General The Process of Editing DSLR Footage

D

DDirector

Veteran
Wow, so I have not edited footage from a DSLR in a long time. I've been shooting on film lately and just haven't done anything on my DSLR.
I have a shoot coming up soon in August and I just need to refresh myself on The Process of Editing DSLR Footage.

I want to start from the start from the basics because I have not done a lot of DSLR shoots. And last time I remember, I was doing it wrong, or not the best way, so I need to refresh myself. Because maybe things have changed and been updated to new ways.

Picture Style:
I remember hearing about Cinestyle a long time ago. I downloaded this onto my camera but haven't really used it yet (on a legit shoot)
I downloaded it shortly after it was released. So, I wanted to know;

1) Is there any other newer/better picture style available that I should download?
2) If its just the Cinestyle I should use, have their been any recent updates, and should try re-downloading a newer copy?
3) And also if using Cinestyle, do I need to make any adjustments in the camera to saturation, contrast, etc. once its on my card, or leave it as is?

Conversion of Footage?:
I am getting a brand new fast pc computer next month, hopefully I get it before this shoot and can edit it myself.
So once all the shooting is complete, what do I do from then? - I will be editing on Premiere CS5 or CS6.

1) I remember reading that I have to convert my footage from the camera to something else. Do I need to do this still?
2) If so, what is the conversion thing called?
3) Is there a link to downloading the conversion thing/instructions?
4) I want to make sure, if I still do the conversion of the footage, that everything will still be in its highest quality possible, meaning as it was shot. I dont want the footage to loose its quality.

Editing:
So, believing that I had to convert my footage, if not, then just ignore the last questions, now we go into editing. Im pretty sure this is a simple step. Just import the new? footage onto the timeline basically and edit. But Ive used FCP for a long time, so im not sure it it was Premiere that asked me about the specs of the footage before I could edit.

1) If it does ask me for the specs of the footage I want to edit, what do I input?

Bringing colour/contrast back in if using Cinestyle. I heard that I need to download something else that I should be using with Cinestyle that helps with colour correction, LUT I believe?

1) It is LUT, right? What is that?
2) If thats what I need, HOW do I download it and use it?

Exporting:
Now this is where I always f**k things up.

1) How do I properly export (step-by-step) for it to remain in its highest quality possible, both audio & visual?



THANKS! :D
 
Last edited:
No need to transcode on CS5 or CS6, actually it will probably look better if you don't. Premiere won't ask you for any specs, but you can right-click and, say, conform to a different fps. For CineStyle there's a LUT, it comes with the download, and you can apply it using the free Magic Bullet LUT Buddy... or you can just add an equivalent curve, it's a very simple S-curve. Or, even better, you can use Flaat instead of CineStyle: less noise in the final images (that's an issue with CineStyle), similarly easy to grade, great skin tones: http://www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-picture-styles/index.html
 
Yeah. no need to transcode if you use premiere on the PC side.

I use Cinestyle a lot (and no there isn't a new one, they just released it once with no updates). They give some recommended settings for decreasing the contrast, saturation, sharpness etc... should be on the website. I personally like it, but it's not a panacea. It looks a lot like Raw, but you absolutely cannot push it around like Raw. You'll get banding and orange skin tones if you try and raise the contrast too much in post. If you like a slightly washed out look with a lot of detail in the shadows it works well. If you plan to crush it down into a high contrast high saturation final look, don't use it. Also, it really MUST be graded. If I'm casually shooting or doing something where I don't want to do a full on color correction I use neutral.
 
You may find my bit on Canon flat picture styles useful.
I also like Samuel's flaat better than Cinestyle. IMO, if you use CineStyle in Canon only shoots, you are pointlessly handicapping yourself. Cinestyle is a curve for mixed cameras (Canon + log cameras or Canon + film) workflows.
 
Oh sick. So, I just import the footage straight onto premiere and start editing. Nice :)I never downloaded a LUT when I got cinestyle. Weird.But ill aslo look at the flaat picture style. If it creates less noise and basically does the same job, that seems a bit better.Thanks guys :) its juste been a while since I've done this
 
antcuc said:
Do you mind elaborating? Why might it be better if not transcoded? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I believe PPro allows for native support of dSLR footage. You'll also get better results if you're using the Mercury Playback Engine which is only available with some nVidia cards iirc.
 
DDirector said:
Exporting:
Now this is where I always f**k things up.

1) How do I properly export (step-by-step) for it to remain in its highest quality possible, both audio & visual?



THANKS! :D
Click to expand...

Any suggestion on the EXPORTING to the best quality? No one seems to answer this question so far.
 
kicap said:
Any suggestion on the EXPORTING to the best quality? No one seems to answer this question so far.
Click to expand...
Beat me to it. I was just about to ask again. This is my weakness. I never get it right. It always looks like shot on a s*%tty consumer camera with blochyness in in.
 
I just bought Canon 60D and would like to know what is the best workflow. So your question really actually help me too. So, what if I am a Final Cut Pro 6 user? Should I get the Premier Pro for my MacBook Pro?

Yes, I know someone might suggest GH2, but Canon has a better name here in Malaysia and it is easier for Rental purpose too.
 
Last edited:
If the editor is able to import your original footage without issues and put it on a high-bit-depth color space, as is the case with CS5 and CS6, then transcoding is not going to increase image quality, and it may actually decrease it if the software you use for that is not careful enough.
http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2010/12/in-praise-of-dissent-adobe-cs5-paves-the-way/
Click to expand...
I didn't comment on the export side of things because it seems your needs are different from mine: I export for the web. If you're interested anyway, check this: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?281350-MOV-gamma-shift-how-do-you-deal-with-it
 
I got my 60D in late December but am only now really starting to use it for video production. I am not seeing a way out of having to transcode.

Now, I already have the Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 on a pretty decent PC built just last year: i7 990 processor with 3.46Ghz, 24 GB of RAM, a Nvidia 580 GTX card plus several tB's of storage. My project drive is a WD 4TB Raid 0, and is external of course. I use another external drive for back-up, and all programs go on the C drive.

Should be all set for native editing of DSLR footage from the 60D, but I'm not....my PC really chokes on it. I mean, the timeline will show one clip and be playing the audio from the next clip. It won't get caught up for perhaps 5 minutes or more!!!! Very odd as it litterally breezes thru anything else.

How much horsepower do I need to really edit this stuff natively? What do I need to change?
Any help would sure be appreciated.
 
Last edited:
sewolla said:
I got my 60D in late December but am only now really starting to use it for video production. I am not seeing a way out of having to transcode.

Now, I already have the Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 on a pretty decent PC built just last year: i7 990 processor with 3.46Ghz, 24 GB of RAM, a Nvidia 580 GTX card plus several tB's of storage. My project drive is a WD 4TB Raid 0, and is external of course. I use another external drive for back-up, and all programs go on the C drive.

Should be all set for native editing of DSLR footage from the 60D, but I'm not....my PC really chokes on it. I mean, the timeline will show one clip and be playing the audio from the next clip. It won't get caught up for perhaps 5 minutes or more!!!! Very odd as it litterally breezes thru anything else.

How much horsepower do I need to really edit this stuff natively? What do I need to change?
Any help would sure be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I have a similar system except I'm on a hackintosh. I work in FCP so I always transcode to Prores as well. I was under the impression that h264 was a transport codec and therefore not optimized for editing/adding effects to, similar to mp3s. So to hear you can just take dslr footage directly into PPro and edit as is I find intriguing and I will try it when I get a chance.
 
Well yeah but my experience with Premiere CS5.5 and editing the DSLR footage from the 60D ain't at all a happy one-you cannot do it! Or more correctly, I cannot do it.

Sure, the footage goes right on the timeline without issue, Adobe has the preset in there for it, but at least om my machine-which is fully 'cuda enabled, has by most standards fairly beefy specs-it still chokes really bad.

What do I mean? Well, when playing back from the timeline you will see the prior clip as a Still image.....and hear the next clip but not see it for maybe 5 minutes.

Cannot edit squat like that.

My system:

i7 990 with 3.46 Ghz processor
24GB DDR-3 RAM
Nvidia GTX580 video card
1 each WD 4TB Raid 0 for Projects and back-up, external of course
1 WD 7200 rpm SATA drive 2TB for programs.

Really rips right thru the AVCHD files from my AC160 and HMC150's. Really, really fast renders. But not so at all for DSLR footage???

I am importing into Premiere thru the Media Browser in Premiere. Very frustrating. Am I the only one experiencing this with Premiere?
 
I'm editing native DSLR footage in 5.5 on a quad core i5 laptop with only 16GB of RAM that has no hardware acceleration at all. So doesn't make sense to me. Once it gets fairly deep into the edit, especially with effects in play I have to render the work area fairly often, but it works.
 
Same here. The only time when you could expect that kind of behavior (frozen image, audio goes on) is when you apply non-accelerated effects, like Magic Bullet Looks, or Mojo, or Denoiser, or Cosmo, or... But with bare clips (or even with native-and-accelerated effects, things like curves and such) it should be a breeze.
 
So.. I'm still wondering on proper exporting.
Lets say I want to export the footage in its highest quality for Youtube & Vimeo.
How would I do that?

And would that differ if I wanted to burn it onto a Blu Ray? - Because I will also be doing that.
Basically, no matter where I upload them, I want the highest video/audio quality, and Ive never got the chance to do that since I never knew how to properly do it.

-------------------------------------
Picture Style:
Although the Cinestyle & Flaat seem good, they also seem like they will look very flat even after grading. Looking at some sample videos, the picture is still relatively flat looking. I want to properly edit the footage so its not crushed back, but looks like proper true black like in most movies. Its graded, but it doesn't look graded, unless if you really want to show it i.e. transformers with the cyan/yellow.

It seems that if I use any of those two, it will be hard to grade it to look more natural looking, seeing it from the example footage. Sure, I want nice clean details in the blacks, but not so much that it looks gray in the final product because getting a true looking black is over kill and looks bad. Hate crushed footage. Looks so bad and fake

In the article it mentions Marvel. Should I be using that? Im a bit confused.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top