C300: C300 MKII - Grading Clog-3?

S

seanarmada

Well-known member
Hi all

So I've started using Clog-3 more often than Clog-2 on recent shoots. I'm still using the Cinema Gamut/Production combo to make use of ARRI Rec709 luts. With well exposed Clog-2 the ARRI Rec709 luts look AMAZING. I find with Clog-3 things become extremely muddy and dark, even with fairly well exposed shots.

Wondering if anyone has experience with this and any tips?

Sean
 
Sean,

The Arri K1S1 LUT is designed specifically for the Log C curve by Arri, not to be confused with the C Log curve with Canon.

The reason K1S1 has worked well for many, myself included, with Canon Log 2 footage is because Canon Log 2 is a pretty similar curve to Log C - it even has the same black point code value.

However, Canon Log 3 has an elevated blackpoint of 128 (10 bit scale) much like Canon Log 1 did. This produces less noise in the shadows, but also elevated and muddy blacks.

So in short, K1S1 isn't designed for any of the Canon curves, but because CLog2 and Log C are so similar it works. Canon Log 3 is just a whole other curve through and through from shadows to midtones to highlights.

My recommendation is if you're loving the K1S1 LUT - just stick with Canon Log 2 - it's the best curve for the camera anyhow.
 
I'll echo what was already said.

LOG3 is closer to LOG1 in terms of the post production approach. You'll be protecting the highlights and do more pushing in post. Where as LOG2 is more of an expose to the right and pull down shadows in post. At least that's the way I've approached exposing.
 
I've found Canon's CLOG3 LUTs to be a pretty good starting point, as long as you have't overexposed from the start since it really pushes your mids and highlights to the right.
 
I'd appreciate some insight into how Canon Log 2 works.
When I view a Day/Ext on a WFM there appears to be a hard clip at 80 IRE.

When imported into Resolve, it looks the same but I can pull info out of the highlights, as expected.
In short it works, I just don't understand how it works.
 
For Log2 at 800 ISO the waveform clips around 92IRE. Keep anything you want detail of above 20IRE, you'll still have detail in the shadows below that. The clip point comes down with the ISO. So I think ISO 400 clips around 80IRE.

It's actually quite amazing how much stops/detail they fit in from 20-92IRE. If you have the ability to record the 4K raw to prores on the O7Q the jump in qaulity is outstanding.
 
Thanks for the tips! Playing around a little I find the Clog 3 --> BT 2020 WideDR is giving me fairly nice results. Very good to know about Clog 2 also, I'll try to shoot more often with it as it seems to be suiting me better.

John: Honestly I'd be willing to pay for a well developed series of videos on shooting with the C300 MKII. Nothing as crazy in-depth as Doug Jensen necessarily, but a proper walk through of how you approach different types of shoots, post production, etc.
 
jm.gardiner said:
Thanks! I'll see what I can do. Been meaning to start doing some video blog posts.
Click to expand...

Keep me in the loop, I'll be your first customer ;)

Forgot to ask - what custom LUTs are you using for Clog2/3 and finding success with? I've seen a few things floating online that claim to be using Koji that I really like.
 
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