GoPro Studio to DaVinci Resolve 14: how to handle protune?

hi,

i shoot my gopro videos with protune setting on. In GoPro Studio i used to import these raw videos, and the color correction would be automatically done by GoPro Studio, also automatic sharpening.

Now Gopro Studio is no longer available, and i decided to download (free) DaVinci Resolve 14.

QUESTION: how can i get the same automatic color correction + sharpness in DaVinci? + are these features for free (e.g. i see that sharpening is disabled in the free version)

Thanks

hi,

i shoot my gopro videos with protune setting on. In GoPro Studio i used to import these raw videos, and the color correction would be automatically done by GoPro Studio, also automatic sharpening.

Now Gopro Studio is no longer available, and i decided to download (free) DaVinci Resolve 14.

QUESTION: how can i get the same automatic color correction + sharpness in DaVinci? + are these features for free (e.g. i see that sharpening is disabled in the free version)

Thanks

Hi Leroy

I don't think there is a specific solution
However, You can use Auto Grading tools (read from page 692 in manual)
And though some sharpening features are not available in free version,
You can use MD (midtone detail), as well as lowering blur values under 0.5. and both give very nice results

Even in GoPro Studio auto conversion for ProTune was rather crappy and you have to fine tune the results. So, getting your hands dirty is a must.

What I do is applying LUTs to my ProTune files in Resolve for a primary color correction. Mainly one for sunny exterior shots, one for indoor footage and one for underwater colors. You can get a free sample over at Ground Control.

Just something to think about.

You can grade / add Luts from the ground up when shooting Protune coplor profile Flat, but remember that most of those who work for Gopro making the good looking stuff use the Gopro color profile in camera. Then usually small adjustments are needed.

Off course it depends on what you are shooting, but for action and less hassle, choose Gopro Color in Protune.

Off course it depends on what you are shooting, but for action and less hassle, choose Gopro Color in Protune.

i shoot under water footage, usually between 0 and 10m.
settings:
protune: on
white balance: native
color: flat
iso limit: 800
sharpness: low
ev compensation: -1.0

I used to do automatic color correction with Gopro studio and was happy about it. Yes, it needs some finetuning, especially for under water footage, but that's not a problem. For stills, i finetuned in Lightroom, after having it color corrected automatically by Gopro Studio.

I've also tried to correct footage shot with protune OFF, and that was very limited. Few possibilities there. So from my personal experience i prefer shooting with protune ON. That is at least if i know how to correct it.

as i'm watching all these tutorials on youtube i'm absolutely falling in love with Davinci Resolve. Amazing what you can do with this software. Now, before jumping into editing videos, i want to take stills and edit nice pictures.

Do you suggest me doing all the editing in Davinci and then take the final still, or take a (raw) still and edit (grade) it in Lightroom, cause i have a Lightroom cloud version running (about 10USD/month). The only reason i used Lightroom is to edit (grade) my stills coming from GoPro Studio. So if you think Davinci (free version) can do the same, i can stop using Lightroom? What are your thoughts?
Thanks

Gert, I came to ask a related question. But mine is close enough to yours that perhaps it is better included in your thread because what I am doing already might in part answer your question.

I am shooting ski videos with a Hero4 (Silver & Black) on Protune with these settings: WHITE BALANCE "Native", COLOR PROFILE "Flat", MANUAL SHUTTER "Auto", ISO "400", SHARPNESS "Low", EXPOSURE COMPENSATION "0".

Using the free Ground Control Protune to 709 LUT with a Key Output Gain of .5 and tweaking a number of other parameters with Davinci Resolve 14, I'm getting OK results.

But I intend to try using a X-Rite ColorChecker Passport (Video) soon in my shots and my question is:

What "Source Gamma", "Target Gamma", "Target Color space", "Color Temp", and "White Level" settings should I be using in the Color Match panel of Davinci Resolve 14 given that I intend to publish my final work on YouTube.

Without actually knowing, I'm guessing:

"Source Gamma": sLog or sRGB
"Target Gamma": Rec.709
"Target Color space": Rec.709
"Color Temp": I am sometimes shooting is some of the brightest natural conditions possible and these bright/sunny days are my preference to shoot. But sometimes the clouds roll in and the light gets very grey and flat. This is one of the things motivating me to try the ColorChecker. I expect to be changing this value depending on the video between 5k and 7k. But I really don't know.
"White Level": I can't even guess on this one.

Gert, I hope this helps with your question. And everyone else, thanks for helping me with mine!

Regards - Ted (a.k.a. BreckSnowPro on YouTube)

Ted, why have you set your Shutter to Auto? IMO, nearly all the GoPro footage I've seen on Youtube shot with Auto shutter looks like crap. Have you tried using an ND 16 or higher and locking your shutter to 180 degrees? (1/48th for 24P or 1/120th for 60P if you are in the US) Or do you really want the high shutter speed 'look'?

We work with numerous PoV style cameras from various makers, both in HD and 4K and we Always transcode H.264 to 10bit ProRes or DNxHR with user selected Timecode and user selected embedded Reel Names. Not only do we get PCM audio with CPU friendly editing, Conforming from AAF/EDL/XML and Grading in DaVinci becomes a dream as we make sure no two frames in any one Reel share the same timecode.

Resolve with a Decklink or Mini-Monitor card installed and a correctly calibrated monitor should be all you need to produce excellent quality images from low spec consumer cameras so my advice is to capture the highest quality you can in the field by using traditional camera setups then create your 'look' in the Grade.

PS: To the OP, Sharpening is Not disabled in the Free version.

Craig, from the Hero4 Black manual:

"Shutter applies only to Night Photo and Night Lapse and determines the amount of time that the shutter is open. The options for this setting are auto (up to 2 seconds), 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 seconds."

Does anyone know what Source Gamma file format to use for GoPro Protune files in the Resolve 14 Color Match panel?

..."Shutter applies only to Night Photo and Night Lapse and determines the amount of time that the shutter is open. The options for this setting are auto (up to 2 seconds), 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 seconds."...

That would be for Still photography but when shooting Video, you should be able to lock the shutter speed to a Manual setting so you can create the more traditional 'cinematic' look. If the camera does not allow Manual over-ride, fitting an ND16 (or greater for Snow) will be necessary.

Thanks Craig,

I should have looked into the topics you raised further before my initial reply to you. Your last post forced me to do so and I found old notes from this video:

At 26:10 in he talks about how the Hero4 Manual Shutter Speed works and why he uses "Auto". When I decided to do this as well, it was because I ski in and out of trees/shadows and clouds are constantly moving in and out, changing the light I'm in.

This video shows a good example of a problem I am trying to solve:

I'm not thrilled with any of it but at least the snow & shadows look OK at the top. About half-way down, the light changes and weird colors show up in the snow that I can't stand. My hope is the the Color Corrector will help me fix this.

Do I understand correctly that the ND16 filter may also play a role in improving this aspect of my footage?

I have no background or training in any of this stuff and am just trying to figure it out as I go. Progress is slow...

Thank you very much for your help!

Regards - Ted.

Here's a case study which explains my recommended DaVinci workflow when shooting on cheap 8bit cameras: I recently shot a series of short promotional videos about Kyoto in Japan entirely with a DJI Osmo equipped with the Zenmuse X3 - a small PoV camera similar in size and spec to the GoPro but fully gimballed.

As it was my very first shoot on the Osmo, I decided to lock the camera's white balance at Daylight (6500 degrees K) Shutter at 1/50th of a second and frame rate at 25P, the PAL TV standard. I put on an ND16 to reduce the light for the 180 degree shutter but set the ISO to Auto to compensate for exposure changes with a locked shutter.

The resultant Compressed 4K 8bit H.264 (DJI Log) files were transcoded to 10bit DNxHR which was Conformed in DaVinci Resolve from a proxy edit in another NLE then Graded and finally, Mastered to Uncompressed .MOV before uploading to Youtube in 4K H.265 HEVC at a low bit rate. (given our lousy upload speeds) The 4K Master played directly off a Resolve 4K timeline to a very big X9000B Sony 4K TV looks and sounds spectacular but the 4K Youtube file a bit less so given the low bit rate...

If you watch carefully, you will see the Auto ISO slowly react to light changes and there are some clipped highlights in places. (clouds) There's some noise too from ISO 3200 indoors with the ND fitted but all in all it's probably as good as you're going to get from any 8bit H.264 cameras with tiny sensors when they're set to Auto ISO but you will note that the scenes are very smooth with little if any rolling shutter aberration and absolutely no Jitter associated with the default high speed shutter settings, as seen on the nightly News.

What I do is applying LUTs to my ProTune files in Resolve for a primary color correction. Mainly one for sunny exterior shots, one for indoor footage and one for underwater colors. You can get a free sample over at Ground Control.

Hi, can you tell me what LUT you use for underwater correction? I agree getting hands dirty is a must, but not all shots need that much work. GoPro studio was nice for quick color fixing. So if a LUT can do the job, than tat's would be awesome. thanks

Just something to think about.

Off course it depends on what you are shooting, but for action and less hassle, choose Gopro Color in Protune.

for less hassle i agree. But I shoot under water photos. There is few things i can do with gopro color. Protune offers so much more editing options. Just my opinion.

EDITED: sorry, i was confused. Mixed up gopro color for being protune off. Obviously you can use gopro color with protune. So you might have a point. I'll test both. thanks
Look at the video from Ted Amenta in this thread, around 23:30

Using the free Ground Control Protune to 709 LUT with a Key Output Gain of .5 and tweaking a number of other parameters with Davinci Resolve 14, I'm getting OK results.

WIll check out the free LUT's on Ground COntrol thanks!

PS: To the OP, Sharpening is Not disabled in the Free version.

Correct, it is under the BLUR tab. I was initially looking at OpenFX > ResolveFX Sharpen which is not included in the free version. Thanks for pointing that out.

PS. For sharpening, i usually put the radius from 0.50 to 0.45
In the upper right corner of the blur window you can select blur/sharpen/mist. I don't see any difference between blur and sharp? Any feedback on this?

At 26:10 in he talks about how the Hero4 Manual Shutter Speed works and why he uses "Auto".

Very informative video, thanks! My question is more about the frames per second. In this video it's pointed out that the less light you have, the higher your fps should be (and thus decreasing the resolution depending on the capacities of your camera). Now the thing is i have always believed that for underwater video - the deeper you go the less light - the lower your fps the better to catch more light. Dunno where i got that. So i preferred using 24fps over 60fps to get in more light. So i guess i was wrong? Or is there a different approach to under water video? please share your thoughts, thanks

Additional question:

for taking stills (and correcting them) what should be the workflow:

1/ take stills from video in DaVinci (without correction), export to PNG and then correct in Lightroom
or
2/ correct the video in DaVinci, and then take stills (which would be the final stills). So no second software needed. In other words: can Davinci deliver a corrected photo (still) as good as Lightroom can?

WIll check out the free LUT's on Ground COntrol thanks!

Check out the paid version too! This is what I use. In the "Hangtime 1" pack are two LUTs for underwater footage that I use. Depending on the depth you recorded your footage in, one or the other works better.

In general the same rules of photography apply. At less light, longer shutter speeds are required to keep ISO as low as possible. For the general watching experience it is said, that a shutter speed around 23-25 fps produce THAT filmic look because of the motion blur between each frames. Otherwise you will produce a stop motion effect which will be very annoying to watch. This is where ND filters come in handy. I use the Polar Pro Cinematic Bundle (GoPro 5/6) which contains three different versions (ND 8, 16 & 32). They are very easy and quick to swap out, unless you need the sealing rubber ring for underwater usage. That would add some caution to the mix but it's all doable without too much hassle.

Higher frame rates per second are only useful for slow motion sequences. For this you take off the ND filters for obvious reasons.

... In other words: can Davinci deliver a corrected photo (still) as good as Lightroom can?

Yes! Especially if your stills are destined for web display. For printing, Export them as high res tiffs and process accordingly.

Just something to think about.

Off course it depends on what you are shooting, but for action and less hassle, choose Gopro Color in Protune.

for less hassle i agree. But I shoot under water photos. There is few things i can do with gopro color. Protune offers so much more editing options. Just my opinion.

EDITED: sorry, i was confused. Mixed up gopro color for being protune off. Obviously you can use gopro color with protune. So you might have a point. I'll test both. thanks
Look at the video from Ted Amenta in this thread, around 23:30

Intresting. Have been shooting a lot with -1 EV as I been snowboarding in bright sunshine. Will give Flat another go.

Whats the Input colour profile for Hero 8 footage?