Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Prores Raw & Keying – noise

  • Prores Raw & Keying – noise

    Posted by Pat Kelley on April 12, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    Hello,
    I had thought that Prores Raw would be an improvement for keying over regular Prores and especially in-camera AVCHD, but it’s turned out to be the opposite. When I bring 4K prores raw green screen footage into FCP, remove the raw-to-log conversion and the LUT, and perform a basic color correction with color wheels to bring the whites down into range, the Key is noisy and essentially un-keyable.

    I’m shooting on a Sony FS5II, recording the Prores raw on an Atomos Shogun Inferno to get the prores Raw footage while also recording AVC hd to the camera’s card. Using the standard recommendations for over-exposure, over-exposing to the just at the point before whites begin to clip.

    The paired AVC HD footage keys well with way less noise. The seamless screen is lit very evenly and has always worked great with footage other than Prores Raw.

    I’m including screen shots from a test, showing the noise and an attempt to improve it with a selective hue/sat curve adjustment

    Initial color wheels correction to raw footage
    Key added
    Key – Matte view
    Hue/Sat curve to improve green
    New Key, still noisy
    Matte View of new key, better view of noise

    Mike Fitzsimmons replied 6 years ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Oliver Peters

    April 13, 2020 at 9:03 pm

    Have you tried a different keyer? The FCPX keyer often yields blocky results in my experience.

    – Oliver

    Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

  • Geoff Addis

    April 14, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    Have you applied de-noise prior to keying? When importing RAW you loose the in camera noise reduction hence the need to apply de-noise in FCPX.

  • Pat Kelley

    April 15, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    Thanks. Ironically the FCP denoiser can’t deal with the noise in prores raw, it makes horrible edges for keys no matter what the setting. Denoising with Neat Video appears to be the solution.

  • Mike Fitzsimmons

    April 20, 2020 at 3:25 pm

    I’ve a GREAT luck with Hawaiki Keyer. Lots of tools to fix tough shots.

    Also, have you tried color correcting before the keyer?

  • Mike Fitzsimmons

    April 20, 2020 at 3:27 pm

    By CC, I mean pulling a secondary on the green and correcting it to be easier to work with.

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy