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ColorGHear [PART 2]
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  • the GH2 doesn't have 11 stops and the curve changes the further away from center you get. The cam has 9.5 stops from pure white [zone X] to Pure black [zone 0], and not 11. Not to mention that the cam does not have a true black but bottoms out at broadcast black [7%]

    So subtract 2 stops off the top - and you get 7.5 stops

  • @shian So my past two shoots I've been utilizing your expose in the zone method for skin tones and when I get home to check the scopes, 80% or more of the time, I'm dead on in the waveform and vetorscope. Thanks so much and of course, it's always a learning process. Now just to work on getting the whole scene in the 20-80 range!

  • @shian that makes sense. What my result showed was that center of GH2 meter results into RGB 127 +/- 2. I don't own light meter but seem to be that light meter is based on IRE. 50% in IRE is not 127 in RGB.

  • @vicharris Thanks. It's good to see that I'm helping. I sometimes wonder if my tutorials actually help people or if I just confound them so much that they're just stupefied into saying, "Oh, yeah...that makes sense."

  • Just caught up with the zone system tutorial, thanks for working though that. I'm not a cinematographer but it's really helpful at times on set to be able to instruct my cinematographer knowing all of these things at least on a surface level. Now to get a color chart and do some tests. Looking forward to more!

  • You are welcome - I hope it finally makes sense. Once you understand it, you can use it any way you want. Most cinematographers I talk to use different methods relating to the Zone System depending on their style and approach. I have taught you the way I use it. But you might find other approaches.

    I've also taught the way I use a light meter - which is different from what others who have worked so long in film have done because of the latitude.

    I use an incident meter to read each light. Where as some will just point it at the camera to average the light and expose that way. I like knowing what each light is giving me so I have pinpoint control. I consider the "pointing it at the camera" way the lazy approach, which you can get away with on film and higher end digital, but DSLR shooters can run into trouble pretty quick if they're not careful.

    There is a correlation chart between false color and the zones using skin tone as a pivot for generic FC monitors and for RED now on the page under the Zone System tutorials.

  • Just to head off the flamenado that's sure to come my way on this:

    You may see my name mentioned in regards to a project that you wouldn't automatically think, "Oh, those two working together makes perfect sense." There will likely be a lot of snarky comments made all over the internet about this project and it's writer... I don't really care about that. I just wanted you to know that I know what's really going on behind the scenes, and that the project is gonna be awesome - otherwise i wouldn't have taken the gig. We've got an Oscar Winning producer running the show, the script is solid. And the concept, while not entirely original, is a great canvas for some pretty hardcore horror moments which I'm looking forward to filming. This will be anything but standard studio fare.

    It's an opportunity to prove that ALL of my low budget concepts, tricks, shortcuts, etc, can be brought to bear on a feature film with stunning results. It will be shot using the techniques I teach and graded in CG Pro. The promo poster stills are from a make-up test, and are not photographs - but still frames from the GH2 running Intravenus with no airbrushing. Shot on a zero budget with what was on hand at the time.

    I can't link to it cuz doing so would violate the rules here at PV, but I'm sure I won't have to. My inbox is already getting dinged with messages from friends who saw my name attached and were like, "Seriously? WTF? So what's the scoop? I know you wouldn't do it unless it were something cool... So what's up?" And all I can say is: just wait and see."

  • And the plot thickens, looking forward to it.

  • Backstreets's back, alright!! ;)

  • We should have some test footage online in, like, September.

  • Shot a wedding video for my sister in law. I put in a 12 hour day one man band style. I color corrected using Colorista 2 for my primary and secondary corrections and used Color GHear for my Master Looks. Used the Panasonic GH3 for the shoot. Looking back I should've used the GH2 but you live and you learn.

  • If any of you still have doubts about Color GHear... let them rest. I would say it is one of the best investments you can make for your post production, period.

    Shian is truly a pro. I am a huge fan of ColorGHear and Shian's film school videos (I've learned a lot). This guy is sharing years of his experience and expertise, and years of tweaking his preset grades for such a small fee it would be absurd not to buy it. Considering the time, effort and money that goes into making a production work, cost-wise, this should be near the top of your list of must have tools. Besides this, he's a way cool, positive guy, and will help you out as much as he can. I hope everyone can recognize his tremendous contribution to helping people educate themselves to become better filmmakers.

    I just recently used ColorGHear on my first music video for a local artist. Using it with Adobe AE is an extremely powerful solution which allows limitless hierarchical tweaking. Since the production budget was very low - not much of the lighting could be controlled (save two reflectors), and there was limited time to complete it (Let alone render it in AE! Sorry, next time, film grain...). It is not perfect, but I really liked how the video looked when it was done, and I'm proud of what we could accomplish with so LITTLE .... Hats off to Shian. You are much appreciated, and you have enriched my knowledge and filmmaking experience tremendously!

    Please support this guy's work while doing yourself a huge favor.

    Shooting on GH2 with random old glass, + 14-140

    Crane shots with 5d Mk3 + Zeiss lenses (Thanks to an awesomely talented crane guy, Aaron Leong)

    Directed by Owen Burgess

    Cinematography by yours truly, Neal Brandon

  • @Shian I've been playing with a Ninja 2 on my AC160 (and canon X10) lately. I know both are 4:2:0 - 8 bit but damned if it doesn't seem to color grade a better with the DNxHd straight off of the HDMI.

    ColorGhears and Synthetic Aperture seems to give me a richer deeper grade with the Atomos than they do with AVCHD and the noise and macroblocking seems much reduced.

    I figure you've tried it. Is this my immigration or is there some benefit to the faux 10 bit 4:2:2 DNxHD.

  • Sorry to disappear for so long. Been dealing with some serious shit. But I'm slowly getting back in the saddle. Great looking stuff, guys.

    @peternap I'm always going to assume that anything that starts with a baseline that has better compression than AVCHD is going to grade better and have less blocking.

  • @Shian Thanks!

    Hope you get things running smoothly. We all seem to have a Dragon to slay lately.

  • @shian I've been using CG to play around with my BMCC footage in Resolve. Works great to throw on some fast grades to get looks out there without all the fussing around.

  • nice - glad it works so well for you. I'm loving it. I can totally breeze through my grades now. I'm excited to get my hands on Resolve 10 with CG Pro...

  • @shian Do we get a free upgrade from 9? I can't remember.

  • @vicharris no clue

    Some helpful tips for speeding up After Effects rendering

  • Wow...from 26min down to 5min. I knew AE was inefficient but, wow.

    It's so frustrating knowing how indispensable AE is but at the same time how poorly it does so many things. Back before Puffin sold out to Pinnacle (to die a double death) I'd replaced as much of my workflow as I could with Commotion because what the two packages shared was so much better in the Puffin implementation (roto and tracking especially).

    It's sad because Commotion, like Nuke and Katana, were created by actual visual effects professionals and not a software company with mostly academic experience. So much hardware gets thrown at trying to make After Effects faster when it's really a software problem.

  • Shian ...

    Even with 35 years as a portrait photog, owned/operated the studio and my own color-lab most of the years we were still film 'cause we were too damn picky for most pro portrait labs, and all my Zone VI lab gear for b/w, teaching Zone System et al ... learned a fair amount from your long vid over at ColorGhear on putting together the Zone System for video.

    In all the use I've made of it, it's always been just for tonal control ... not particularly concerned with colors. Your emphasis on using it, and knowing the IRE ratings for a wide set of colors to plan the placement of colored items, such as walls, draperies, that sort of thing ... was quite fascinating.

    Thanks a bunch ...

    Neil

  • Sorry if this is a dumb question but have to ask.. do you guys do primary correction first and then add gears or use the gears exclusively?

  • Can't speak for everyone, but if you're doing it right, then you are using GHears for everything including primary correction or (the tech pass) as I did in this video.

  • What???? Me? Show off?? Unthinkable.

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