5D3 Raw post-processing options - Pros and Cons

bumkicho

bumkicho

Well-known member
Just like to start a thread to see which post-processing path everyone else is using for 5D3 Raw. And if you could share pros and cons of your workflow, that would be helpful.

My workflow so far is simple and reliable, but takes a long time.

1. Raw2Dng to create dng sequence.
2. Bring each dng sequence into ACR for WB/Exposure/etc adjustment and create tif sequence.
3. Use Quicktime Pro to import tif sequence and create Prores HQ
4. Edit in Premiere Pro

Pros: I feel ACR is the best way to convert DNG to tif files. I tried other automatic batch options to create dng to tif like eyeframe converter, but the result was disappointing compared to ACR.

Cons: Bringing each sequence to ACR takes a real long time. I wish there was a way to bring just first DNG out of the sequence and make adjustments and apply the same adjustments to all the files in the sequence without having to bring all of them into ACR.

So, what is your workflow and what are pros and cons?
 
Just a few thoughts. Sorry, for the unsolicited suggestions! Do you have access to Adobe Lightroom? It is designed more around batch processing and could be a faster workflow. Also, can you import a series of stills into Premiere and have the program treat them like a clip? This is how Edius works and could eliminate the need for conversion to Prores.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Just a few thoughts. Sorry, for the unsolicited suggestions! Do you have access to Adobe Lightroom? It is designed more around batch processing and could be a faster workflow. Also, can you import a series of stills into Premiere and have the program treat them like a clip? This is how Edius works and could eliminate the need for conversion to Prores.
Click to expand...

I will give Lightroom a try soon. At least I won't have to sit in front of computer once I kick off batch conversion to tif files.
Not Premiere, but After Effects does treat them like a clip. I can import DNG sequence as a clip into an AE project, then I can link the AE project to Premiere Pro to edit. The problem is my computer is not powerful enough to handle editing raw dng sequences.
 
Actually I meant to import the series of TIFF files into Premiere. They should not require the resources to edit like a DNG file.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Actually I meant to import the series of TIFF files into Premiere. They should not require the resources to edit like a DNG file.
Click to expand...

I should try that. If editing in tif sequence is much smoother than dealing with dng sequence, it would eliminate conversion to prores step.

Would Anyone else like to share their workflow and pros/cons of it?
 
A friend of mine is going this route

1. Raw to CinemaDNG

2. Open CinemaDNG in DaVinci Resolve Lite, do work.

Now from here, I am not sure what he does, he exports as something, and then uses the AuthorityFX toolchain (ffmbc + AnotherGUI) to convert to 12bit ProRes 4444. Then uses that in AE or Premiere.
 
I've been using Ginger HDR to work with the raw files without conversion in PP and it plays okay in ½ resolution. That is the easiest way to get something together, maybe not the best grading possibilities though.
 
My preferred workflow would be:
* shoot RAW
* convert that directly to CineForm RAW at the same time as I copy the files to the computer
* do a quick color correction in Gopro Studio (just for better viewing, this will be thrown away later on)
* edit in premiere, directly with those CineForm RAW files
* export to Resolve, do color correction, color grading, and final export there

With this workflow, you get real-time playback at all steps, and optimal image quality in the end, and there's not a single re-encode in the whole process, apart from the initial RAW-CFRAW (which is so fast that happens on the fly as you copy the files to the computer) and the final render.

Two issues with this right now:
* There's a green tint problem when loading CineForm RAW files form the 5D3 into Resolve; this workflow can't work well until they solve that
* I'm just starting out to learn Resolve, it is very powerful but the learning curve is steep!
 
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If Ginger HDR opens up the ability to edit ACR metadata in Premiere, then that would be an essential workflow (similar to the way you can edit R3D metadata within Premiere).

For now, I'll probably chop up my .RAW files in Premiere with Ginger HDR, then export to After Effects & relink to Cinema DNG conversions for grading.

I find, with ACR, I'm able to manipulate the footage to the point that it needs very, very little grading.
 
After trying out Bassman2003's suggestion, my current post-processing is just that.

1. Batch import to Adobe Lightroom (WB/Exposure/etc. adjustments)
2. Batch export to Tif files from Lightroom
3. Import tif sequences to Premiere Pro and Edit
4. Link to After Effects for color-grading and other effects.
 
Back to this topic since there have been some new software supporting ML Raw files.

Here are the list of programs I have

In windows 7 PC,

Premiere Pro CS6
After Effects CS6
Lightroom 4
Photoshop CS6
Resolve Lite
Raw2Dng

In my Mac air
FCP X
Rawmagic

If you have similar programs I have, what would be your Raw workflow?
 
So I know this is an old thread but I thought some people might benefit from yet another workflow.

Windows 7 PC:

- Bachelor Raw conversion on card import
- After Effects CS6 ACR grade and rough trim and sometimes warp stabilize, export as Avid DNxHD 175 10-Bit
- Import into Premiere and edit​
 
Resolve 10 brings new choices..... Raw > Raw Magic > Resolve..... end of the line.

Resolve seems to work so much faster for me than both Premiere and AE, so I'm sticking. And some of the new features are really useful.
 
Resolve 9 is A LOT faster than AE working with these files right now. Let's see if the new DNG support in the upcoming Adobe CC update brings AE and Premiere anywhere near Resolve in terms of performance...
 
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