Colorist, please help me here

[Jay A. Kelley]

This is for Jake, M Most, et al.

I am researching a topic for RED102. And I need help in understanding it to the point that I can deliver the information in an easy to digest way..

Here is what I would like your help understanding:

first the premise:

Project One:
I am taking in RED footage for the purpose editing a short film and putting in on BLU-RAY so that it can be shown in film festivals (lower end)
System: I have a standard computer package. Using Adobe Premiere Pro 6. I have a 32bit computer monitor.. Nothing else

Project two:
RED Footage again I am creating a TV commercial in 1080p / 30fps. I want to create an H.264 file for upload to the stations.
Same equipment as above, but I also have a large Panasonic Plasma Monitor

Project three:
I am making a music video for the web.. Same gear as above, same rez and fps as TV spot. Just a computer monitor


What I would like to understand:

Red3, REDGamma3, REDLog... Under what circustances do I use these items? What are they for (I don't need a lot of techno here, just "this is for this, and here's why"

Everyone speaks about Calibrating their monitors.. Ok.. But for what purpose? What does this mean exactly? And for what projects do you use it for?

I want to keep this discussion based on the three jobs I listed above.. No feature film talk! Seriously I need to understand this better, and any help you all can give would be wonderful.

Thank you so much in advance.

Jay

 

[Johnny Friday]

User Paul Herrin is one i'd recommend....

 

[mikeburton]

This is for Jake, M Most, et al.

I am researching a topic for RED102. And I need help in understanding it to the point that I can deliver the information in an easy to digest way..

Here is what I would like your help understanding:

first the premise:

Project One:
I am taking in RED footage for the purpose editing a short film and putting in on BLU-RAY so that it can be shown in film festivals (lower end)
System: I have a standard computer package. Using Adobe Premiere Pro 6. I have a 32bit computer monitor.. Nothing else

Project two:
RED Footage again I am creating a TV commercial in 1080p / 30fps. I want to create an H.264 file for upload to the stations.
Same equipment as above, but I also have a large Panasonic Plasma Monitor

Project three:
I am making a music video for the web.. Same gear as above, same rez and fps as TV spot. Just a computer monitor


What I would like to understand:

Red3, REDGamma3, REDLog... Under what circustances do I use these items? What are they for (I don't need a lot of techno here, just "this is for this, and here's why"

Everyone speaks about Calibrating their monitors.. Ok.. But for what purpose? What does this mean exactly? And for what projects do you use it for?

I want to keep this discussion based on the three jobs I listed above.. No feature film talk! Seriously I need to understand this better, and any help you all can give would be wonderful.

Thank you so much in advance.

Jay

Hi Jay, let me try to clear some of this up for you. There is some grey area here as to what monitor etc you have but let me give you some basics. First, for all of your target deliverables above you will be monitoring in REC 709 which may or may not be a target your particular monitor will be able to actually hit during calibration depending upon your monitor. But, since that is unknown lets say it is capable of reaching that target as most computer monitors try to emulate this as close as they can as well as standard HD Plasmas, LED's, LCD's etc. The reason you want to calibrate your monitor or monitors is for a couple different purposes. 1. So you can have confidence that what you are seeing is going to translate to any other monitor / tv / projection system that is displaying in the same REC 709 standard. 2. So you can accurately work and adjust your media on EVERY PROJECT you want to work on, commercial, feature film, web, doesn't matter. Its all about having confidence that your images are being manipulated not just for your own viewing but so it can match as closely as possible to other monitors that attempt to reach the same standard. That is the basics of calibration and why its so important to be calibrated and to calibrate your monitors often. For example, the average human being has TERRIBLE color memory so when your monitor starts falling out of calibration (and it surely will) you may not even see the differences between it being out of calibration versus calibrated especially if you only have one monitor and don't have a point of reference. That's what bars are for, a point of reference. That said, it worries me a bit that you don't know this
As for the RED Gamma metadata adjustments there really is no set right or wrong on what you should use at certain times and shouldn't use. REDLogFilm tries to emulate the gamma curve of a film scan ie milky. RED Gamma 3 and RedColor are RED's own attempt at improving Color science and custom tweaked gamma curve to emulate a 709 standard but also to create the most pleasing starting place on the image. Either of these methods could be employed on any of your 3 examples above. That said, REDLogFilm is usually best used with a LUT to properly balance the image in a linear project pipeline. That said, you don't HAVE TO use it that way if you know what you are doing to properly maintain a proper greyscale. Otherwise you may be doing more harm than good to the image and how the colors on the image will react down the line in your grading pioeline. Since you are obviously novice when it comes to this end of the post workflow, I would suggest you stick with REDCOLR 3 / REDGAMMA 3 which gives you the best overall starting point to color your image without having to use LUT's or complicate your workflow which you don't seem ready for just yet.
But first and foremost, you need to be able to trust your monitors. SO, go calibrate them. There are plenty of great calibration software and affordable probes which will get you pretty damn close, as close as your monitor will allow. Or hire an ISF / THX calibration expert to come in for anywhere between $250 - $400 to get you dialed in and study what they use and ask questions. Call David Abrams. He's great and i use him to calibrate all of our monitors here at our studio. PM me if you need his number.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

Mike,

This is a great first start.. Thank you so much. To be clear, I am not saying I do not KNOW any of this, I am saying I need to understand it in such a way that I can EXPLAIN it easily. This is my quest.

I will have more to ask you later, but would it be safe to say that the REDColor and REDLogs are just "starting points"? Also you brought up another topic I'd like to get into.. Most poeple understand the concept of whitebalanceing, but you brought up a "proper grayscale" Also people have been known to balance using 18% gray card.. Can you explain this procedure and why it's important?

Thank you..

Jay

 

[paulherrin]

User Paul Herrin is one i'd recommend....

okay, three wishes.

Alright, here's the deal. Yes - it's good to have expensive, highly-calibrated equipment and knowledgeable technicians. But let's ignore for a second 'professional practices' given they are out of the question in many cases - so the question is: can you still make something that looks good with normal equipment? From what I've seen, yes you most certainly can. In all honesty, the calibration thing is really just a huge headache to worry about - eventually you have to let it go. But what happens if Santa's suit is pink or orange instead of red? Uh-oh. So that being said, always try to make sure whatever technology you have available is performing at its best. It's pretty easy to get there. Also, I'm a really big fan of sanity checking on a few different monitors or types of screens, even if you have awesome equipment. If it only looks awesome on your equipment, that's a problem. But if it looks good on an old, crappy tv - you'll probably be alright. The degree you want to go to in order to insure you're releasing the images you think you're releasing is entirely up to you. That way, when you send it out to average joe's screen - what he's used to seeing as red will show up as red just like everything else, even if it's not actually matching your red - so it minimizes discrepancies by starting with a clean source.

RedLogFilm is the traditional and professionally recommended format for grading. While there are many benefits, it is easier to mess up if you don't know what you're doing - so I'm also going to recommend the redgammas as a good starting place and redlog as being a good place for learning, experimentation, or preference. If you're doing all your grading within redcine-x or premiere (within the raw settings), you're probably going to want to use redgamma. Sometimes when I'm doing additional grading I'll still use a redgamma setting, sometimes I'll use RedLogFilm. Now, between the redcolors and redgammas - believe it or not I don't always choose the highest number or latest concoctions. There are subtle differences between them all and you really just have to experiment to find the best fit for you on a given look. Sometimes redgamma 3 is just too contrasty for me so I'll use 2, instead.

So as the saying goes - if it looks good, it is good.
(Unless you're way off and un-calibrated, that is)