GH4 GH4 Noise - Need suggestions!

B

blando3

Well-known member
I did a shoot using my two GH4s for a client a while back, and I just saw the edited video for the first time. The noise in the shadows is really distracting to me and I don't know how to avoid it in the future. I've included a link to the clips. What do others think? The client did the post work, and I doubt they did much (if any) color correction or noise reduction. I'm quite happy with everything except the noisy blacks and shadows.

I shot in 24.00Hz, FHD 24p, Voigtlander 25mm at ~f1.8. ISO was probably around 320 or 400 (don't remember exactly).

My scene setting was Natural (0, -3, -3, -3, -3). Highlight -2, Shadow +2, i.Dynamic Standard. A fellow GH4 shooter recommended these settings a while back. Don't know why, and I confess I haven't experimented a lot with the different scene settings. Is there a better scene setting recipe I should use?

What am I doing wrong? I know the GH4 is notorious for noise in the shadows, but this is bordering on unacceptable, and I've seen incredibly clean GH4 footage.

I would really appreciate any input.
Thanks in advance.
Andrew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFwb3KJfdBE&feature=youtu.be
 
Try resetting your Shadows back to zero, & turning off i.Dynamic. While your at it consider zeroing the Highlights.
 
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I would use the natural profile and not tinker with highlights, shadows and i.dynamic settings.
Also I would capture 4k and reduce to 1080p in post and would take extra care in getting the right white balance out of camera.
 
Can you verify what the bitrate is for the export that got uploaded to YouTube? I see macroblocking and yes, some noise, but it's a 720p upload that may have a low bitrate before upload, which does not help.

Aside from that, yes to what the other posters said: turn off all of the i.dynamic, highlights, etc. They create more problems than they solve.
 
The idynamic setting works well at low iso, in well lit scenes. But even then, I’d only use the low setting. When you start bumping up the iso, it can exaggerate noise in the shadows, especially if you have a contrasty scene. I’d use the Leeming CineD settings and LUT. I’ve gotten the most satisfying results with this camera with those settings. And when you’re exposing, do everything you can to keep the histogram from touching the left side of the box.
 
blando3 said:
Noise in the blacks and shadows. Or is it just me?
Click to expand...

I see noise... just like noise in every other youtube video out there. :D Is totally passable. There is ALWAYS better possible. If you must have the absolute best possible on this planet, buy an ARRI and full crew.
 
I'll second or third the guys above. Turn off any sort of idynamic, stop boosting the shadows and turning down the contrast. The combination of those things is what is causing your virtually non-existent issue to be seen at all :)

Seriously though the GH4 loved to be shot for final in cam. ANY efforts to get more latitude out of it caused issues IMHO.

Nice work there by the way regardless!

Cheers, Pete
 
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