Afterglow Grades

I quickly (as in one click per picture) ran these through Lightroom using VSCO Film presets. Although they are calibrated for a specific Canon Camera, they are still very impressive. VSCO Film is set out to emulate classic Photography film stocks for digital cameras by manipulating the color data from the RAW before it gets processed.

Needless to say, if I get the BMCC I'll be processing all my footage with VSCO Film before I edit to greatly reduce my grading time.

I could spend time tweaking the presets of course, but I wanted to see what it would give me stock.

That's not bad at all! It's pretty cool that BMD used an open standard so we can process the images in a number of different apps.

I was thinking though. These presets look great, but we might have to remove the grain and apply a grain intended for motion later in the workflow. I'm not sure, but wouldn't a Lightroom grain setting give you a static grain profile since it's intended for still photos?

Yeah I wouldn't use the grain in Lightroom. I don't know if the grain is random everytime it is applied, but I'd rather use grain plates from actual film stock that I have.

For fun I put this little video together of my grading efforts on Afterglow. Really excited to get my hands on this camera. Don't forget to watch in 1080P the quality and latitude is amazing!

Here are my grades. These are just screen grabs from Resolve.
I'm very impressed with the camera controls in Resolve.
Pulling the blown highlights back to retrieve detail was great.

Here is my grade using the Adobe Camera Raw workflow.


And 4k upscaled version on Youtube. Upscaled in Raw. - View in Chrome to enable 4k playback.

Got a hold of a DNG frame and had a tinker in Photoshop with some 2.35:1 crops.

Day Warm

Frame000346_Warm.jpg (551.43 KiB) Viewed 46245 times

Night Cool + Spot

Frame000346_NightLit.jpg (432.69 KiB) Viewed 46245 times

[CaptainHook]

Thanks John and the Blackmagic Team!
From Resolve 9 B3 (p.s can we submit bugs in this forum? )







In motion:



Uploaded at 720p - also with the typical gamma shift problems when converting/outputting (still haven't found a solid way around that.. anyone??)

Thanks John and the Blackmagic Team!
From Resolve 9 B3 (p.s can we submit bugs in this forum? )


In motion:



Uploaded at 720p - also with the typical gamma shift problems when converting/outputting (still haven't found a solid way around that.. anyone??)

Some very lovely grades there !

jb

Grades.... You can do it in AF with Camera Raw from Adobe. I don't know why but i can't just find myself in davinci resolve. If you open the AE and on the project table right click on the import-> multiple files you will be able to open DNG in camera raw and then on timeline of AE to see what have you grade. Sory for my bad english

There is a example of my grades:

http://blackleaf.co/UPLOAD/bmc2.mp4

Yeah I wouldn't use the grain in Lightroom. I don't know if the grain is random everytime it is applied, but I'd rather use grain plates from actual film stock that I have.

Yeah, I actually tried this out and it's just static grain pattern overlaid over the image. Looks really weird.

If I any doubts about the bmc before, these grades have definitely made them seem much less important .

Conservative takes part II.

Hi Jocelyntremblay, your conservative grades look amazing, very filmic. Where did you do the grading and can you give us some details as to how you achieved the look. Thumbs up!

Johannes

[CaptainHook]

Some very lovely grades there !

Thanks John! It was interesting to play with these in resolve vs the 'log stills' released earlier. I ended up pulling down the exposure and adjusting the white balance/tint for each clip before doing a "grade" - is the metadata for how it was set in camera not coming in correctly to resolve ? Or is how these appear at 'default' in resolve what you were seeing as you shot?

Will you be able to post log prores files at some point? I would love to play with them to compare.

Thanks again.

Some very lovely grades there !

Thanks John! It was interesting to play with these in resolve vs the 'log stills' released earlier. I ended up pulling down the exposure and adjusting the white balance/tint for each clip before doing a "grade" - is the metadata for how it was set in camera not coming in correctly to resolve ? Or is how these appear at 'default' in resolve what you were seeing as you shot?

Will you be able to post log prores files at some point? I would love to play with them to compare.

Thanks again.

The meta data really only seems to carry for WB.

Exposure seems to be variable. It "feels as though it's over but nothing is actually clipped. Once you bring the range back into the middle with the exposure slider it should be good. I think the way the images in resolve display, don't really have anything to do with how they look on set. Just liek they look totally different again if you use Preview, LR or PS. Each one has a totally different *take* on the image.

I'll post some ProRes FILM shots as soon as I'm able to.

jb

[CaptainHook]

I think the way the images in resolve display, don't really have anything to do with how they look on set.

I thought as much. Thanks for the info. I might have a go at these from Capture One (my RAW convertor of choice) to compare as well. Cheers!

[CaptainHook]

Okay, something is up.

Opening a frame in Capture One and the exposure and wb/tint are VERY different to Resolve. In Capture One it appears to be how i assume it looked 'on set'. Resolve had wb @6500 and tint @0. I tried changing clip settings around from as shot/default and eventually went with per clip and set it all myself.

Capture One has wb @4489 and tint @-13,7.
The Capture One default actually looks pretty damn good off the bat, especially exposure.
I just tried with Aperture. Too hot and wb is @5565 and tint @4.
Lightroom. WAY too hot and wb @5550 tint @14.

I've never had such discrepancies with other still raw files in the various apps.

Did this with Camera RAW, tried to make it pop as much as possible without losing any details. Took down the reds a bit, this way the jacket doesn't burn out. Can't wait for the camera

Here's my quick stab. Not graded for the story, just what I thought looked nice as I played around with it. Loving some of the grades posted on this forum! These DNGs are such fun!

I graded mine in FCPX. Downloaded the afterglow DNG lies, opened them in Resolve 9 beta. Rendered them to Prores 444 then imported them to FCPX. Applied Luster Grade Presets just to see how awesome it is, here they are overlayed.

This is my take on the raw files. Wanted to use Resolve, but have to learn it first and I just wanted a quick play-around. Did the grading in After Effects CS6 using Magic Bullet Looks en Colorista II. Tried to go for a realistic, filmic approach:

Couple images. Subdued or with a little pop. Gonna be fun, but, OMG the disk space we will use.

How do I Delete?
How do I put 4 images in 1 post?

Little more subdued.

Subdued

more pop.

And I'm back again with video examples of VSCO Film/Lightroom grading on some of this footage.

Help! I have a 21.5-inch, Late 2009, and I am having huge gpu issues, is there an external card that can give me the juice to edit this stuff without buying a new mac?

Help! I have a 21.5-inch, Late 2009, and I am having huge gpu issues, is there an external card that can give me the juice to edit this stuff without buying a new mac?

Are you talking iMac? I have the 27" iMac (late 2009) and you've got further into Resolve than I have. Which version of Resolve are you using?

As far as I know, there's no external GPU option for the iMac. And you cannot upgrade the built-in card (like my ATI 4850) because no one is authorized to do that... it's not even a 'card' of course as it's just a circuit board soldered to the main board I believe. I asked my local reseller to do the upgrade, but they said they can't as Apple doesn't supply any beefier daughter-cards for our model.

Thanks John and the Blackmagic Team!
From Resolve 9 B3 (p.s can we submit bugs in this forum? )







In motion:



Uploaded at 720p - also with the typical gamma shift problems when converting/outputting (still haven't found a solid way around that.. anyone??)

no offense to the other people, but these are the best ones by far

ok.jpg (355.71 KiB) Viewed 45560 times

Yeah iMAC, its the new 9 beta, I have 8 too and the same thing. Yeah I think I am going to have to end up getting a mac pro with a red rocket and mega gpu.

Are you talking iMac? I have the 27" iMac (late 2009) and you've got further into Resolve than I have. Which version of Resolve are you using?

As far as I know, there's no external GPU option for the iMac. And you cannot upgrade the built-in card (like my ATI 4850) because no one is authorized to do that... it's not even a 'card' of course as it's just a circuit board soldered to the main board I believe. I asked my local reseller to do the upgrade, but they said they can't as Apple doesn't supply any beefier daughter-cards for our model.

My grade test:

Going for a film style look while keeping a similar color balance as a previous grade.

Frame001048.jpg (738.19 KiB) Viewed 45635 times

Frame001082.jpg (696.28 KiB) Viewed 45635 times

Frame001131.jpg (752.56 KiB) Viewed 45635 times

I am so impressed with this camera! Glad I pre-ordered months ago

View in Chrome to enable 4k playback.

The best I get is 2048x1536 - in IE9, Cr or FF, doesn't matter.

Is there a secret mantra I need to say to get 4K playback?

Going for a film style look while keeping a similar color balance as a previous grade.

Frame001048.jpg

Frame001082.jpg

Frame001131.jpg

I am so impressed with this camera! Glad I pre-ordered months ago

Good stuff again, Andrew. Kill it.

Conservative takes part II.

Hi Jocelyntremblay, your conservative grades look amazing, very filmic. Where did you do the grading and can you give us some details as to how you achieved the look. Thumbs up!

Johannes

Hi,

It was only some camera raw. Mainly warming the white balance and lowering the contrast using curves


Here is a a new take based on the same settings but with some basic After Effects curves and hue/saturation.

Heres a quick test grade...

Here's my quick test grade. The video noise looks like film grain, the detail pulled back from the highlights and shadows is awesome; it's like going back to the digital darkroom and discovering Canon RAW for the first time again. This is a great tool.

Thanks John and the Blackmagic Team!
From Resolve 9 B3 (p.s can we submit bugs in this forum? )







In motion:



Uploaded at 720p - also with the typical gamma shift problems when converting/outputting (still haven't found a solid way around that.. anyone??)

no offense to the other people, but these are the best ones by far

They are beautiful!

Hi,

just had very quick go in photoshop(unfortunately resolve lite wont run on my machine). Wasnt really going for any kind of look just playing around.

Ungraded

Grade1

Grade2


Trig

here's mine folks!!! Hope you like it!!!

Hi,

another play around in photoshop. I love what you can do with the RAW

Ungraded

Grade1

Grade2


Trig

I've been playing around with the clips in Resolve 9. I get quite different results using ACES as the color science and setting the color space to P3 rather than the defaults of YRGB and 709.

When I change settings, the red jacket becomes dark orange. I'm curious what color the jacket was. Anyone know?

Cheers.

I'm curious what color the jacket was. Anyone know?

Cheers.

When you stare at a colour long enough, it gets harder to judge its colour. Look at the first post in the thread Afterglow. There's two photos of Casey on the set with John Brawley that might help define the original colour.

I'm curious what color the jacket was. Anyone know?

Cheers.

When you stare at a colour long enough, it gets harder to judge its colour. Look at the first post in the thread Afterglow. There's two photos of Casey on the set with John Brawley that might help define the original colour.

That's what I thought. It's amazing how awful 709 is as a colorspace.

Cheers.

Noel, will be interesting to read your comments about the Rec. 709 colour space after we have the ProRes samples from John. He mentioned elsewhere that he has ProRes Film and ProRes Video comparison samples and will post when he has permission to do so.

You may prefer recording ProRes Film and grading it from those flat log files. Would not prevent you from distributing the final media as Rec. 709 while Film gave you more control through your edits and grading. I imagine most people will just take ProRes Video from the camera, edit it directly in FCPX for example and then finish their grade in Resolve for example. How good will the ProRes look? That's the next $64 question now we see the quality of the CinemaDNG.

Hi to all,



I play 5 minutes in resolve trying to make natural looking picture and i must say that is not easy. With camera metadata contrast and saturation is very high and highlights are overexposed and there is some glow feeling in general. I'm not sure is that cinematography style or camera procesing. Picture looks more like RED (skin tone) for me and i prefer ALEXA
BMD needs to work on better color separation and provide LUT for resolve with proper REC 709 mapping.
At the end I want to say that this product will be a HUGE game changer at the acquisition side together with Resolve and FCPX in postproduction.

Good job BMD!

Here's a side by side example of the highlight detail retrieval using the exposure control in resolve 9 beta 3. A VERY quick example.
I love the amount of control. This is the first affordable RAW camera out there; what will happen once the other manufacturers start producing cameras like this?

A more extensive try.

Did a little FXPX workflow tutorial here when editing and grading BMCC's RAW files.

When I change settings, the red jacket becomes dark orange. I'm curious what color the jacket was. Anyone know?

Cheers.

Fire engine RED. It's a hard colour for a lot of cameras

jb