F3: Reaching for a more F35 look

[pchristoph]

I've been working on understanding slog, color science and custom white balance settings and filters on the F3 for a while now and I'm quite happy with some of the looks I've been able to get in-camera recently. It's been my goal to push the image as much as possible into F35 territory (I do want to own a F35 one day). I know the F3 will never fill the shoes of his big brother, but I wanted to believe I could get close. I guess you can decide if I did or not. Here's a new screengrab from a recent shoot last night. This was shot to the internal SxS card. I think the footage would cut well with an F35. Graded in Davinci resolve with MacGregor's created Cineon input lut and the modified F3 slogtorec709a output lut from Dennis Hingsberg. I think you can find links to both LUTs here. http://www.hingsberg.com/index.php/2...urrected-luts/

cheers.
image.jpg

[VinceinLA]

No way to know without a person, preferably close, in the frame. That is where the F35 wins over all others.

[pchristoph]

@VinceInLA Ok, here's a few screen grabs of people shots. Taken today at high noon at a local beach which is a torture test for any camera. Available light only. Just a quick grade - i could definitely take it further. Captured using BM Hyperdeck 10bit 422.

Cheers,
Paul

F3 kye bay - 2.jpgF3 kye bay - 3.jpgF3 kye bay - 4.jpgF3 kye bay - 5.jpg

[VinceinLA]

That's pretty damn nice and as good or better than anything I got out of an F3. I still think the F35 is on a different level and can't be matched this way simply because you are dealing with a different animal entirely, that being a 5.7K CCD. It's recording color in a very different way than all these other Sony's. The F35 also has that sort of 3D look like 35mm film does and that is impossible to get out of most sensors.

So how/why are you using both LUTs, instead of tweaking just one?

[pchristoph]

That's pretty damn nice and as good or better than anything I got out of an F3. I still think the F35 is on a different level and can't be matched this way simply because you are dealing with a different animal entirely, that being a 5.7K CCD. It's recording color in a very different way than all these other Sony's. The F35 also has that sort of 3D look like 35mm film does and that is impossible to get out of most sensors.

So how/why are you using both LUTs, instead of tweaking just one?

Yeah, I totally agree - the F35 is king. That CCD sensor is so good, and the color tonality is like nothing I've seen anywhere else. Bottom line, I really should just buy one already. Know anyone I can trust?

I've been experimenting with using two luts to see what happens when I move slog into cineon space before grading and moving out to Sony's 709a lut. Maybe it's in my head, but I seem to be able to finesse the mids and lows a bit better after moving to cineon space. I am also starting to use Color Finale in FCPX - and the ability to feather the Luts using the opacity slider can add a greater degree of flexibility in creating a great look. Anyways, I'm quite satisfied with what I'm getting here with the F3. It's such an under rated machine.

[stokstad]

Very nice! You seem to get a solid wooden/golden skin-look but still have very nice blues sneaking into the image.

Im interested in your workflow. Do you shoot straight slog in camera or do you tweak anything like colour-matrix? Do you add/remove any sharpening in camera?

Right now Im shooting slog out to proresHQ with the hyperdeck and use the Impulz LUTs for grading. The problem with these LUTs is that you don't want to mess with the log-settings from the camera.

Here is a grab with a cooled down Kodak 50D LUT:

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 12.44.17.jpg

[pchristoph]

Very nice! You seem to get a solid wooden/golden skin-look but still have very nice blues sneaking into the image.

Im interested in your workflow. Do you shoot straight slog in camera or do you tweak anything like colour-matrix? Do you add/remove any sharpening in camera?

Right now Im shooting slog out to proresHQ with the hyperdeck and use the Impulz LUTs for grading. The problem with these LUTs is that you don't want to mess with the log-settings from the camera.

Here is a grab with a cooled down Kodak 50D LUT:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]101138[/ATTACH]

Thanks @stokstad,
my workflow is pretty straight forward. I use basic slog gamma in pp with all matrix settings off. No sharpening. I vary my low key sat depending on low light levels. Manually white balance - always. In post I'm using MacGregors slog to Cineon lut input and the modified Sony 709a lut from Dennis hingsberg's site on the output lut and then make my grade in the middle with nodes when using Davinci Resolve (I graded these screen grabs using FCPX and Color Finale). Getting your exposure levels right in the scene is critical to good skin tones. Vintage pentax glass adds character, softness, and flaws to the look of the footage, which actually really works for me, as the F3 is so clean. Cheers.

[VinceinLA]

Interesting as I never white balance. It's either 32 or 56.

[starcentral]

Paul those are undoubtedly some of the best F3 images I have EVER seen, and I mean that. I sold my F3 to jump on F55 bandwagon and at the time I was a bit behind with all there was to know about color science of the Sony cameras. Some of my learnings came later, afterwards, and hence I created the "F3 resurrected" thread on DVX.

Anyway, FYI, the modified LC709A LUT I made for slog1 (F3/F35) is not on my website but can be found on this old DVX link.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread...he-New-Chapter

Having said that I will go ahead and add it there incase people have gone there looking.

[pchristoph]

Thank you Dennis.

[eddavid]

yes those look amazing
i still own 3 f3s. still great cameras with great color science. The resolution and motion is not the same, but still excellent for what it is.

[pchristoph]

yes those look amazing
i still own 3 f3s. still great cameras with great color science. The resolution and motion is not the same, but still excellent for what it is.

Thanks Ed. I need your spare F35. Ha.

[eddavid]

if all goes well I'll have 3 f35s. sure I can ship it out anywhere.

[stokstad]

Thanks @stokstad,
my workflow is pretty straight forward. I use basic slog gamma in pp with all matrix settings off. No sharpening. I vary my low key sat depending on low light levels. Manually white balance - always. In post I'm using MacGregors slog to Cineon lut input and the modified Sony 709a lut from Dennis hingsberg's site on the output lut and then make my grade in the middle with nodes when using Davinci Resolve. Getting your exposure levels right in the scene is critical to good skin tones. Vintage pentax glass adds character, softness, and flaws to the look of the footage, which actually really works for me, as the F3 is so clean. Cheers.

Thank you, sounds like a good workflow. Interesting that you use the 709a lut, I found that one to handle colour rather strange when I tested it before. Will try it with the cineon lut!

[pchristoph]

Thank you, sounds like a good workflow. Interesting that you use the 709a lut, I found that one to handle colour rather strange when I tested it before. Will try it with the cineon lut!

Yeah give it a go! You should also try MacGregors slog to 709 output lut as well. He created it for F35 but I found it can work for the F3 as well. I go back and forth between these two for most things when setting up a base look. Then the actual look you want to create comes from color grading in the middle nodes in Davinci or using Color Finale fx plugin for FCPX. Cheers.