F3: Sony F3 Resurrection - The New Chapter

starcentral

starcentral

Veteran
This thread is dedicated to all the long time Sony F3 lovers, owners, and shooters on the web... and of course the friends I have made through DVX wayyyyy too long to list here. :)

sony-f3-Resurrection.jpg


I feel like so many of us have been trying for years to crack the secret of working with slog from the Sony cams - whether that's the Sony F3, F5 or F55. Some of us have been more successful than others, either grading slog directly or creating a myriad of complex nodes in Davinci to get things "close" but still not "close enough".

There are many who feel that working with slog is no big deal and that only a slight adjustment curve is needed in post to bring things back to normal. This is partially true, and in fact the way I had been working with slog back when I owned the F3 grading using curves straight off a Premiere timeline. But for a long time many of us have been looking for a proper way of unraveling slog to remove any limitations in the grading process and to get the image to a more "better" starting point for grading not to mention getting rid of that "Sony look".

The discussion or idea around de-logging footage is not really that new especially since there are more FS700, F3, F5 and F55 users than ever. For slog2 and slog3 Davinci Resolve makes it easy to apply the right IDT and ODT transforms so that you have a very good base to start working with. Plus all controls actually work like they are suppose to. ie. The shadow control actually controls shadows, midtones adjust midtones, and highlights control highlights. But where is the IDT for the original slog you ask? After 4 years has that been abandoned too?

Well thanks to some dedicated Sony-F35-philes and mainly Macgregor, there is now a ‘slog to cineon’ LUT available for the original slog that will give you a better start and better controls in Resolve for your grade. I take absolutely no credit for anything here. I am largely taking what I saw in the F35 section and posting it here along with some of my own tests. I know many F3 users might not lurk in the F35 section so I thought some of you guys would love hearing about this and want to try it out for yourselves.

Below are test results on some old footage of mine shot on the Sony F3 in slog 8-bit 420. Let me know what you guys think;

grade i


grade ii


grade ii clean


original slog 8-bit 420


https://vimeo.com/93529324 - click to watch full HD version full screen

The basic process is make your input LUT "slog -> Cineon" • Apply your grade • On the output node use "ARRI C Log -> Rec709".

In my example however I incorporated the use of the Kodak 2383 print film emulation LUT and a 35mm film grain loop. If you decide to use any print film emulation LUTs you have to remove the ARRI C Log -> Rec709" from the chain. My process looked similar to this:

ScreenShot2014-05-01at43318PM_zps80938b76.png



[size=+2]Downloads:[/size]
• Download MacGregors slog to cineon LUT: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13362047/F35 slog to cineon.zip
• Download Juan Melara's Print Film (Kodak and Fuji) emulation LUTs: http://juanmelara.com.au/downloads/log2hd_cube_luts.zip
• Dennis Hingsber's slog->LC709A experimental LUT version1. (LC709A was originally developed by Sony to emulate the look of the ARRI Alexa) Here is the LUT: slog-to-LC709-A LUT (The actual file is named F35-slog-to-LC709 LUT but it works the same for F3. Feel free to rename it to avoid confusion if you like)
(For Davinci Resolve copy these LUTs to your LUT folder. On MAC: Libarary -> Application Support -> Blackmagic Design -> Davinci Resolve -> LUTS)

• Feel free to download the slog clip used in my example plus the final graded videos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iec0ib0hoqprfpc/zUuGcHqXY0

[size=+2]Resources:[/size]
• Juan Melara's Print Film (Kodak and Fuji) emulation LUTs page for reading: http://juanmelara.com.au/print-film-emulation-luts-for-download/
 
Last edited:
Juan's LUTs are fantastic, and generally the first LUT I'll try out when trying to create a look for log footage in Resolve.

I'm kinda torn with the ACES IDT/ODT for my shiny new F5, on the one hand - they 'normalise' the footage beautifully. But on the other, they prevent me from using Juan's LUTs and Filmconvert as base conversions from the SLOG2 footage - so they're uncharted territory. From my tests so far, I'll probably just use the IDT/ODT for corporate shoots and the like where I just need 'normal' looking footage. And continue with Film emulation LUTs for my narrative work (i.e. the same workflow I had for the F3).
 
The huge revelation for me here as far as the F3 is concerned was not so much the use of the film LUTs, but rather a way to put the F3 footage in a color space that made it much better to work with in Resolve and using its tools. I strongly encourage anyone using Resolve to grade F3 footage to use the Cineon and ARRI C Log LUTS and put their grade in-between and you will see what a dream it is to use the dials and tools. All this is necessary because so far there is no built-in IDT for slog in Resolve.

What lead me to this 'Eureka' moment was actually all the research and testing I have been doing on the ACES IDT ODT workflow for the F55 because I've been shooting with it for a year now and looking to get better images from it recording internally and know there has got to be a way, likely which lies in the color space and color science.


Mark I have not tried it yet but if you shoot in slog3 it is highly based on cineon so you should be able to slap one of those film print LUT's on without a lot of effort. To use slog2 with film print LUTs, how do you get slog2 to cineon or arri c log or have you been winging it with adjustments in a node? I can look into building a slog2 -> cineon LUT the same way MacGregor built one for the original slog.
 
great post... thanks for putting this all in one place. this is important stuff to know when de logging any flavor of slog
 
starcentral said:
Mark I have not tried it yet but if you shoot in slog3 it is highly based on cineon so you should be able to slap one of those film print LUT's on without a lot of effort. To use slog2 with film print LUTs, how do you get slog2 to cineon or arri c log or have you been winging it with adjustments in a node? I can look into building a slog2 -> cineon LUT the same way MacGregor built one for the original slog.
Click to expand...

I've just been winging it with adjustments, it'd be nice to have a one-touch-90%-there process, and perhaps SLOG3's Cineon-ish curve will create that option - but until I can use False Colour without issue with SLOG3, I'll stick with SLOG2 for the time being.

For me, the big thing the film LUTs do is push around the mid-tone contrast (and colour saturation) to a very refined, filmstocky level. I can roughly recreate similar looks by hand (with about 20 different control points on my curves, but that is massively time-consuming.

Perhaps I can find an easier way to tweak that mid-tone contrast via the ACES IDT (since it does such a good job of linearising things), but that'll take some practice obviously.
 
Star Central.jpg

Dennis,

I first tried to upload the LUTS to Libarary -> Application Support -> Blackmagic Design -> Davinci Resolve -> LUTS but I do not find Blackmagic Design under Application Support (I have resolve 10). So then I tried...

Here are both plugins (Cineon then Kodak) used with the new Magic Bullet Looks that now accepts plugins. I captured a similar frame to your example. This is without any other editing which can be done, but it is pretty close?
 
To find LUTs folder on MAC OS what you can do is open Resolve, Click on Project Settings icon, then select "Look Up Tables" tab, then press "Open LUTs folder" button. It will open a window with Finder and you can put the LUTs there, or make a folder for them.

Your grades look pretty good. Do you mean that MBL accepts LUTs using a plugin, not sure what you meant.

Cheers,
 
Thanks and yes, MBL now accepts LUTs from outside sources for the grade as an option, something new for them. I appreciate this thread, great to have the Cineon LUT.
 
Last edited:
Dennis, thanks for taking the time to share from your findings, experience and devotion to the F3 - to pass this Cineon LUT by MacGregor on to us here. I really appreciate this. I look forward to trying this method out very soon with my F3. So far I've just been using MacGregors F35 Lut (shared last year) - but this Cineon lut looks to put the slog footage in a better workable color space - if I understand correctly. I'm loving the learning!
Cheers
 
While we're sharing tips and such--
If you use Resolve and are implementing the slog _to_cineon10 LUT you can also use the Arri LogC to Rec709 LUT as an output LUT. The Arri LogC is based on cineon color space, so it works very nicely in this combination. It just needs a little desaturation to my eye, but the skin tones and contrast feel right. Sometimes it feels a little hot on the exposure, but a quick little dial down on the Offset wheel puts it right. Great for a quick, standard feeling grade.
 
Yes its good to bring this up again and I had put that in my first post. Incase you are not using film print emulation LUTS you should use the ARRI C Log to Rec709 LUT for really great results.

Again this post was not so much to geared towards film print emulation LUTS as it was using the cineon and ARRI LUT in combination.

Any tips are greatly appreciated for sure! Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Another quick one, I burnt the highlights on the forehead a little but that is my fault I applied the previous grade I used without spending too much time tweaking.



variation 1


variation 2
 
Last edited:
those highlights that are missing in forehead should be retreivable in post if shot in raw, no? im amazed at the amount of retreivable detail i get from fs700 DNG RAW i bought 2 more 256gigs and only shoot in raw now
 
RAW is king. I regularly shoot DSLR still photography in RAW and can easily recover if needed.

In this case of slog you can see the small amount of detail there in the original slog image but getting it to look better than what was captured is tough, especially in 8-bit.
 
i hear ya , i assumed with the F3 , F5 + wouldnt shoot anything less than 10bit , manipulating 8 bit sucks , too much of everything going on
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top