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Sharing media between FCPX and Lightroom
I’m working in FCP 10.2.1 and need to export my edited master as separate files so they can be taken into Lightroom, color corrected and sent back to me. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to export an edit as separate source clips and am coming up with nothing on web searches. Any ideas? Thanks.
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17 Replies
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Is your intent to export video clips or still images out of X? Lightroom is widely used to process stills (especially RAW files) but much less to do VIDEO color correction. It’s video capabilities are very limited as only the Library tools are enabled and none of the Develop module stuff. For that most people the internal color board in X, Color Finale (a sidecar X app) or a standalone color grading app like DeVinci Resolve are much preferred to do color work for video.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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Thanks. I am trying to get video, not stills. We have photos that we shot at the same time as our footage which the art director has made very specific looks for that we can’t seem to duplicate within FCP. They had heard it was possible to do via VSCO filters but their info is based on FCP 7 and I’m on 10.2 now and it doesn’t seem to want to export the individual files associated with a finished edit.
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I don’t know what needs to happen in Lightroom, but the way to do this is to make a new Library.
When setting up the new Library, choose a destination for your media that is on an external hard drive.
Drag your finished Project to an Event in your new Library.
Select the Project and choose File > Consolidate Project Files.
If you have have optimized media you can leave that checked, uncheck Proxy media.
Click OK, and FCPX will make a copy of all the media that is used in the Project. This will not TRIM the media, it will copy all of the clip that are in the Project in their entirety.
Form there, I guess you have to open each clip in Lightroom and save it? I don’t really know. A lightroom workflow seems odd to me, and it would be better use a video based color corrector like Resolve or Baselight in which you would send XMLs over to those applications and see your edit in tact, and render out new color corrected media.
Jeremy
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Thanks Jeremy. I agree about the workflow, but they want to try this so we’re giving it a shot. Forgive me, I stayed on FCP7 for a long time so 10.2 is my first experience with the new file structures. I do wish it exported trimmed clips, but since it doesn’t, if the names of the clips aren’t changed will I be able to relink the new colored shots by simply replacing them in the Original Media folder?
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The problem with this whole concept is that Lightroom’s Develop module does not support video. This means you cannot color correct your videos (as video files) using Lightroom.
The only possible way would be to turn your footage into image sequences for each shot.
1. Then bring those into Lightroom.
2. Grade one still and then paste those settings to all the other stills in the image sequence for that shot.
3. Rinse and repeat for each shot.
4. Then export these and rebuild each image sequence back into a QT movie, which you can import back into FCP X.This post of mine sort of talks about this type of workflow.
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/blackmagic-cinema-camera-post-workflows/Ultimately it’s a PITA, so I suggest using Resolve instead and trying to get their desired look using Resolve.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
PS: If you follow these steps, then there is no reason to export trimmed source files. Assuming a cuts-only sequence, you could simply export a self-contained master file of your timeline. That would be broken up into an image sequence and shot separation can be organized in Lightroom.
Edit:
There is also an Image Sequence preset in the Share menu under Add Destination. This could be tweaked for your requirements, meaning you could export directly from the timeline. Since the timeline can be shared based on ranges, you could separately export an Image Sequence for each shot.
When you get everything back from Lightroom you will need to reconstruct these as movies and then manually replace each shot in your timeline. Or simply replace the whole sequence if you get one big image sequence back of all the shots in a row.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Great thoughts Oliver, thanks for the ideas. Do you have any experience of opinion on Color Finale or FCPX’s ability to use LUTs that were created in Lightroom or other photo programs?
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You can use Resolve or even Pr CC to trim files if you need to, but even then, I think the Lightroom workflow is going to present some major challenges. I would imagine getting some sort of LUT based on the look that the director wants is going to prove much more useful, and you can, at the very least, apply that LUT to the footage until you decide if a full color session is going to be worth it in something like Resolve.
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[Julie Michel] “Do you have any experience of opinion on Color Finale or FCPX’s ability to use LUTs that were created in Lightroom or other photo programs?”
I don’t have any direct experience that way. I have used CF and it’s a superb plug-in for color-correction in FCP X. In order to import LUTs they have to be in the .cube format. Does LR allow you to export LUTs in .cube? I’m not sure as I haven’t tried that. Even if it does, I’d bet that the color science in LR for photos is a lot different than Apple’s color science for video in FCP X. So, no guarantee that if you could get a LUT from LR to FCP X that the same image would look the same in X as in LR.
Assuming that the work being done in LR is only based on their exposure, contrast, white balance, and tonal changes (no custom masking, burning, or dodging), then you could achieve very close results using a series of correction plug-ins. You would just have to know the tweaks they made and the approximate values they used. It would be manually, but you could certainly get closer that way than trying to muddle through with the color board.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Does LR allow you to export LUTs in .cube? I’m not sure as I haven’t tried that.”
I’ve taken a look and I don’t see that LR is able to export a color preset as a .cube LUT.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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