tackyattack
Active member
So I downloaded the cinestyle profile onto my Canon T2i, so far I love it! But there is one thing that I don't understand, what is the look up table that everybody is talking about supposed to do?
What the heck is the .lut supposed to do???
- Thread starter tackyattack
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tackyattack
Active member
Wait, isn't that what the Canon Standard profile does?
tackyattack
Active member
So besides being able to bring back blown-out highlights LUT seems to just re-add the contrast and eliminate the dynamic range that was gained.
El Director
Veteran
but now you're in control, rather then the camera
ROCKMORE
Veteran
These curves seem a bit small to control using a mouse. At least the one in the Adobe Premiere curve editor.
What's the difference between using the curve and using the numbers with brightness, contrast, chroma etc. Since every image will require a different fine tuned setting I think it may be easier. In Premiere I have about 40 different custom presets I created with brightness +- Contrast +- and basic chroma + 5% to 50% just as a quick way to get close then fine tune from there. If I'm not wrong it's like having 40 different preset curves. Am I wrong?
qazwsx
Well-known member
The difference is that curves allow you more control over the shadow/mid/highlight relationship of the image in a more organic fashion where all three can be controlled almost totally independent of one another. Also, curves can be applied to each color channel.
Brightness/contrast is a linear control so if you adjust the brightness by +15, then the shadow, mid and highlight pixels all get brightened by 15pts. That means you won't be able to bring the mids or shadows too far until you've blown highs completely because everything is getting pushed simultaneously and linearly.
Although I do agree that curves feel a bit finicky in Premiere. I kinda like the ones that are in Vegas where they bezier handles.
Brightness/contrast is a linear control so if you adjust the brightness by +15, then the shadow, mid and highlight pixels all get brightened by 15pts. That means you won't be able to bring the mids or shadows too far until you've blown highs completely because everything is getting pushed simultaneously and linearly.
Although I do agree that curves feel a bit finicky in Premiere. I kinda like the ones that are in Vegas where they bezier handles.
Samuel H
Major Contributor
@bwwd: here we go again...
the technicolor picture style makes your in-camera recording keep a lot of detail in highlights and shadows that would be lost if you shot with a more contrasty picture style
when you import that footage in your editor and apply the LUT to it (or the equivalent curve, see below), it adds a lot of contrast to the footage, crushes the shadows and clips the highlights, and makes it look as if it was shot with a regular picture style; except the H.264 footage still contains all that shadow and highlight detail, and you can bring it back if you want
if you know you'll want your final images look exactly as if they were shot in neutral picture style with contrast=0, then by all means shoot like that: using the technicolor picture style and then adding contrast in post will mean a lot of worka and will also add a lot of noise to the footage, making the codec artifacts much more visible, etc
but if you shoot in neutral with contrast=0 and then find out, when you're on your PC, that some shadows are crushed that you wish you hadn't crushed, then don't complain: you can't bring them back to life in post if they're not on your H.264 file
this doesn't mean you should use technicolor cinestyle for every shoot; in fact, I plan to use it very sparsely, only when I know my final footage needs a lot of DR; but some people will want to use it for absolutely everything (for example people working for clients, or in bigger productions where the DP is not the one who will decide how the final images are to look like, etc)
@OP: everything the LUT does is just to apply this curve to the footage:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...e-Is-Amazing&p=2326898&viewfull=1#post2326898
after that, it looks very similar to what you would have got in-camera if you shot neutral with contrast=-2
http://www.similaar.com/foto/picturestyles/picturestyles.html
except your detail is still alive under the curve, and you can use it if you decide you want to
the technicolor picture style makes your in-camera recording keep a lot of detail in highlights and shadows that would be lost if you shot with a more contrasty picture style
when you import that footage in your editor and apply the LUT to it (or the equivalent curve, see below), it adds a lot of contrast to the footage, crushes the shadows and clips the highlights, and makes it look as if it was shot with a regular picture style; except the H.264 footage still contains all that shadow and highlight detail, and you can bring it back if you want
if you know you'll want your final images look exactly as if they were shot in neutral picture style with contrast=0, then by all means shoot like that: using the technicolor picture style and then adding contrast in post will mean a lot of worka and will also add a lot of noise to the footage, making the codec artifacts much more visible, etc
but if you shoot in neutral with contrast=0 and then find out, when you're on your PC, that some shadows are crushed that you wish you hadn't crushed, then don't complain: you can't bring them back to life in post if they're not on your H.264 file
this doesn't mean you should use technicolor cinestyle for every shoot; in fact, I plan to use it very sparsely, only when I know my final footage needs a lot of DR; but some people will want to use it for absolutely everything (for example people working for clients, or in bigger productions where the DP is not the one who will decide how the final images are to look like, etc)
@OP: everything the LUT does is just to apply this curve to the footage:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...e-Is-Amazing&p=2326898&viewfull=1#post2326898
after that, it looks very similar to what you would have got in-camera if you shot neutral with contrast=-2
http://www.similaar.com/foto/picturestyles/picturestyles.html
except your detail is still alive under the curve, and you can use it if you decide you want to
ROCKMORE
Veteran
Well said
Yeah, it's hard to see why you'd use this unless you had wildly different lighting (like on a bright day). Did some tests with it in a dimly, evenly, lit basement and it was nearly worthless.
But it clearly helps on bright days, and I'd guess it'd help in other bright/contrast-y situations, like sports stadiums.
But it clearly helps on bright days, and I'd guess it'd help in other bright/contrast-y situations, like sports stadiums.
tackyattack
Active member
So would it be better just to stick with the Philip bloom picture style?
Well, I think it depends. The Technicolor style really seems to excel in bright daylight. Trying to use it in dim light was almost impossible (very hard to find proper focus), and brought dubious benefits.
The Bloom-style seemingly would work under most normal circumstances, but again, if you like the look you're getting out of the cam, why not use it? Reducing sharpness would be the one universal setting, other then that, live dangerously I say.
Does it lock you in a bit more in post? Yup. So what? You're living like John Ford yo!
The Bloom-style seemingly would work under most normal circumstances, but again, if you like the look you're getting out of the cam, why not use it? Reducing sharpness would be the one universal setting, other then that, live dangerously I say.
Does it lock you in a bit more in post? Yup. So what? You're living like John Ford yo!
Snapper123
Well-known member
Personally, especially in dim lighting, I think this picture style almost equals the human eye in what detail it retains and picks up - a picture style called IR does this exact same thing to an even more equal (and 100x noiser) extent. If you're working with crazy conditions, I have a feeling that a curve out there may be designed in the future that brings back the realism of the shoot without sending CineStyle all the way back to Neutral in terms of overblown-ness. Problem is, it doesn't seem to exist yet!