F35: F35 Noise In Blacks Using LUTS

[TheWakePlace.com]

Had my F35 for a few years now, experiencing some new issues that i wanted to ask everyone.

Did some tests in sunlight at 4pm, with a 1.2ND and 0.9 Soft Grad in the matte box. In post, i am applying a typical workflow with LUTs: sLog to Cineon (Input 3d) - 2nd Node for some contrast adjustment - ArriC to REC709 (3d Output Out).

In trees and especially when using anything other than the ArriC LUT (tried the Kodak Luts, also the sLog to emulsion pack) and its a strange look. Grass, skin and trees are all showing noise, especially out of focus shots.

Anyone experienced this with high contrast scenes?

 

[trafficn]

This is my experience- LUTs are bad news for anything but rushes and previewing contrast/saturation. With the F35 I've tried ACES, I've tried MacGregor's SLOG>709 LUT, I've tried the cineon conversion you mentioned- it's done nothing but give me unpredictable and strange results that I have to grade around. That seems to be terrible practice, grading on top of and underneath nodes you generally have no idea what effect its having. Too many variables concerning Davinci's setup, what monitors you're using, etc. I've learned to follow the advice I glean from almost every professional colorist- keep it simple. Trust lift, gamma, and gain adjustments. You should be able to create just about any look you want in 2 nodes or less. As far as noise, it's always there to an elevated degree over some other sensors but I'll use neatvideo if I really want milky blacks. For high contrast I'll typically crush blacks til the noise floor drops away. Sorry if this isn't helpful but I feel there's an over-reliance on LUTs in general and it really confounds the grading process.

Edit: I re-read and saw it's a new issue you're having. That's strange. Have you black balanced multiple times?

 

[Alan Pierson]

Are you blackshading several times a day when shooting? Not doing that is the only thing I can think of that might cause noise. As for LUTs, check out LUT Calc. With the S-Log>Cineon>whatever LUT workflow you aren't properly converting S.Gamut to Rec709 so you're losing a great deal of color information.