Afterglow Grades

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

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!

Every DNG application displays this image differently.
The image isn't overexposed because all the highlights are there. Nothing is actually clipped, unless it's the really obvious stuff like the middle of the sparklers and some BG lights that are in shot.

Not overexposed. Just displayed as if they are. Use the EXPOSURE slider int he camera contorl tab to bring them down. Often -2.00 stops is a good place to start.

jb

Every DNG application displays this image differently.
The image isn't overexposed because all the highlights are there. Nothing is actually clipped, unless it's the really obvious stuff like the middle of the sparklers and some BG lights that are in shot.

Not overexposed. Just displayed as if they are. Use the EXPOSURE slider int he camera contorl tab to bring them down. Often -2.00 stops is a good place to start.

jb

Hello John,
i know that all information are there, but i'm very interested to see same shots recorded to Prores. If every DNG app displays picture differently it sound like road to hell for dailies work
Can you compare image from LCD/viewfinder of camera and resolve interpretation of DNG with camera metadata?

Help I have downloaded the 1st Glow Zip file onto my Mac running OXS 10.7.2 and am unable to open the zip file. It starts to extract and then says the file doesn't exist. When you click get info the file reads at 500mb! Anyone else having this problem or is it a re-download?

Cheers
John

Help I have downloaded the 1st Glow Zip file onto my Mac running OXS 10.7.2 and am unable to open the zip file. It starts to extract and then says the file doesn't exist. When you click get info the file reads at 500mb! Anyone else having this problem or is it a re-download?

Cheers
John

Shot_1.zip should be 670.7 MB, sounds like your download must have been interrupted.
bit frustrating but it'll be worth the wait

[CaptainHook]

//EDIT - the blackmagic team have informed me that resolve IS reading the colour temp in metadata, but not displaying it correctly and just showing as the default 6500k (i'm assuming this will be fixed). In my haste to get a get looking image as a starting point, i looked away from the image as i pulled the white balance amount down and missed that when you first move the wb slider from 6500k to say 6490k you will notice a big jump in colour since the image was never at 6500k. Still hoping exposure gets some attention and will look closer to Capture One though!

I dont think resolve is reading the metadata at present. For me every clip was defaulting to 6500k. Can anyone else confirm so i know it's not just something whacky with my setup?

Right now i think Capture One might be the only raw developer that has been set with a good default for DNG's like the ones we've all downloaded from here.

Take a look at these, first one is Capture One at full default. Second is with just changing the ICC base curve from "film standard" to "film extra shadow". The second one looks better to me than some 'grades' i've seen posted (no offense to anyone) and that's without doing anything (it's still a bit dark but one could call that moody and it's better than starting with some horrifyingly bright image ). I REALLY believe all the other apps i've tried so far (Lightroom, Aperture, and RESOLVE - what????) are not doing anyone any favours with their starting point. I hope at least resolve works that out considering this is their camera.




Now lets compare that to the starting point of Resolve:



What the heck? Resolve should have the BEST default for its own camera!
But look at the metadata for it.. it's like it's not reading it correctly or just not reading it at all:



What do you think John? Am i crazy? I feel like the second capture one image is probably pretty close to what you saw on set? I know it's easily recoverable because the grades i posted earlier in the thread where done with resolve, but i had to do a lot more work than i should have. Especially if the starting point was the second image in this post like it is in Capture One. Any comments from Blackmagic? Am i making an error somewhere? I almost hope i am!

Sorry, One more.

caseypink.jpg (828.4 KiB) Viewed 22348 times

Here is my litle test! This is fantastic!!!

my take of the grade

another version

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

Thanks John. I began to believe it was more like the orange color in the image you first posted in the Afterglow thread. I don't suppose you have a Macbeth chart in any shots?

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.

Well, we're stuck with Rec. 709 at least for output for now, but I've been sick of it for over a decade. I'm not a ProRes fan either (or of any proprietary file format for that matter, and I've programmed extensively using the Quicktime SDK and found it awful). At present, I'm getting Quicktime crashes in Resolve 9, but my inexpensive PC will play John's uncompressed DNG's at 24fps without a hiccup!

I've edited movies with 1,000 cuts and only a handful of dissolves. With a few more editing features, I would stay with uncompressed DNG's till the bitter end, ditch Premiere/Avid/FCP, and use Resolve for the whole thing (maybe keep After Effects).

Cheers.

After glow grade done in Resolve 8 lite....

Here's my "After Glow" video grade. Love working with RAW! Be sure to click to view in HD>

Another take on Afterglow...
Software: Resolve 8 lite

Here's my go at it. Done in a recent build of Blender.

Tell me what you think!

Here's mine:
Made 3 gradings!




Workflow

- Lightroom 4/Camera RAW for Grading
- Quick Time 7 for Image-Sequence Movie
- Compressor for 422 compression
- Final Cut Pro X for cut, text, smoothcam and OpticalFlow
- Garageband for iPad for Free Soundtrack

Thanks JB!!!. Great images and forum. Here's my After glow grades done in Resolve 9 Lite

Couldn't get Resolve to work on my computer (lacked Cuda processor) which is in my other computer which is out and about, so I used Photoshop CS5 to grade some frames.

My attempt to Grade Afterglow using PS CS5

Compiled BMCC Demo - Afterglow.jpg (886.62 KiB) Viewed 22272 times

Very similar to RAW files from my Nikon DSLR photos, so I'll have to play around some more later with Resolve on my other computer.

My attempt

--
Thomas H. - http://www.thhe.dk

Thomas, with that third grade, black and white glow, Casey Burgess is going to haunt your dreams! Very nice.

Thomas, with that third grade, black and white glow, Casey Burgess is going to haunt your dreams! Very nice.

I really don't understand what you are talking about? Casey Burgess

I dont think resolve is reading the metadata at present. For me every clip was defaulting to 6500k. Can anyone else confirm so i know it's not just something whacky with my setup?

Right now i think Capture One might be the only raw developer that has been set with a good default for DNG's like the ones we've all downloaded from here.

Take a look at these, first one is Capture One at full default. Second is with just changing the ICC base curve from "film standard" to "film extra shadow". The second one looks better to me than some 'grades' i've seen posted (no offense to anyone) and that's without doing anything (it's still a bit dark but one could call that moody and it's better than starting with some horrifyingly bright image ). I REALLY believe all the other apps i've tried so far (Lightroom, Aperture, and RESOLVE - what????) are not doing anyone any favours with their starting point. I hope at least resolve works that out considering this is their camera.




Now lets compare that to the starting point of Resolve:



What the heck? Resolve should have the BEST default for its own camera!
But look at the metadata for it.. it's like it's not reading it correctly or just not reading it at all:



What do you think John? Am i crazy? I feel like the second capture one image is probably pretty close to what you saw on set? I know it's easily recoverable because the grades i posted earlier in the thread where done with resolve, but i had to do a lot more work than i should have. Especially if the starting point was the second image in this post like it is in Capture One. Any comments from Blackmagic? Am i making an error somewhere? I almost hope i am!

I agree with you CPT. Resolve's translation of the DNG is very harsh. It's almost too contrasty as opposed to flat. I've tried other BMCC DNGs that are low light tests and find it very difficult to raise the blacks. It almost seems as if though they are clipped, but in something like Adobe Camera Raw they are easily recoverable.

Thomas, with that third grade, black and white glow, Casey Burgess is going to haunt your dreams! Very nice.

I really don't understand what you are talking about? Casey Burgess

Casey Burgess is the actor in the sequence you graded!

Casey Burgess is the actor in the sequence you graded!

DOHH!!!!

Casey_RAW_360p2.jpg (165.12 KiB) Viewed 22465 times

Rendered in Capture One Pro. Would be nice if someone would make a camera specific ICC profile for the BMCC. I would love to, but have no idea how to do it. Does anyone know how?

Edit: I've found some info on how to create a custom dng color profile. Needless to say one needs a BMCC for it.
http://www.breathingcolor.com/blog/how- ... adobe-cs5/

Thanks to everyone who posted his grade, and in particular to CaptainHook, who went as far as sharing his Resolve project. The way he tweaked the RAW settings was a real eye-opener:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3ponji1eli9y ... 20Test.drp

Capture One Pro seems to be a great option, but for anyone who wants to get things done fast inside Resolve, simply changing the color temperature, tint and exposure gives a good starting point.

BMCCDTNC - That's "Blackmagic Cinema Camera Day to Night Conversion". But seeing the footage off this camera it may well be possible just to film at night.

I wanted to give the footage a real pull around and it's so impressive how well it holds up. Having that 2.5K is also really handy for an anamorphic crop.

For anyone interested it was done in AE using good old built-in colour correction tools and masks. The only third party plugin is Optical Flares for a subtle light flare.

You can see the video here:

Yes, please. Really cool look. How much time did you spend on it?

I've added the vimeo link. I think it took me about 30 minutes, something like that.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks for the link. It's even more impressive to see how natural the flare looks. Since it only took 30 minutes, After Effects was probably the right choice of tool. Only someone like Juan Salvo could reach a similar result with the external matte support in Resolve.

BMCCDTNC - That's "Blackmagic Cinema Camera Day to Night Conversion". ...

It's pretty, but has a CGI Sin City/Star Wars Prequel fakeness about it [with the flare]. She's not interacting with the CGI street lamp and so it looks fake. The tone is beautiful, but I'm a firm believer in shooting for a grade. But, as a test: yes, it is impressive to see what can be done with the footage from this camera.

Another person has commented on a different forum that they think it's possibly the best day to night they've seen, so I would say it's subjective, some will like it some will not. This is me just playing around with footage for 30 minutes, I'm sure it could have further work done.

I would say that her leaning out of the window is enough to be "interacting" with the street lamp as it would be hitting at least part of her face. Since I decide where this lamp is as it doesn't exist in the shot I think it's fine to suggest she is leaning into the light.

In terms of it being fake I don't think that matters whatsoever. If a grade helps to tell a story or convey a mood then great and fine. Recreating reality is not what I'm interested in, reality is boring, I would rather create a world that looks better than real.

I would also say that nearly all the big films out of hollywood recently have been graded to hell and back, orange and teal anyone? They seem to be doing just fine with that.

I would also shoot for a grade, but this is not my footage and just a test of what is possible.

Right, absolutely. I'm just saying the flare looks fake. Otherwise: GORGEOUS! Painterly, in fact.

Day for night is a tricky one. Cameras see in full colour all the time, whereas we see desaturated shadowy blue with soft noise diffusion all over the shop.

Jason and Nick, you have the legitimate viewpoint of shooters or DPs expecting truly realistic results.
But for people who are interested in digital compositing, this kind of expectation is unrealistic
Yes, a lot of flare or day-for-night effects call attention upon themselves, but in a poetic way. This particular flare looks lovely and well positioned in 3D space, which is quite an achievement given that Arknox was dealing with 2D images. And it shows that the BMCC footage can cope with such special effects, which is good news for anyone who wants to save money on the set & props budget.

Hi!
Here is mine! Top to bottom: Original - Sick - Sexy.



Graded in Resolve 9.

Jason and Nick, you have the legitimate viewpoint of shooters or DPs expecting truly realistic results.

I'm generally an in-camera / semi-motivated kinda lighting guy (and realistic colour colourist) myself, yes. When I do day-for-night, that's how I would push it.

These are two photos I did in this exact style ("human" day-for-night). Though it was shot at night with a full colour DSLR sensor. The images looked nothing like these in Lightroom. They were full colour.

@Nick: personally, I like it, but we would need to see your take on the BMCC footage for a fair comparison.