GH4 How to get the best out a new GH4...

[jnorman34]

I have been shooting documentary type footage with a D5300, with very nice results, and I have GH4 on preorder, thinking that 4k will offer some real benefits for the architectural subject matter I work with. the primary goal is to illustrate architectural details as sharply as I can.


My editing needs are simple, since the agency wants the footage as original as possible - no color manipulation, no sharpening, etc - just trim and join multiple clips and render. so far I am only using adobe premiere elements 12, and rendering in 1080/30fps.


4k will be a new world, and I would appreciate some advice from those more experienced than myself.


1. since this is for archival footage, am I better off shooting in 4k and rendering in 4k - even though I will need to completely replace my entire computer system to handle 4k editing? and of course even then I will have no display/monitor available that displays 4k resolution - will I even be able to see a difference between something shot in 4k and something shot in 1080?


2. or should I shoot in 4k and render in 1080? will this actually give me sharper 1080 footage than if a just shoot it in 1080?


3. should I just shoot in 1080, highest bit rate, and render in 1080?


4. I was thinking of perhaps moving to powerdirector 12 to work with 4k footage - is that a reasonable piece of software for my purposes, or do I really need to move to a more professional editing platform, like FCP or adobe premiere pro? again, I do not do any color grading, or anything but trim and join. does expensive editing software have better rendering engines than software like powerdirector or sony movie studio?


thanks for your assistance.

 

[Jim Simon]

Until the GH4 actually ships and folks start using it en masse, I suspect any answers you get would be premature and less reliable.

But even after the GH4 ships, I think you're better off answering this question by making your own observations, which always trump the observations of others.

 

[Sol M.]

Yes, GH4-specific issues will not be known until the camera with final firmware is out the door and in users hands, but a 4k to 1080P workflow is not unique to the GH4 and can be discussed in very concrete terms.

Converting 4K to 1080P will increase the post-production load (rendering time, data storage requirements, etc.), but you will generally get better quality 1080P this way compared to an in-camera method of downscaling the 16MP sensor to 1080P.

Here's a good comparison of image quality from 4K source material and in-camera 1080P:

Cutting in 4K should not pose much of an issue if you have a halfway decent computer. Even my laptop w/NVidia GPU can smoothly play 4K material with Premiere's Mercury engine. If your computer can't handle it at full resolution, just edit at 1/2 or 1/4 resolution-- it shouldn't really matter if you're just joining clips and rendering out anyway. Rendering the final 4K will of course take longer than if you were using 1080P material.

I would recommend continuing to work with 1080P once you get the GH4 and then experiment to find the best 4K workflow for your particular needs. This way you can have a workflow that works before diving head-first into it.

 

[Lpowell]

If you want to intercut between GH4 and Nikon D5300 footage, I'd recommend preprocessing your footage in Adobe After Effects before importing it into Premiere or another editor. I've shot numerous projects with both Panasonic and Nikon cameras and the dynamics and color balance are noticeably different. The GH's have rich color, smooth highlights, and sketchy shadow details. The Nikons have moire, harsh highlights, and excellent shadow details. Matching the footage makes a big difference, and can be done pretty routinely with basic color correction techniques. Unlike video editors, After Effects is color managed, and makes it easy to compare and grade footage in a technically consistent environment. AE will also be very useful for preprocessing GH4 4K footage, to export zoomed and panned 1080p clips for editing in Premiere.

 

[thorn]

You said "the agency wants the footage as original as possible"...

1. I suspect (and I believe it's a good bet) that 4K will look better than 1080, even at the highest bitrate of 1080. And yes, you can see the difference between 4K and 1080, even on a non-4K computer screen. So that's going to be your highest-quality footage as far as shooting goes.

2. What you need to find out from the agency is if they can handle a 4K video file... whether it means they might edit it, or whether they have the storage capacity for 4K vs what it takes to archive 1080.

In other words, you're sort of asking 2 questions in 1 - but they are 2 different questions in reality. What you have to deliver is possibly entirely different than what you can or can't edit on your computer.