GH3 Best Video Settings

yak

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

@konjow There's unfortunately no filter in: premiere, fcpx, after effect, photoshop, motion, speed grade etc... Resolve have that tool but when you use it it doesn't quite work.

@rNeil I did another test and adjusting the blue and green hue really didn't do much for skin on maddog picture, it brings up the collar and the green wall behind him... but that "real" look was just due too adjusting the overall contrast... the problem really lies into the red color.

@maddog So yes to me the skin on this guy looks quite fixed with the latest .cube file you just need a good image contrast unless you intend to let it flat... then skin will look as good, meaning: it will match the overall flatness of the image.

I'll do another .cube file to give an even more aggressive hue adjustment, so the user could play with the intensity. In fcpx I can change the intensity of the LUT, I would like to know if it's possible to do the same thing in premiere.

Here is a fact: When grading a shot that was overexposed you need more red hue brightness adjustment than the .cube file allows. When grading underexposed you need less red hue brightness adjustment.

joethepro

"There's unfortunately no filter in: premiere, fcpx, after effect, photoshop, motion, speed grade etc... Resolve have that tool but when you use it it doesn't quite work."

No, Resolve does not seem (that I have found yet) to have that tool. The hue vs lum does not isolate color channels, but rather specific colored pixels. This is not what we want. We need to isolate the red channel only.

joethepro

Although now that I think about it, if you right click on a corrector node in Resolve, cant you select only specific channels to modify? I wonder if this could work? Ill have to test.

maddog15 · Screen Shot 2013-10-20 at 12.35.02 AM.jpg

@yak. Here's a file I corrected a while back. I'm pretty happy with the graded cinema feel of this one. I like this result because there's good tonality and dynamic range. Whites are good, blacks are almost crushed but acceptable for this stylistic feel. Reads like skin as far as a stylized cinematic feel goes. (Image is a bit too sharp for cinema look but it was just a test for color and grading.) Thought I'd post it so you can have more assets to test your LUT variations if you like. Thanks again :)

yak

@maddog15

First picture: Took you untouched file, tried to grade it like your graded file without the light effect (added sharpness so we can really see the skin)

Second picture: Just added the LUT, and to me as far as the look of the skin, it makes a huge difference.

What do you think?

maddog15

@yak Yep...Yes...Hard to describe. Probably from my lack of experience but it seems to pull the lower mids and darks up. Harder contrast. A little rough and gritty (at least for the down and dirty example you're working with) but that's not a bad thing. I have to remind myself we're working with just 8 bit color here - but this adjustment does seem to allow the image to break out of that "flat, red, GH3 dead mid-tone look. Hope that make sense.

maddog15

@yak. Hey.... What if I send you a shortened (8 -10 seconds) MOV or MP4? I can PM a dropbox link for you to download. My fear is this: You're doing a lot of work, tweaking, adjusting, posting etc. etc. But on a screen grab as apposed to the actual video codec information! Too much being lost in the grapevine kinda thing? How would your adjustments react to the actual video file? Let me know and I'll render down a short version and send you a link. BTW: Not trying to create more "work" for anyone. I know this stuff is exhausting. Just thought I'd throw it out there. Seems like a more reliable way to achieve results in a more controlled experiment eliminating generation loss. Let me know... ;)

yak

I agree in that situation it might be a little rough, I tried your grade than applied to LUT, and it should have been the other way around, to keep the skin just the way you want it.

I think the adjustment is the right one, it's just unfortunately done in post, so yeah working with 8bits, if it could be done in camera before encoding it would be very good.

mat33

Is this flat/red mid tone issue present with all picture modes such as vivid or scenery or just natural/standard which use similar tone curves which allow with more DR?

yak

On a simple grade it makes all the difference, I like the say it "sets" the eyes and how the skin stops glowing...

On this grade I did set the intensity at 70% because I was shot underexposed... could have been less

yak

@mat33

It looks like it's almost non existent when you shoot vivid 0,0,0,0 because of the more aggressive contrast, but from what I have seen this issue is in every picture modes @ every settings.

mat33

@yak thanks. What do you think about skin tones in this vimeo clip

at ~1:42 -this was shot vivid -5 -5 -5 -5. (If I use vivid I tend to set saturation at -3). Also check out

at ~00:50.

yak

It's not bad, there are ways to hide the deficiencies of the red channel... I did some corrections tell me what you think, keep in mind it's on snap taken from a vimeo clip, not much range. First image is corrected (name hue).

First image, not much red in it... but still...

The third one is revealing, because there is a lot a orange/red... before the hue change look at how everything is contrasty but the skin... On the hue corrected image, the contrast of the image is constant.

mat33

@yak looks good-definitely boosts skin tone contrast which helps. Would be nice if we could somehow set in-camera. I think I might play around with vivid a bit more -seems to have less shadow detail than natural but ?better mids…

yak

@mat33 Vivid is a good choice... 1 week ago I would have said never to shoot natural -5, now with the adjustment I don't know why I would shoot any different.

We are only discussing of skin tones, but the GH3 as the worst reds I have seen in a camera; school buses come out yellow, stop signs very light red... True for video files, mp4, mov or avchd. Jpeg not too bad, raw is very good. (when compared to nikon or canon)

SuperSet

So, are we saying that Natural -5s all around is a viable option again using this LUT?

yak

@superset

Still early, there are maybe situations were it won't work, although I haven't seen any yet... Still needs to be shared and tested but for me it's a big yes!

Keep in mind it's not a one click does all type of file, needs to be manually tweaked depending on exposure.

maddog15

Throughout the latest testing something has become blatantly obvious concerning the GH3. White Balance. Yeah I know, WB is critical before you hit the record button as with any camera. I get that BUT the GH3's red issue is simply unforgiving. For my clients throughout the last few years I've corrected and graded footage from the GH2, Canon Mark 2 and 3, RED, Phantom 4000 etc. etc. None of these systems are as brutally unforgiving as the GH3. I'm going to revisit some of the older posts here on manual WB and then tweaking the red and green down. Coming full circle, and embarrassed that I'm sounding like a pure amateur, I will admit I underestimated the importance of a good WB setting on the GH3. It's best to at least be "in the ball park" before grading. I feel much of my footage has been in the parking lot or down the street from the ball park. That's why it's been such a challenge to get back to normal or real color. Live and learn, but more important... be honest when at fault. I'm off my soapbox now. Sorry for the ramble.

surfculture

Hello and happy new year... Yak@ I would like to know, how We use your lut (.cube) with pp CS6 or after CS6 ou resolve lite 10 ? I don't know and this first for me . Thank you.

Vesku

@yak

We are only discussing of skin tones, but the GH3 as the worst reds I have seen in a camera; school buses come out yellow, stop signs very light red... True for video files, mp4, mov or avchd. Jpeg not too bad, raw is very good. (when compared to nikon or canon)

I asked once that are you and many others using -5 color. I think that may be reason for bad color. Why we must use -5 color? When reducing contrast it reduces color at the same time also. So why -5 color? My reds and all other colors are just OK with natural -5 all other but color 0. My humble question is that am I missing something important?

yak

@surfculture Sorry I don't know, maybe LUT buddy... I don't use PP.

@Vesku Saturation at -5 or +5 is the same thing for me, no advantage using one over the other since you can get the exact same result in post. I graded a +5 like a -5 and vice versa colors stay the exact same, in term of tonality, luminescence etc...

I'll keep arguing GH3 reds on video are way to bright. You may not agree with me, but when I shoot something that is red and I know how red that red it red, like a fire hydrant, always comes out glowing and on the light side.

I'll go out in the freezing cold today to shoot 7D vs GH3 same shot with reds, I always thought of 7D colors as true to life.

yak

GH3 - 7D - GH3 hue adj

I first graded gh3 to match 7D colors, after that added the hue adj, look closely at the colored wall and the red bricks how much it ressembles after the adjustment.

rNeil

Interesting work you're doing, @yak ...

Neil

yak

Having tested some other footage with the LUT I made, I realized I was over doing it... Just came up with another one, I believe is just enough to balance the skin. + I added a magenta cast killer, just enough so it's not green.

Giving very good skin results.

wgtwo

With all due respect to Vitaliy, I like how this thread has done more to improve the GH3 than the hack ever did for the GH2.

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