GH4 For discussion; nicely shot skin tones and discussion around how he obtained them.

Tried it on my GH3 as well and pretty happy with the results. Haven't tested with (caucasian) skin tones yet but other tests have been very positive. I'm not a huge fan of higher sharpness values however so I kept that very low. Not so much for a particular look but I despise electronic sharpening of any kind.
 
I've also found this profile to be great! I've lowered my sharpness to -3 and also my noise reduction to -3 but have kept everything else the same. This is quite a game changer!
 
Here are a bunch of stills from a short we shot Saturday with these settings. I really like the look as an in camera look! Cine D gives more room to push around, for what it's worth in an 8 bit file, and I like Cine V well enough, but I really like how this looks coming right out of the camera.

02 02 Second Shoot Cut Down.00_33_50_05.Still001.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_00_03_05.Still007.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_00_07_05.Still008.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_01_05_05.Still004.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_01_19_22.Still005.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_01_52_14.Still003.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_02_20_04.Still002.jpg02 03 Second Shoot Good Takes.00_02_53_07.Still001.jpg
 
The one thing I'm a bit sceptical about at present is the hue twist.

BTW, I think iResolution is another form of sharpening and *must* be off if you don't want a sharpened looK.

I'm going to do a daylight test with a colorchecker to test that part.
Normally I use Cine V as in-camera look, with iDynamic at standard and get good results, but I'm just a beginner.

I have my doubts about the gradeability of GH4 files generally, in the sense of pushing them around like a digital back file with Photoshop. My impression is that either you get it fairly close to right at shoot time or you can forget it. But then this camera costs $1.5K and shoots to card with incredible detail !

Edmund
 
Yeah, I did some colorchecker tests in incandescent and daylight. The tricked out portrait is ok, but I don't know whether the added hue twist is a good idea. I compared with my usual Cinemalike V with iDynamic standard and maybe I prefer the V. My impression is that if you stay at ISO 200, underexpose a bit, and do a careful white balance then the GH4 gives color which most photographers would kill for. The problem is you need to protect accidental highlights somehow - in real life there is always something overlit that will intrude into your frame.

Pictures of people surrounded by greenery are not really useful for assessing a color profile, IMHO. The skintone will always look ghastly.

Edmund
 
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Here's a video I just shot using my own settings. I was pretty pleased with the skin tones.


Profile: STANDARD
Contrast: -2
Sharpness: -5
Saturation: -2
NR:-5

Highlights/Shadows: 0
Master Ped: +1

ISO 200

All shot with a Tokina 11-16 at f2.8

Graded using Impulz LUTS Fuji Superior 200 (Rec 709 Full Contrast). I like how it pushed yellows and warmed the image which, for this spot, was appropriate.
 
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http://vimeo.com/114428151

Here's the typical CinemaLike V look - Vimeo compression is pretty bad but on a large Mac the original *incredibly* sharp, with areal 3d look.
This is from when I got the camera, and didn't know how to use it yet. I think iResolution is set and IDynamic is set to standard.

My impression from the latest shoots is that it's almost impossible to burnout a highlight with CinemaLike V and iDynamic although usually I watch the histogram and underexpose a bit. I've figured out lately that one can just shoot at ISO 200 mostly anytime by daylight, and NR is not really an issue then.

I did some colorchecker etc. tests, and the upshot is that subjective color accuracy there is quite decent even with good reds, *provided* one does a white balance before the shoot, eg. with a Colorchecker Passport. The white balance is crucial, if you foobar that, you won't get it back easily later, the files are too thin to be pushed around much, although I guess you can overlay a "look", which is the other function of grading. In mixed light or to really push the file around, etc. I think one just needs a "real" camera.

BTW, FCPX has display profile issues under Yosemite.

Edmund
 
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The difference between the film settings is mainly how bright/dark the mid-tones are relative to - especially - the high lights. Portrait has the brightest mid-tones. Since High Light / Shadow dial is the Mother-Dial - the one that controls High Light and Shadow no matter what else you do, there is no reason to use a flat Cine profile (High Light / Shadow makes all profiles equal in regards to how much you can lift your shadows or lower you high lights in-camera).
So by using the Cine-settings (especially the flattest one), all you do is underexpose the mid-tones (compared to Portrait). Which is counter productive in post, as lifting of the mid-tones will stretch the shadows (and its noise) into the mid-tones, and the same lifting of the mid-tones will lift the high lights for no reason.
The Portrait setting is the one that is born with the least amount of noise. By the way, the reason I have set Noise Reduction and Sharpness the way they are, is because I tend to use old lenses. They make nice soft skin-tones and need more sharpening than Hi-Fi lenses.
I was sent this rather nice film using an Atomos and "my" setting: https://vimeo.com/118708865
 
Medgyesi Settings on LX100
Modified slightly:
+3 Contrast
-3 Sharpening
-3 Noise Reduction
-5 Saturation
White balance set to cloudy, or UK winter :)
I left the White Balance Hue adjustment at 0


I did a little exposure correction, but seems like the skintones sit nicely on the fleshtone line on the vectorscope. Then again, what do I know, I'm colourblind which is why I'm trying to find a nice generic profile with realistic skintones :)

https://vimeo.com/118608222
 
I love the clean image. Here is a shot with the Portrait setting. No noise reduction at all.

Portrait:
+3 Contrast
0 Sharpening
0 Noise Reduction
-5 Saturation
-2 Hue

 
are you guys going into highlight/shadow and setting the highlight at -5 as well?
 
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