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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Speedgrade makes RED POP

Justin O'Neill

Justin O'Neill

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Having lots of fun with Speedgrade. The bottom image is REDlogFilm, the 2nd is my usual mild curve + contrast/saturation in REDcine-X and the top one is Speedgrade. It is remarkable how much color is hidden in RED RAW files...you just need the right tool to pull it out.

DISCLAIMER: Resolve is awesome too, I just happen to own Speedgrade right now and I'm looking forward to full integration with Premiere and After Effects in the near future.

comparison-930x1422.jpg
 
really interesting example of how each color tool makes such a difference. Would like to see resolve on this too
 
I've been enjoying Speedgrade too Justin. Happy things came together so quickly for the CS6 release. I think Adobe really have a killer app on their hands once they have full integration. It's a differnent tool compared to Resolve, but the fundamentals of color correction and grading don't change because of the application. Just a different way to get to your goal. Love Speedgrade's playback. Gotta get curves in there.
 
It's more of a Speedgrade thing. Before Adobe acquired Iridas there wasn't curves. I imagine Adobe may want to add them as they are a staple of their workflow. There's enough control under the hood to fine tune the shadows, darks, midtones, lights, and highlights. It's just a very different way of thinking and not totally as visual or "bendy" as a curve.

Sometimes when I'm grading in Speedgrade I feel like I'm controlling temperature valves at a nuclear plant. Weird stuff goes through my head when I grade.
 
jake blackstone said:
Don't feel bad guys. I never use curves, even in apps, that have them. Improper use of curves is one of the most noise inducing operators, beside HLS Hue vs Lum or Hue vs Hue. So, you're not missing much...
Click to expand...

THIS is a very good point...

Leaning a bit towards speed grade, too.

Does it support multiple GPU's?
 
Whats your workflow to get into Speedgrade? I've tried "sending project to speedgrade" but it seems to just take 4 days and millions of terrabytes.... this has limited my ability to actually work with it for a project... i'm finalizing a 44min cut of a doc that I would love to grade in Speedgrade so any tips are welcome!
 
I haven't looked into this since the start, but "send to speed grade" initially transcoded whatever is in the timeline to dpx with "whatever" metadata settings you had in Premiere.

NOT a very good solution, and a bit ironic as SpeedGrade was THE RAW grader back in the time.

Still haven't tested this (something has to be up for next month) but you had to do an edl over to conform "back" to the RAW files.


I can kinda see the thinking around this, even though it isn't really very good for signal chain - control.

But this may (or may not) have changed with later updates.
 
Does speedgrade supports external monitoring on OS X now (via BM decklink, in 10bit) ?

Last time I tried, the app looked great and fast but was lacking that essential feature for a grading tool (think it required a sdi output directly on the GPU but none existed for Mac OS at the time)

TIA
 
Justin O'Neill said:
Having lots of fun with Speedgrade. The bottom image is REDlogFilm, the 2nd is my usual mild curve + contrast/saturation in REDcine-X and the top one is Speedgrade. It is remarkable how much color is hidden in RED RAW files...you just need the right tool to pull it out.

DISCLAIMER: Resolve is awesome too, I just happen to own Speedgrade right now and I'm looking forward to full integration with Premiere and After Effects in the near future.

comparison-930x1422.jpg
Click to expand...



wow Grade...

I Think Adobe Speedgrade CS6?

Thank you
 
Justin O'Neill said:
Yeah no curves is crazy. I think I'm finally figuring out how to "curve" without them but I don't see any good reason not to include them.
Click to expand...

Nice work, Justin!

As Jake points out, curves aren't without their issues. The lack of curves in Speedgrade is deliberate, and has been for several years, to "save you from yourself". If I am not mistaken, the Speedgrade team's line is "to prevent significant non-linearities". Nevertheless, choice is good, but personally I have almost no use for curves anyway.

Speedgrade's best feature is, of course, the speed. Performance is stunning. On a single Radeon HD 7970, I have more than I need for finishing 5K. To accomplish the same on Resolve you would probably need at least 2 or 3 GTX Titans. Once complaint though - rendering secondaries for a 4K finish does not seem to utilize CPU resources properly for R3D decode, as a result it takes 5 times longer than it should. (RedCine-X has the same problem, by the way, does not scale well with cores)

The zero-latency monitoring straight through your GPU is awesome. It seems like a very minor thing, but going back to Resolve monitored through Decklink it becomes very noticeable. Note: this is only possible on Windows, for now. On OS X monitoring is a major issue, but I am fairly certain there will be a solution or two the next update coming at NAB. (CS6.5?)

Of course, this is just the beginning, the Adobe acquisition happened too late for much Creative Suite integration in CS6. The future is promising.

PS: Ignore "Send to Speedgrade", it is useless for R3D work. Use EDL instead, conform to R3D in Speedgrade.
 
Isn't a surprise for me, since Speedgrade share the same Photoshop philosophie. I found out that levels adjustment is sometimes better and more forgivable, than curve adjustment, just like AF an Premiere. I almost never use them..
 
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Brad Crawford said:
Whats your workflow to get into Speedgrade? I've tried "sending project to speedgrade" but it seems to just take 4 days and millions of terrabytes.... this has limited my ability to actually work with it for a project... i'm finalizing a 44min cut of a doc that I would love to grade in Speedgrade so any tips are welcome!
Click to expand...

Gunleik Groven said:
I haven't looked into this since the start, but "send to speed grade" initially transcoded whatever is in the timeline to dpx with "whatever" metadata settings you had in Premiere.
Click to expand...


The Send to Premiere function does exactly that. However, utilizing an export/import EDL pipeline lets you work with your edit and R3Ds natively.

Currently you need to export DPX (or whatever) frames or LUTS and apply them back in your editing package if you don't want to DPX.


Gunleik Groven said:
Does it support multiple GPU's?
Click to expand...


Spoke to the folks at Adobe last year and I was told that Speedgrade was optimized for single GPU use. When grading with realtime playback 1/4 debayer on 5K works. You can step it up a bit and zoom in for critical corrections.


Mikael Lubtchansky said:
Does speedgrade supports external monitoring on OS X now (via BM decklink, in 10bit) ?
Click to expand...


It supports the Quadro SDI output at 8, 10, and 12 bit.
 
I like Speedgrade a lot as it has a low learning curve. However Adobe really need a better integration with Premiere and I'm surprised they released it as is. The send to Speedgrade seems more like an after thought and is pretty much useless unless your footage is only 1 min long. And their EDL import is awful and riddled with bugs (all your footage needs to be on a single track, no FX, doesn't import all your footage, drops frames, ignores timecode etc.). Ideally you just need to be able to open a pproj directly. If they can put priority on addressing these issues for the next release they'll have a killer app for sure.
 
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jake blackstone said:
On PC only. On Mac it's limited to 8 bit monitoring only, which for a time being, makes Speedgrade pretty much useless for mission critical work on a Mac.
Click to expand...

Ah. That I didn't know. I'm Macless in my world.
 
ah... thanks for the tips guys. So basically to work with native R3Ds i'd need to finalize my edit to 1 track and export to EDL. Al mentioned lots of issues with this... is it too much of a headache? I'm going to be starting my grade in the next week or so, so I just want to make things as seamless as possible.
 
Brad Crawford said:
ah... thanks for the tips guys. So basically to work with native R3Ds i'd need to finalize my edit to 1 track and export to EDL. Al mentioned lots of issues with this... is it too much of a headache? I'm going to be starting my grade in the next week or so, so I just want to make things as seamless as possible.
Click to expand...



EDL's aren't really "a headache". Done right "they just work" far more coherently than xml's. BUT the catch is that you have to know what you're actually doing. :)

EDL's are just that:
Edit Decission Lists

in- and outpoints refering to an edit on a single track (like film, you know).

So:
No re-timing (messes up TC) no re-framing (re-what?) etc etc etc

But making del-friendly edits, is a good thing to know, even when working with xml-savvy apps.

Because when nuthin' else works... :)

But EDL's demand a bit more dicipline than most editors are used to...
 
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