Official Panasonic GH3 topic, series 3

konjow

there are Millions who cares Im sure! So do not provoke Vesku

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Guys, calm down. If it'll be any good news I'll post them.

lumixmaxgh3

@Vitaliy, please, you've thousands of lives on conscience :-)

yskunto

Okay, I already calm down. :)

maxr

I think those 5% is winning. Besides who cares any more anyway.

What a depressing thing to say. Anyway, I care, which doesn't have to do with expectations but with the fact I have and use a GH3. I didn't bought it thinking one day @Vitaliy or anyone would hack it, but if it happens I'll surely welcome and use that improvement.
On the other hand

…I was beginning to feel that no man should ever punch a shutter release without many years of instruction and at least $500 worth of the finest equipment.

My only salvation lay in a Hasselblad, a Nikon and quick enrollment in a photographers’ school. I pondered this for a while and soon found myself running in circles, going from one camera store to the next […] Meanwhile, I zipped my camera into a suitcase and stopped taking pictures altogether. They were bound to be terrible, and besides that, I was embarrassed to be seen on the street with my ratty equipment.

When photography gets so technical as to intimidate people, the element of simple enjoyment is bound to suffer. Any man who can see what he wants to get on film will usually find some way to get it; and a man who thinks his equipment is going to see for him is not going to get much of anything.

Extract of Hunter S. Thompson's letter sent to Pop Photo magazine, 1962.
Source

abraham1307

@maxr well said.

rNeil

If @Vitaliy_Kiselev or someone comes up with a useful hack, I'll look at it. If not, oh well ... I've certainly not felt shorted because no one has so far. Yea, it's got some peculiarities. But hey, a secondary in Sg and skin's pretty decent for the work I do, and all in all it's a great tool when set and used properly for that particular tool. I make sure I give dead-on exposure and WB as good as possible while shooting ... never use the stoopid "smart" modes of the camera, and keep the contrast & sat middling low but not totally bottomed. Do that, it grades pretty decently and I never get surprises.

So ... it works as a good tool. Very reasonable initial cost. Life's good, right?

Neil

rNeil

On the GH4 threads, there's a post of a guy who's using a rather different set of settings based in the Portrait mode ... thought I'd try them out. Here's a listing of his settings/rationale, and below my first impressions using this on my GH3:

-Portrait: – it "develops" the mid-tones as brightly as possible, and gives us the largest amount of control of the skin tone contrast.

-Contrast: - +3 in sunshine, and +5 generally, gives contrast to the mid-tones

-Sharpness: +1 the highest amount before it becomes noticeable in noise and detail

-Noise Reduction: 0 takes care of of colour noise, leaving us with more than enough details in 4K

-Saturation: -5 It is easier/less destructive to add saturation than to subtract

-Hue: -2 the GH4 is pinkish of the shelve.

-Highlight/shadow: -5/0 this function overrides all other functions!

-If you for example use +5 in Contrast, the image "levels off" same-same as when you use -5 no matter what you do in any other setting. Any limitations in highlight or shadow are therefore best controlled here. At -5/0 you get the least risk of burning the highlights, and the shadows are the cleanest and most flexible, as long as you keep the setting at 0.

-I.Dynamic, I.Resolution, Master Pedestal, Luminescence Level are all unnecessary as they are less predictable and less precise than Highlight/shadow.

Ok ... so looking at his demo vid and settings, I modified a bit and shot some just out the window of our studio in western Oregon, looking north on a clear sunny day at 44.85 N. lattitude.

I used the following: Portrait w/ Contrast +3; Sharpness -2 (just not used to going even that high on sharpness!); Hue -2; NR -2.

First impressions: The contrast was on the high side, needed bringing highlights down in post even in our "weak" winter mid-day sun looking north. I think I'll try next with that at +1. Sharpness ... well dingnabbit, I think that Portrait mode must apply a LOT less sharpening so I'll go up to 0 for my next test ... this wasn't showing any problems at all or nearly over-sharp. Hue ... yea, stay with -2; NR ... -2 was fine. Noise in the shadows, even when brought up quite a bit in post, was rather minimal in appearance.

Very interesting results, and from one used to Natural/Contrast -3/Sharp -4/Hue -1/NR -5, I have to say this set of settings is quite nice on initial trial. Got some interview & people stuff upcoming, going to test for that.

Neil

rNeil

Did a bit of the missus in natural north light in the studio's reception area ... here's a screen grab of a bit in Premiere Pro at 100% ... Portrait, contrast +3, sharpen 0, hue -2 and NR -3. ISO 500. Using a 17-35mm f2.8 Tamron lens in Nikon mount wide open with the Vizelex "Throttle" down a stop or two to check that. Didn't do a custom WB, just used the daylight setting off the cam. Rather pleased at the smooth fall-off of highlights and the very clean shadow areas. I might even give sharpen a point or two higher, though I wouldn't go higher than this with contrast outside.

Loaded into PrPro, then quickly to SpeedGrade for a bit of work, and it took what little I needed easily. Which was a touch of setting the R, G, & B channel black & white levels, small touch of contrast & temp/tint, then to Shadow for a slight drop of lowest third, slight lift of upper third control, then back to overall tab for a bit of gamma lift and to the Highlights tab to bring top brightness control down a smidge. All rather minor bits, really.

I've got a Look in Sg to apply to my GH3 for people shooting to fix skin tint/contrast/sharpening ... didn't apply it here. Didn't need to. Now, the missus "films" a bit yellow/green, we could never use her for a lab "Shirley" for color control for printing color portrait work, we always used me. Next up, I'll shoot a bit of myself, same place & settings ... see what my skin looks like.

Neil

rNeil

So, shot about 40 minutes later in the day, here's moi ... same settings a the missus, same grade applied. Again, without the Look I normally apply in Sg to fix the GH3 pink plasticine skintones ... I'm a bit of a pink Caucasian to begin with, rather more than half Norwegian genetically. Don't tan easily ... nor very far even. But I was a great "Shirley" back in our color printing lab days ... ;-)

Neil

rNeil

After further testing, and checking ... I still prefer a touch of the ol' anti-plasticine Look applied, but it could get by without it using these settings. Though I've not gone to the higher contrast setting yet which the "originator" said was necessary to really nail the skin. That'll be next. I will say that I'm used to seeing tiny blocking bits now & then on my GH3 footage, most of the people around me never notice them ... but I can see hints & pieces passing by ... and this setting so far has produced none of that. Also ... the darker areas I've lightened to counteract the heavy contrast setting have been very clean, up to ISO 500 no noise whatever. I don't normally object to the small amounts of noise I've gotten at 500, as it's rather minor and again not hardly anyone who sees these has a clue what I'm talking about from simply viewing the stuff played. This ... it's just not there.

So ... over the next few days, will be trying the higher contrast setting (+5, unbelievable to be trying that!) and see how well the bottom comes up in post. The highlight fall-off with this setting is so smooth ...

Neil

joethepro

Some quick shots in pleasant evening light. Nothing special, just having some fun.

Chris74 · Screen Shot 2015-02-15 at 13.40.59.png

Just finished this 4min thriller short with my usual setting => Profile: Natural -5 -5 -2 -5 (IPB MOV 50mbit). Graded in FCPX + FilmConvert

joethepro

@Chris74 I loved it, was very entertaining and just the right length. Good job on the grade, shooting well lit and pulling it down. Keeps the noise out. It was a bit confusing at first when he tweeted because Im not familiar with Twitter and didnt know what he had actually done. My only gripe is that high pitch horror sound that you used over and over... got repetitive! Good to see the GH3 being used so well. I never go to -5 contrast because it looks like shit to me, but yours looks good with all the added contrast.

Chris74

@joethepro Super that you liked it. Regarding shooting well exposed and pull down in post, I always do that as it leaves you with so much flexibility in post and gets the best out of this little camera! I have kind of a hate/love relationship with it ;)

If you are interested, check out the FB page. I will shortly post lots of "Behind the Scenes" material => www.facebook.com/thefollowershortfilm

Also, if you dare, follow us on twitter ;) @fllwr_shortfilm

Chris74 · Screen Shot 2015-02-16 at 18.41.57.png

Here some example which shows the great flexibility in post with well lit scene.

joethepro

@Chris74 How did you avoid banding while stretching the image so far? Or did you just never encounter it?

rNeil

@Chris74

Nice work ... my taste would have had just a bit more sat (not much, but a leetle titch) ... but I'm not the one doing the good job of getting that bit done, am I?

Neil

Chris74

@joethepro I did encounter some banding in the compressed MP4 H.264 in some shots and of course on the Vimeo online version (you see that only in full screen). But on the ProRes file, nothing!

@rNeil Thanks for the feedback!

By the way, just finished my first ever showreel. All shot with the Panasonic GH3. Would be great to hear your opinion guys

rezyserzycia

my short for Reebook film contest. only with gh3, no lights, 3 hours of work.

joethepro

@Chris74 Good start! You make the GH3 look great. @rezyserzycia Yours also looks good, a little flat feeling, but nice nonetheless. Did you use neutral with contrast way down?

rezyserzycia

@joethepro

I used potrait mode, everything at -3

joethepro

Still blows my mind how well you can lift the shadows on this camera in certain situations while staying pretty clean. No noise reduction here, and no stabilization. Ignore the shakes, it was cold as hell.

Chris74

@joethepro Thanks for the compliment! This camera is amazing, eventhough the flat setting (or lack of real flat profile) scares the shit out of me everytime I first time look at it after the shooting ;) @rezyserzycia Amazing work, love the look => Other than sharpen the footage in post, did you grade?

rezyserzycia

@Chris74

Chris, no sharpening in post. Grading wiht osiris and some 'taste' with changig red, blue curces. Portrait mode at -3

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