Blackmagic Forum

Hi!

I know everyone has their own way of grading. In my case, I love to start with an exposure node and then a Color Space Transform effect. I use the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and just downloaded Resolve Studio 16. But there are now more choices for the Input Color Space (BMD Film Gen 1, BMD 4K Film Gen 1, BMD 4K Gen 3, etc.) Which one should I use for the G2? I thought I needed to use Blackmagic Design 4.6K Film Gen 3, but the colors are lifeless and unatural!

Also, how do you start your grading? Some people say to use ACEScct, what do you guys think, should I do that to? Is it easier, better?

Thanks!

Shoot a color chart with known values (like the DSC Chroma DuMonde) and start turning the knobs.

I generally start with the right color science and camera raw settings, get the exposure right, then use Offset to adjust the overall balance and then a node with a custom curve to adjust Gamma and the overall levels. And after that, several nodes to fine tune balance, contrast, and levels. I think the basic Blackmagic BMD Raw format has a feel very much like Log-C to me, which does not take that much work to normalize.

You can also look at the LUTs that BMD provides in the software and see how that looks. I'm generally not a fan of LUTs, but I think they're totally fine for a dailies look and to give you something reasonable for dailies. But I think you can recreate the same look manually if you work at it.

I prefer the feel of the controls under normal Rec709, but there are people who like ACES. I need to do a lot of finishing, which requires titles and VFX and a bunch of other stuff, and for me, ACES gets in the way and slows me down. It can work under the right conditions, but I just come up with X number of custom looks and use them as required on each different kind of camera format. There might be value in Color Space Transform nodes if that's an approach you want.

I like the ACES work flow. If you're shooting RAW, you don't need to set an IDT, as that gets set automatically by Resolve. Just set the ODT you need for final delivery, and viola! - great looking footage.

You can check my step by step workflow FAQ here viewtopic.php?f=21&t=65149&p=543725#p537852

And some quick workflow setup video overview:

Dmitry Shijan wrote:And some quick workflow setup video overview:

Hi Dimitry. I watched your video, thanks.
On your Resolve workflow, you have an number of LUTs from RawTherapee. Are those part of the RawTherapee software and if so how did you extra and install them on Resolve? How usable are those luts?

Use Blackmagic Design Wide Gamut Gen 4 for colour space/gamut and Blackmagic Design 4.6K Film for gamma with the URSA Mini Pro G2.

Ellory Yu wrote:

Dmitry Shijan wrote:And some quick workflow setup video overview:

Hi Dimitry. I watched your video, thanks.
On your Resolve workflow, you have an number of LUTs from RawTherapee. Are those part of the RawTherapee software and if so how did you extra and install them on Resolve? How usable are those luts?

Yes, in this video i use LUTs from RawTherapee Film Simulation Collection HaldCLUT's https://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Film_Simulation Download here http://rawtherapee.com/shared/HaldCLUT.zip but you need manually converted them to cube format with IWLTBAP LUT Generator https://generator.iwltbap.com/ or LUT-Convert Python script https://github.com/mikeboers/LUT-Convert

There is also similar but slightly different original HaldCLUT's package form GMIC. I shared a direct link to those LUTs converted to cube in step by step workflow. Those LUTs where shared by Fernando Sousa here viewtopic.php?f=21&t=77553

Dmitry Shijan wrote:

Ellory Yu wrote:

Dmitry Shijan wrote:And some quick workflow setup video overview:

Hi Dimitry. I watched your video, thanks.
On your Resolve workflow, you have an number of LUTs from RawTherapee. Are those part of the RawTherapee software and if so how did you extra and install them on Resolve? How usable are those luts?

Yes, in this video i use LUTs from RawTherapee Film Simulation Collection HaldCLUT's https://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Film_Simulation Download here http://rawtherapee.com/shared/HaldCLUT.zip but you need manually converted them to cube format with IWLTBAP LUT Generator https://generator.iwltbap.com/ or LUT-Convert Python script https://github.com/mikeboers/LUT-Convert

There is also similar but slightly different original HaldCLUT's package form GMIC. I shared a direct link to those LUTs converted to cube in step by step workflow. Those LUTs where shared by Fernando Sousa here viewtopic.php?f=21&t=77553

I'll check it out. Thanks!
Have you tried these LUTs with BRAW? I would assume you will have to do a color space transform from BMD Film to C-LOG or some LOG colorspace/gamma prior to apply the HaldCLUTs. Is that correct?

Wow thanks everyone! A lot of very useful informations! I will surely try everything out to see what best fits my workflow! What a great community!

CaptainHook wrote:Use Blackmagic Design Wide Gamut Gen 4 for colour space/gamut and Blackmagic Design 4.6K Film for gamma with the URSA Mini Pro G2.

Why is this information not put correctly in the Metadata of the BRAW file?
BMD is building the camera and offers a complete workflow from shooting to post,
but you are not able to put the correct information in the metadata of the footage..
In a BRAW shot from Ursa G2 I got today, the Color space info states "Blackmagic Design" but apparently it should state "Blackmagic Design Wide Gamut Gen 4" and Gamma states "Blackmagic Design Film", instead it should say "Blackmagic Design 4.6K Film".

Even other camera manufacturer do a better job at this.

It's just very inconvenient when I get footage from different BMD cameras and I don't get all
the information of the camera settings from the DP, so I pretty much have to guess what color space / gamma is the right one. And the even if I know the model I have to check the forum to be 100% right.
This can't be intended.

It'd be great if you make a chart where you can see which color space transform settings are the right ones for each BMD camera..

Ps. the similar naming of the cameras is also not helping much

rant over, thx