How to grading without messing up!?

[Alan Okey]

What format is the source footage? In other words, what camera was used to shoot the footage?

[Bruno Fraga]

Canon 5D, converted to Apple Prores 422 HQ.
The original appears good, but with a light blue lift it grains.
Thanksss!!!

[Bruno Fraga]

How can I blur ow glow just the black/shadows? Maybe this resolve the problem, or not?

[Colin Mcquillan]

I wonder if you are lifting noise from footage shot with a high’ish ISO?! (noise that is otherwise hidden in the darks) or if you are just trying to to push the dslr footage too far. Even though you transcode to 10-bit Prores HQ, the footage was recorded very compressed in 8-bit color space and still has that lower bit characteristic.

If you need more leverage take a look at the link below – might give you more wiggle-room. Haven’t tried this method myself but looks promising.
https://vimeo.com/19908622

If I know I am going to do a heafty grade on DSLR footage, I typically transcode to Prores 4444 and grade in Color. So far I havent had any issue with that.

Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.

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[Bruno Fraga]

Hi Colin, thank you so much fot the answer.

I’m doing some light psychedelic look like LOMO cameras, and some cases I puted some blue lift and it appears like the video you sent, with blue blocks.

I like the method but I’ll try do the same you did, converting to 444 and see what it happens! It’s more simple! eheh

Thank you very much and late I’ll post if it improved.

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Hi, sorry to interject, but just out of interest isn’t transcoding DSLR footage to 4444 a touch overkill? Huge files with bigger colour space, but you are already giving it a huge ‘canvas’ in 422 right? Just wonderin 😀

Tom Morter-Laing
Editor
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010

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Thanks if you can help 😀
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Equipment (not for ‘bragging’, but in case it’s relevant to future posts :D): Canon 7D, with Rode NTG2.
iMac 27″ intel i7 3.4GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD 6970M [2GB GDDR5], G-Tech G-RAID 2TB (soon to be over eSata!). Elgato Turbo H264HD.

[Colin Mcquillan]

[Thomas Morter-Laing] ” just out of interest isn’t transcoding DSLR footage to 4444 a touch overkill?”

It really depends on what I am doing with the footage as to how I transcode.

Is transcoding to a higher format like PR4x4 going to add colour info that isn’t there? no.
But if I plan to composite, add transfer mode overlays, send to Color/ or another proper CC app and so on… – then I like to keep the footage and renders in the best possible format during the post process through to final output. If I am just doing basic cuts and mild 3-way CC then I typically go for either PR or PRHQ depending on length of project and format/amount of source footage.

I personally don’t have a single preferred workflow – I choose what method I feel best on a project-to-project basis. I have a relatively large fast RAID so don’t worry too much about file size unless dealing with larger longterm projects.

Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.