FS700 picture profile/grading question

[ianthom]

Hi all,
long time lurker first time poster I have a very random question, but would appreciate your input. I am part of a production team that use the fs700, and love it. Up until recently I primarily worked the grips, and did a fair bit of the shooting, I was generally using one of the "flatter" profiles as my colleague did all of the grading, and he was good at it. That colleague has now left, and in the current economic environment it does not appear as though he will be replaced. This means that I will now be doing all of the production, and post production work. This is fine, except that I am colourblind. Let me clarify, I do see some colour, but as you can imagine grading has never been my strong suit and so my question is this- If you were going to have to shoot knowing that you would be able to do very little colour adjustment (happy to work with other levels) what profile would you use? I edit in premiere 5.5 if that helps, and would be happy to purchase any "plug ins" (maybe magic bullet or somethin?!) if that worked also...
I know this is a strange one, but as you can imagine any help would be really appreciated
Thanks so much...

 

[SergeSmArt]

Hi all,
long time lurker first time poster I have a very random question, but would appreciate your input. I am part of a production team that use the fs700, and love it. Up until recently I primarily worked the grips, and did a fair bit of the shooting, I was generally using one of the "flatter" profiles as my colleague did all of the grading, and he was good at it. That colleague has now left, and in the current economic environment it does not appear as though he will be replaced. This means that I will now be doing all of the production, and post production work. This is fine, except that I am colourblind. Let me clarify, I do see some colour, but as you can imagine grading has never been my strong suit and so my question is this- If you were going to have to shoot knowing that you would be able to do very little colour adjustment (happy to work with other levels) what profile would you use? I edit in premiere 5.5 if that helps, and would be happy to purchase any "plug ins" (maybe magic bullet or somethin?!) if that worked also...
I know this is a strange one, but as you can imagine any help would be really appreciated
Thanks so much...

Picture Profiles for FS-700:

For minimum Grading and high contrast scenes I use my PP-4 profile but for low lighting scenes take my PP-3
For matching footage with Canon 5D - take PP-5 profile, but for best DR and safe highlights take PP-6 - my favorite profile for production!

PP-1 Black Level: 0 Gamma: Cine 1 Black Gamma: Range Low, Level +7 Knee Mode: Auto Color Mode: CINEMA, Level 1 Color Level: 0 Color Phase : 0 Color Depth: All 0 WB SHIFT : 0 Detail Level -7 Manual Set Off	PP-2 Black Level: 0 Gamma: Cine 2 Black Gamma: Middle, Level 0 Knee Mode: Auto Color Mode: CINEMA, Level 4 Color Level: 0 Color Phase : 0 Color Depth: All 0 WB SHIFT : 0 Detail Level -7 Manual Set Off
PP-3 Black Level: 0 Gamma: Cine 3 Black Gamma: Range MIDDLE, Level +7 Knee Mode: Auto Color Mode: CINEMA, Level 7 Color Level: 0 Color Phase : 0 Color Depth: R+3, G+0, B -0, C+2, M+4, Y +1 WB SHIFT : 0 Detail Level -7 Manual Set Off	PP-4 Black Level: 0 Gamma: Cine 4 Black Gamma: Range Low, Level +7 Knee Mode: Auto Color Mode: CINEMA, Level 8 Color Level: +3 Color Phase : 0 Color Depth: R+3, G+0, B -0, C+2, M+4, Y +1 WB SHIFT: 0 Detail Level -7 Manual Set Off
PP-5 AB_EOS5D Black Level: -6 Gamma: ITU709 Black Gamma: High, -1 Knee: Auto, Max Point= 100% / Sensitivity= Middle Color Mode: Still, Level 8 Color Level: +3 Color Phase: 0 Color Depth: R= -5, G= -4, B= -3, C= -5, M= -2, Y= -6 Detail: +1 / Manual Set = Off	PP-6 ( Noah Yuan-Vogel ) BLACK LEVEL: +5 GAMMA: [CINE4] BLACK GAMMA RANGE: [MIDDLE] BLACK GAMMA LEVEL: +5 KNEE POINT: [77.5%] KNEE SLOPE: [+1] COLOR MODE TYPE: [PRO] COLOR MODE LEVEL: [8] COLOR LEVEL: -1 COLOR PHASE: [+2] COLOR DEPTH: [+1, -6, -3, 0, +2, +5] DETAIL: [-2]

 

[epsom salt]

if you don't mind, i'd be very interested to see some grabs or footage of those profiles serge. specifically 6 and 5 AB_EOS5D

 

[SergeSmArt]

if you don't mind, i'd be very interested to see some grabs or footage of those profiles serge. specifically 6 and 5 AB_EOS5D

Sorry, I don't have any of 5 AB_EOS5D samples, as I never use it for myself.. but my PP6 sample is here:

"BEFORE" ( as is with PP6 ) -->

"AFTER" ( Sony Vegas simple Bright., Contr., and Satur. correction ) -->

Final video ( it's just a TEST of 85mm Rokinon Cine lens ) -->

 

[epsom salt]

awesome, thanx for sharing!

 

[jpardon]

Picture Profiles for FS-700:

For minimum Grading and high contrast scenes I use my PP-4 profile but for low lighting scenes take my PP-3
For matching footage with Canon 5D - take PP-5 profile, but for best DR and safe highlights take PP-6 - my favorite profile for production!

Hey Serge--

Just shot some B-Roll over the weekend with one of Noah's nLog Picture Profiles - I believe the one is used was very similar to your PP6, possibly exactly the same settings. Are you aware of any LUTs for this PP, or can you give me any color correction tips for getting the most out of these images shot with your PP6?

Thanks!

 

[Bruce Watson]

I was generally using one of the "flatter" profiles as my colleague did all of the grading, and he was good at it. That colleague has now left, and in the current economic environment it does not appear as though he will be replaced. This means that I will now be doing all of the production, and post production work. This is fine, except that I am colourblind.

First, if what you've been doing was working, I'd stick with it. The reason to shoot more or less "flat" is to make sure you don't crush blacks or clip highlights during capture. Because once the information is gone, you can't get it back. So you only want to crush blacks or clip highlights in post, and on purpose.

In post, the first thing you'll do is set your black and white points, and contrast. Use a waveform monitor to show you exactly where your blacks and whites fall on the IRE scale. Look at the resulting picture on a production monitor to judge and adjust contrast to taste. You can see how this changes the image on the waveform monitor too.

When it comes to removing a color cast, the intuitive way envolves viewing on a good production monitor and removing the cast while looking. But that's neither the only way, nor necessarily the best way. One of the best tools for this is the RGB parade. It can show you color casts you can't easily see, like in the shadows. You can remove the casts without even looking at the image on the production monitor.

For more about what to do, how to do it, and most importantly to me -- why to do it, and what to look for, I highly recommend Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook. Best technical book I've ever read, highly readable, and answers questions I didn't even know enough to ask.