Are Red images soft in general?

[PatrickFaith]

There's a couple of big things I've noticed on around half of the RED crews I see:
1) In contrast to many of the "arri" crews I see that roll in with trucks of lighting and grip gear, RED crews often have limited lighting/grip options so:
[ I think there's a tendancy with RED to be used with low budget lighting approaches, this can be OK for expert cinematographers but new cinematographers often the actual image lacks contrast (which people mentally think it's "soft" but it's not really soft, it lacks contrast because it wasn't lighted properly]
2) Almost all RED crews downscale the image for distribution, and there are a lot of downscaling algorithms which I doubt more then 10% of the people that use them understand them.
[ Downscaling from like 8k to 1080p is a lot like using a virtual olpf, but with a lot of options. Some programs it's even hard to find the actual algorithm option used in the program, and even if it is avaible 90% of the time the person doing the scaling has not fully tested the algorithm for that type of imaged. What this does is actually soften the image as the raw get's converted to things like prores. The actual raw image has TONS of detail, but this detail can basically be destroyed by the algorithm used.]

 

[Cyan Townsend]

Hi!
I recently shot a project on a Epic Mysterium X and I thought the images were too soft. I commented this to the editor/colorist who usually works with this camera operator, and she said that Red images are known to be soft, because in post you add sharpness etc. Is this true? I thought what comes out of any Red camera is crisp sharp from scratch.

I include a link to a screenshot below. Couldn't figure out how to insert an image!

https://ibb.co/bONtnb

I heard about it from a friend ,who is a photo enthusiast that red images are generally known to be soft.

 

[Marc Wielage]

My experience with my Scarlet Mysterium X was that I often added sharpening in post, even when I nailed the focus. When I upgraded to Dragon, I rarely, if ever, added sharpness. Never had to add sharpness with Epic-W.

That's pretty much my experience as well.

And I again say that apparent sharpness is closely related to contrast, so the color correction itself can really affect the overall image that way. More often than not, I wind up softening the picture -- particularly with actors of a certain age and with features -- either to provide beauty fixes or to decrease depth of field.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

[ Downscaling from like 8k to 1080p is a lot like using a virtual olpf, but with a lot of options. Some programs it's even hard to find the actual algorithm option used in the program, and even if it is avaible 90% of the time the person doing the scaling has not fully tested the algorithm for that type of imaged. What this does is actually soften the image as the raw get's converted to things like prores. The actual raw image has TONS of detail, but this detail can basically be destroyed by the algorithm used.]

Spot on!

 

[Dustin Hoye]

Quote Originally Posted by PatrickFaith View Post
[ Downscaling from like 8k to 1080p is a lot like using a virtual olpf, but with a lot of options. Some programs it's even hard to find the actual algorithm option used in the program, and even if it is avaible 90% of the time the person doing the scaling has not fully tested the algorithm for that type of imaged. What this does is actually soften the image as the raw get's converted to things like prores. The actual raw image has TONS of detail, but this detail can basically be destroyed by the algorithm used.]

Spot on!

+1, for sure on this.

 

[Josh Wilkinson]

I have had a similar struggle after buying my first red.
What I’ve noticed is I tend to shoot a bit wider than I did when I shot Sony (fs700-fs7) because there is so much raw detail in the image or because I know I can always punch in a touch in post.
Overall seemed to make it seem softer, I switched back to shooting “normal”

 

[Anton Esteban]

What is the recommended image scaling in DaVinci Resolve to go from 8k to 4k and of 8k to HD?

 

[Jordan Beard]

When sharpening in post, does it make any difference if you set the 'sharpness' in the R3D metadata or apply a standard sharpening effect?