DSLR Footage

David Del Real

David Del Real

Well-known member
Okay, so I know this has been beaten to death but I'm still looking for a good workflow for Canon DSLR footage - specifically reducing banding and compression artifacts. I know that it comes down to the 8bit h.264 codec but I've seen some pretty decent footage from Canon DSLR's that don't look bad at all. Is it grading/correcting in After Effects? Is it creative use of Neat Video for noise reduction? I have a couple of Canon 6D bodies and decent lenses, and again, I know there are certain limitations but if somebody can get incredible results, then so can I.

I currently use Neat inside of FCPX (I also have Premiere Pro CC). It just seems like I can get better results like some that I've seen online. Average DSLR footage looks so "thin" (for lack of a better term) and blocky. There has to be ways around this in post production. Any ideas? Anybody with a successful workflow care to share???
 
Installing Magic Lantern and shooting in raw eliminates banding and compression artifacts at the source. And if raw is too much trouble to work with, you can convert the clips to ProRes422 (10-bit 4:2:2) and work with it from that point.
 
I believe magiclantern allows you to shoot H.264 at about 90 mbps, that might make the difference for you. You could try grading in Resolve lite and see if it gives you any smother results. Also try shooting with the Neutral picture profile and turn down the sharpening and saturation and see it you get less banding.
 
Great tips guys, thanks for that. Yes, Resolve did help. I tried raw too - really like raw but man, that workflow though. Not to mention creative framing to avoid exaggerated aliasing/moire. Had a VAF but I also shoot stills so it was a pain in the butt so I sent it back. Have a GH4 for those high detail situations and I'll use the 6D's for talking heads and closeups with shallow depth of field.
 
When I shot Canon, I really tried to get the colors in camera and skip all the "flat profile" stuff... went a long way for me, but then came the D7100...
 
I use the VisonColor profiles and haven't experienced any banding issues in my work. Currently running two 550Ds. Edit in Premiere, grade in AE with Colorista III
 
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