philmColor in Resolve

[Alexander Volkov]

Hi, everyone!

I’ve just bought philmColor Lut,s and they are great!
I have a question about philmColor in Resolve, should I grade before or after the node with a philmColor?
My workflow now in Resolve is: grade - philmColor - IPP2 lut, is it a right order of nodes?

Thank you!

Alex.

 

[Marc Pilato]

hello everyone,
i’m also interested to know the workflow using philmcolor creative luts in resolve
Should i use the lut in redcinex or can i do it in resolve?
As you can see i’m a little bit lost about the best workflow.
Thanks by advance if someone can give time to help.

 

[rand thompson]

Hey, everyone!

I’ve just bought philmColor Lut,s and they are great!
I have a question about philmColor in Resolve, should I grade before or after the node with a philmColor?
My workflow now in Resolve is: grade - philmColor - IPP2 lut, is it a right order of nodes?

Thank you!

Alex.

I believe the best practice for any Lut is "before" so you can get a better White Balance, Exposure...etc. Here is a video on dealing with Luts in general with Resolve.

"Getting Creative with LUTs in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve- Jason Bowdach"

 

[rand thompson]

hello everyone,
i’m also interested to know the workflow using philmcolor creative luts in resolve
Should i use the lut in redcinex or can i do it in resolve?
As you can see i’m a little bit lost about the best workflow.
Thanks by advance if someone can give time to help.

You can add Phil's Luts in Redcine-X and then bring it into Resolve for final completion of the grade.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?172460-Best-settings-for-IPP2-in-Resolve/page2

 

[Aaron Lochert]

Log3g10/REDWideGamutRGB --> philmColor --> grade --> IPP2 Output Transform

That's the way I do it. In my mind, philmColor is expecting Log3g10 and RWG, so that's what you should feed it.

That said there's nothing really against the rules about grading before the philmColor LUT if you want to.

 

[Alexander Volkov]

Thanks, Rand and Aaron!

 

[rand thompson]

You're welcome Alexander!

 

[Marc Wielage]

I believe the best practice for any Lut is "before" so you can get a better White Balance, Exposure...etc.

Jason is a very sharp guy and I generally agree with much of what he says.

But I would point out that with 90% of the LUTs out there, you can match what they do with normal color-correction controls if you know what you're doing.

I would point to Juan Melara's video from some months ago where he matched a $600 LUT in about an hour:

The advantages of not using a LUT are that you can infinitely tweak the controls and not lose any detail at the high end or the low end. LUTs tend to be destructive under some conditions. To me, too many people use them as a crutch when there are better alternatives out there. (And let me say I like Phil Holland's work and think he's an excellent and very knowledgeable DP.)

BTW, I can and will use a custom LUT if a DP insists and it's the fastest way to get good results in the session. I'm just saying they're not always the best or only answer.

 

[Alexander Volkov]

Thank you for sharing your point of view, Marc!

 

[Phil Holland]

Cheers Marc. I was a Colorist for several years just ahead of going full on Director/DP and I certainly will echo if you have the talent, time, and cash to dial in everything; well that's the job really.

philmColor is designed to do all sorts of things, but mainly get you something stylized quick within the RED IPP2 ecosystem. These can be used in camera, in post, or really straight to delivery. The hardest part about designing these looks has been to have the majority of them work with various styles of shooting. I know a lot of people now who shoot below key primarily and tuning them to work there as well as at key and above has been the real journey. The additional bit is these are very tied to the concept of them being very film based in their general looks and practices. Several methods of Bleach Bypass, pushing and pulling, and various other development inspired perspectives.

I've spent an unhealthy amount of time on these Creative Cube LUTs and still am ahead of Release 3, which is soon. I've had some film aging for the better part of a year that I'm waiting to scan in.

It's been interesting overall as I'm now even more deeply versed in RED sensor tech as I test everything from the original M sensor to the current crop of DSMC2 on these looks. If I didn't know how to code I honestly don't know how this level of QC would be possible on the several thousand test sequences.

This has certainly turned into an OCD tweaking and experimental journey.

I'm really happy people are using these. I've seen them hit the big screen, Netflix, shows, web series, and pretty much been used all over. I've even created a couple slightly custom looks for productions, like Ivan's latest work for Filson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w42iT7cdNDQ

Color has been part of my career now for 20 years crossing features through commercials. But it's nice to push something out there that so many have access to.

And remember philmColor is designed to give you a look straight away, but feel free to tweek in whatever grading app you want. This is particularly useful if you are using something like my ghostStocks, which are essentially different takes on color science. RED's moved closer to producing a very real image, whereas film always had/has a strong medium based look to it. That's where a lot of the effort has been placed with this project. Analog influenced transforms essentially.

And yes, any decent colorist could certainly match or make these for sure. Some would be trickier than others just in the shear way these are created, but it all could be matched or recreated.

Oh, and one more point more as a jab to that other LUT. If I charged $600 bucks for one LUT feel free to tear me a new hole in my head. philmColor is a whole library of looks for RED cameras, very similar to the concept of Arri's Look Library, but done in a far less instagram sort of way, but much more influenced by mainly Kodak sort of way.