original footage (which was good to begin with). A tad oversaturated, but works for the subject. You could do a quick voice over and baam!, instant Japanese tampon commercial, lol.

I hope to see some serious grit in Kholi's fight scene, as too much of what we've seen so far is very TV looking (even if it is HDTV ). On the other hand, the Japanese black and white footage from Blue Sniff on Vimeo has been awesome.

[Kholi]

That has to do with subject and lighting, Disco. That's all it comes down to now.

[Isaac_Brody]

Still pushing the footage...

http://www.vimeo.com/4721877

[Rakesh Jacob]

Cool I graded the same clip a while back
http://www.vimeo.com/4468275
Went with a bronzish epic kitty look!!!

[Ian-T]

I took a stab at a few of them myself. Vimeo really rips apart the image so it's best to download.

Anyways....I seem like I'm wrong about the Vegas workflow though due to the strobing effect. but in anycase the footage is not difficult to grade and you are able to push it very far (Especially in 32 bit vegas).

http://vimeo.com/4720871

All 24p by the way.

[Isaac_Brody]

The footage holds up pretty well under moderate grading. It's limted if you've underexposed and want to pull out detail but if you nail your exposure correctly and just want to mess with color tones it's workable.

[tehellet]

How did you get the watch impress .mts files converted to a workable format? I'm on a Mac and have tried MPEG Streamclip but it doesn't seem to recognize the files. I've imported files successfully onto FCP through Log and Transfer, but they were those PRIVATE files inside their root folders and all that. The files watch impress put up for downloading are the .mts files alone. Enlighten me.

[PappasArts]

I was messing around just to see what's doable with the footage.

http://www.vimeo.com/4717531

Me likes...... Very nice Isaac! You took a dead / flat looking footage and gave it earth!

I hope this is leading to a protocol for editing GH1 footage...

[Justyn]

That's some really nice work. I think it might hold up well in post. I tell ya, that black and white stuff though of the lighthouse is simply amazing.. There's obviously a lot that can be done with this, but it'll require a good solid amount of work to get to it.

Remember how the HVX200 was in the beginning? Man my footage looked like crap till i tweeked the settings and realized that the cam needed tons of light. After I got that squared away, I produced some awesome images for almost 3 years.

[paulgandersman]

How did you get the watch impress .mts files converted to a workable format? I'm on a Mac and have tried MPEG Streamclip but it doesn't seem to recognize the files. I've imported files successfully onto FCP through Log and Transfer, but they were those PRIVATE files inside their root folders and all that. The files watch impress put up for downloading are the .mts files alone. Enlighten me.

yes i would LOVE to know the answer to this as well. please help?

[J Davis]

Read VIMEO comments and you said you graded in Photoshop !
What was that like? .. and why Photoshop instead of Color?

[Isaac_Brody]

I was inspired by the 5D folks. I don't really like using color, I find it to be pretty buggy and unpredictable. I think photoshop affords an incredible amount of control and you can use also photoshop plugins on video. So far I've been impressed, but the workflow for grading video still needs a little refinement.

[J Davis]

I'm a Color person but I'm very interested to know more about your CC workflow in photoshop. Would you drop a link to 5D or any online overviews of this process?

[Isaac_Brody]

Knock yourself out.

http://nixon5d.blogspot.com/2009/05/photoshop-for-video.html

Oh, and one more thing if you change to a video workspace you can vary the effects over time and basically color correct a whole project. I'm about to do this with the last film I shot.

[J Davis]

I'm no stranger to photoshop as I've worked full time as a high res retoucher back when they first merged into CS1 and the last significant tools I remember being wowed by were the healing tool and the history brush. These days I read about you and others using it to CC video and I realize I'm drifting out of touch with that app.

So, ok I read what you linked and then searched around and read a lot more. I have also been thru Lynda's 'whats new in photoshop tutes' but I can't help but feel Photoshop is just not there for serious CC unless its primary in room color correx. ie curves on a clip by clip basis.

If you have jacket that needs a little desat and its moving around within the frame ... thats not possible in photoshop yet is it?