[Craig Alan]

you can try open library within FC or do search in finder.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Bret Williams] “And FCP is recompressing the image to the resolution and codec of the timeline anyway.”

Wondered about this. When I highlight a clip on the timeline and get info in the inspector the info is about the original clip with no mention of any compression or timeline codec. Where can I see that metadata?

The slight advantage I see in FC when I color correct the raw image over its jpeg version is with raw I don’t start with any baked in decisions. If I toggle between them I can see the difference. In the ripple training, the actual image changes in photoshop were not destructive; it was added like a filter.

[Bret Williams] “So any adjustments to color and such is just a standard color effect, downstream of the raw data anyway. And FCP is recompressing the image to the resolution and codec of the timeline anyway.”

I don’t have any orange lines on the timeline.

I tried a simple timeline with one p2 video clip, one jpeg, one raw of the same shot and shared as a master file. It exported as a 1080p movie and did so very quickly, no obvious rendering at all.

It played back fine in QT. The stills were not corrected in any way and the raw was only a little different.

When I first imported the stills, FC did slow down until the background task was complete. I am not having any trouble with working with these raw files. They seem to be treated just like anything else I’m working with and the file sizes are certainly not any bigger than my video clips. They are about 5-6 times the size of the jpegs from the same camera which I shot with in case raw wouldn’t work in FC. Since FC color correction can be toggled on and off I don’t see anything being changed to the original files. In the finder the dates are still the dates when the shots were taken. I’m going to ask black magic if resolve can process these. I wish adobe didn’t have this cloud subscription thing. The ripple training on raw is very user friendly and I’d love to add some of the touch up ability of photoshop to my edits. Not really wanting to go that cloud route.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Bret,
Been doing some searches about raw stills. Ripple training has a tutorial on a work flow in which any changes you make in photoshop (non destructive) is added to the same file in FC. But consistently all the articles indicate the need for a different application to send the files to FC. They mention that FC can not manipulate the raw stills directly. However, and again I’m talking without any experience except for the last week, When I put one of these raw files on a timeline, the color correction in FC seems to work just fine. FC does not have as many of the controls I see on these dedicated programs but I am able to adjust exposure, color, saturation, add filters, etc. Did 10.1 add the ability to work with raw stills? Or am I not really taking advantage of all the raw data that is the whole point of starting with raw files? The promise seems to be that since the image isn’t baked as it would be with jpegs that you can adjust settings that normally would have had to take place when you shot it.

Not really sure what this implies. If I shot with a certain F-stop, ISO, and shutter speed which are the variables that effect exposure, raw files can have the pixels manipulated in a way a baked image cannot? F-stop also controls the depth of field and I don’t see that changing because its raw. Shutter speed can’t be changed after the fact, it was only open so long – that is the imaging chip was only exposed to the incoming light for so long. What exactly gets baked if you let the camera process the image as a jpeg? That is left untouched as a raw file? And other than more control in dedicated programs, what can’t FC do exactly? I’ve exported changes I’ve made in the timeline using save as still and my changes are there in the exported image. I don’t own any more capable program except I now downloaded resolve lite. No one seems to mention this as an option other than for color correcting (not processing raw files). If I need to I will get photoshop or aperture or the like. iPhoto has the ability to process raw files but with more basic tools than the pro apps. Still for the time being if I need to is that a reasonable option?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

10.1 crashes with this error message. The only pattern I’ve seen is it been happening when broadcast monitor is off. Not sure if that 100% though.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I thought higher resolution media allows you to maintain quality even when you crop a shot? Does DPI mean anything on an all digital workflow?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Andy. Maybe. But they will edit into a primary storyline no problem. And it does, if I understand correctly, change the master clip when you “open in timeline.” When you color correct in the timeline (not open in timeline) you can always go home again in the inspector by toggling off the box in front of each # color correction.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I recently read that raw stills gives you more freedom to color correct, but I am just getting my feet wet with color correction so I’m not defending the practice one way or the other. These stills will be used for both FC movies and for stills and prints. I don’t own Lightroom or Aperture. I’m not opposed to learning, though I have my hands full at the moment. I have downloaded DaVinci Resolve lite. Hope to start learning that.

If there is a better workflow that will still yield the best image quality, I am more than happy to hear suggestions, which is why I posted to begin with – to learn.

One 13 second clip from our P2 cam is 183 MB; where as one raw shot is 26 MB. And I need to save the still images on my media drive anyway. Or are you suggesting that importing these files slows down FC?

If no professional imports raw stills into their NLE because it wastes space with no possible gain, then I will certainly consider an alternative. That said, until I own and learn another program for stills, I am using FC and will be exporting frames from FC to use as stills and prints. I lot of the shots look really beautiful to me on the Mac and on the broadcast monitor.

Sometimes I can help another poster with something that I have learned that they don’t know yet. I don’t do this to show off how smart I am or how stupid the OP is. But that’s just me. Oh wait, I take that back, that’s almost every one else on this forum as well.

Still my original question remains: what is the best workflow within FC to color correct before editing to the timeline?

If I were to edit the stills in another program, my media drive would not save any space, but would FC remain faster or have less trouble with the media?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Then what setting do I have wrong? Because I’m not seeing that option in the inspector. On a selected video clip I’m seeing color with the box you can toggle on and off but there is no arrow icon to enter color correction.

On stills, I am seeing info and share tabs at top of inspector that is all.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Any student who seriously wants to engage in any learning takes the projects home with them in one form or another. And yes I believe that its to the benefit of computer companies to get students used to a certain platform and software because it will increase the odds of it becoming their platform.

I’m not saying a well managed educational system wouldn’t include money to properly budget a program including keeping their computers and technology up to date. But at many sites at all levels the funding is just not there. And even when it is in theory, it is not in practice. It is put together piece meal.

You need to apply. It needs to get approved. Sometimes it goes through; sometimes it does not. Once it goes through, it needs to be spent in x amount of time. Some of it goes back into a pot for next year. Some of it is gone forever. If you take a tour of high schools and colleges you will find computer labs which are used for editing that do not have enough stations, have obsolete computers, have older software, have computers that are not optimized for the task at hand, etc. Just the same, students get introduced to the discipline. It was very common a few years back for schools to have a site license to an adobe suite. Mostly underused because most teachers have no idea how to use the software or do not have access to computers with them set up to take advantage of them. Or it was not built into the curriculum. But they were bought.

The cloud model is less popular. Personally I am still on the fence. On the one hand I think FCP X is more than adequate for students producing student projects and getting exposed to the editing process. But it is the least like other software they might like to start learning if they want to “take it home with them”. All the innovation on the primary storyline was fine. But the way connected clips work is really different. Its just strange to have different basic functions work for different components of the timeline. I’m not saying its better or worse but its different and there are a lot of programs editors need to learn. Audio, color correction, other NLE programs all use tracks. I considered AVID but felt the initial learning curve was too steep – I’m talking about the browser and how it interacts with the finder on a Mac. You could just not hit the ground running with newbies to get them excited. Also there were those concerns as to its financial health. That left FCP X and Adobe. The adobe suite was very tempting. The cloud model was a deal killer. Yeah I’m only one example but its not an uncommon consideration. Even at home I would love to have the suite so I can use photoshop and after effects. But if I decide to go in a different direction I can’t open my old projects? I could stop using ms office today and could open my old office projects in other programs. Adobe needs to assure us of that. And for ed circles allow us to use last year’s updates until funding is available. We’ll buy in again when we need to and when we have the funding. If we have 3 year old computers that are not powerful enough for the 2016 update we’ll stay with 2014 update that is still working great.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Really bad in Ed circles cause there is never a sure thing about funding or when or if it will be approved. So all of a sudden you can’t operate your post lab cause the rent wasn’t paid? Apple had a yearly plan for all their software for ed but you got to keep your last version and when you paid the rent again the renewal was backdated to when they were due or if too much time had past you paid the 10% first time fee again. It worked well when there was a major upgrade that others had to pay for in mid-year. Since apple stopped charging for the updates they owe us a refund pro rated to when they stopped charging. Really they should have refunded the whole amount since i didn’t gamble on getting updated for 1/2 year. But the point is that is one rental model.

I understand Apple wanting every one to have the latest version software that will only run on the newer computers since they sell computers. What’s Adobe’s logic?

I think it would be very enticing to buy the lasted version with a bonus of free upgrades for a year. Maybe a discount if you sign up in advance. And if people keep using their software they get what they get now. If folks want to opt out they are free to and keep their last version.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.