RED Camera File Footage *Very Dark* How to fix?

[Steve Sherrick]

Not that this is a scientific analysis, as there could be a lot of variables that could be affecting gamma, etc such as H.264 encoding. But I grabbed a still from the reel. here it is.

If your footage looks like this one below, it's too dark and needs some work before processing.

You might want to aim for something like this which will give the colorist a lot of room to play with.

Keep in mind in these comparisons I'm just working from a still pulled from the H.264 quicktime so accuracy in the histogram may not be right on but I'm just trying to demonstrate the point that you want to start with an image that has the best chance of success in color correction if in fact these files you are transcoding will be used in final. If you are going back to R3Ds later in finishing, then aim to make offline quicktimes that will look good in editorial, that don't have to be as flat.

 

[JonathanF]

I would say that this is a pretty non-kosher way to be handling this situation unless your DoP has bailed leaving you to sort this out on your own.

There are a number of very valid workflows and none of what is exhibited in his reel would lead me to believe that he is not a competent camera operator. At his rate I would have booked him for at LEAST a few days of post to be sure all this sort of stuff was sorted, especially given your lack of experience in post with this format.

Whether this is the case or not, you should always budget both adequate prep and post time with your DoP if you want quality results and you should be sure you have sufficient time to grasp any workflow details you may require. If this is your first "RED" job then you should have made sure you had some extra time built in for just such things.

The R3D files are very much your camera negative and I will be the first one to tell you that unless you are using VERY expensive monitoring options with grading support on set that what you see in the LCD IS NOT representative of the R3D files true potential.

Metering RAW and using Redspace as a monitoring look is a very common strategy, but it may have little or nothing to do with how the files should be treated in post.

Some questions come to mind right away. What are you viewing the R3D files in? What build was the footage shot with? Was the camera build 17? 18? 20? These will all factor into how you want to treat the final footage. What facilities do you have at your disposal for conform and grading after editing?

Your operator's site indicates he has the 7" LCD. Is that what you were monitoring with? It is twice as bright as the 5" LCD and can be a bit deceptive, but again, this is only somewhat representative of the true potential of your R3D footage. I'd edit and then conform the R3D on some grading system that can deal with the R3D data native for a final grade and you'll get your best result.

Next time make sure you book your DP for enough time to insure you resolve all these issues and you'll save both time and money. Not to mention aggravation.

:J

 

[el_diablo]

I would guess a look setup on the camera together with a rec709 gamma contribute to the expose to the left, leaving you with a pretty underexposed footage. I had my share of those...

 

[Jason Sinclair]

you also might want to mention the monitor you are using for viewing the files in post as part of the analysis.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

turns out this DP is one of the guys who offers 175 bucks for camera package, as long as he gets to DP your film type of guy :/ explains ALOT

 

[David Battistella]

turns out this DP is one of the guys who offers 175 bucks for camera package, as long as he gets to DP your film type of guy :/ explains ALOT

What does this have to do with the thread?

I have to agree with Steve on this, the work looks competent enough and I think your comment adds nothing to the discussion.

What does what he wants to charge have to do with the questions in this thread?


David

 

[mtseng]

Try neat video
it's a noise reduction plugin
it will probably works

 

[Stefan Christou]

I would say that this is a pretty non-kosher way to be handling this situation unless your DoP has bailed leaving you to sort this out on your own.

There are a number of very valid workflows and none of what is exhibited in his reel would lead me to believe that he is not a competent camera operator. At his rate I would have booked him for at LEAST a few days of post to be sure all this sort of stuff was sorted, especially given your lack of experience in post with this format.......

Next time make sure you book your DP for enough time to insure you resolve all these issues and you'll save both time and money. Not to mention aggravation.

:J

What he said! This thread shines a very bad light on some of the posters.

If you have a post production team with lots of experience with Red footage then let them have some footage and let them tell you if it is OK or not. Adding your own first light correction to the files will just be a waste of time as they will re-set it to default anyway and may just waste more of their time as they try to figure out what you have done.

Since this is your first Red production do spend the time and money on getting it done right and don't waste your time trying to skimp on things with the help of the community. If it looked the way you wanted it on set the chances are that it can look that way in post and final output.

But only your post production people can tell you that.

As for everyone suggesting incompetence of the DP at the drop of a hat: Bad form boys, very bad form.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to flame anyone, but if it comes across that way please understand what I am saying is sincere and with the best intentions. :angelsad2:

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

As for everyone suggesting incompetence of the DP at the drop of a hat: Bad form boys, very bad form.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to flame anyone, but if it comes across that way please understand what I am saying is sincere and with the best intentions. :angelsad2:

agree. I for one shouldnt have said anything.. its just the post where the DP told this editor/director to just fix the bad lighting with ASA, and to add color correction.. i found that to be bad form on the DP's part

 

[John Hawthorne Smith]

Here's something I noticed and it's something I'm a bit confused about -- I shot my film on the RED and used an HD monitor. Looked great. Captured into FCP -- everything looked ridiculously dark. When I finally exported it into a Quicktime file, everything went back to the way it looked when I originally shot it.

Maybe I missed it, but did you mention what you were editing with/looking at the files with? The RED workflow said that the FCP gamma is 2.2 and the Quicktime is 1.8 which could explain why it's looking so much darker when you take a look at it. Try exporting/adjusting gamma, etc.