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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 :)

REDAlert Settings

Graeme Nattress

RED Problem Solver
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For those of you out there using REDALert!

1) use REC709 gamma in the gamma linearity pulldown menu. Linear light is for specialists applications and looking at raw data values. REC709 is for "general" use, and REDLog for 10bit DPX Export to retain maximum precision.

2) Brightness and Contrast controls works well. Try these before diving into the curves. They both work on nice shaped curves so that they try not to crush information out of your footage.

3) if the image is really dark, first boost it's levels with the ISO control. That control is set up to provide the appropriate decoding of darker footage. If you clip on the histogram, back off on the exposure setting.

4) in most cases you can fid extra dynamic range by backing off the exposure a stop or so.

5) if you're exporting stills to open in Photoshop, remember a 10bit DPX writes to disk quicker than a 16bit tiff and will open in Photoshop just as well....

6) I'm sure I'll think of more handy hints and tips......

Graeme
 
Keep em coming Graeme. You coded it you would kow best. So lets hear some more.

Thanks
 
Such an important post Graeme. May I humbly add the following:

I would appreciate it if people posting example images would differentiate between attempts to simple "develop" the RED One image into a workable video form vs. attempts to make the image "look good."

The reason being that some people will be looking at these images for proof of RED One's empirical qualities, i.e. dynamic range, highlight handling, ability to hold detail in saturated colors, etc. These people will be disappointed to see a clippy, crushy image that has lots of sex appeal and "looks good."

And of course, some people will be looking at the first RED One images off the line and hoping that they "look good." But that should not be the case unless the images have been color corrected. While RED Alert has some color correction controls, it's not a color grading station, and the ideal RED One workflow would most certainly not be to make permanent color decisions early in the process.

Remember that an image that shows a broad dynamic range will look flat and low-contrast. An image that shows good highlight handling will probably appear underexposed. And an image that shows good color fidelity will appear to have very low color saturation! I urge new RED One users to learn to love underexposed, low-con, low-saturation images as they come off your camera, for they contain the broadest range of creative possibilities for you later.

But also maintain your love for the rich, saturated images that you may ultimately create from this raw material—and hope/beg/plead for tools to allow shooting with RED One under a non-destructive LUT that is included with the footage as metadata, so that you can preview your image as it may ultimately appear, record that nice flat raw image, and later have the choice of applying your shooting LUT or some other awesome color correction.

-Stu
 
May I humbly add that Stu knows what the hell he's talking about. :-)

Graeme
 
May I humbly agree...
It's a pleasure having you here, Stu.
 
P.s. Stu, Magic Bullit Looks beta Is my new favorite app. It has the same freedom and creative feel as Lightroom does on the still side. I just can't get enough of it. Hours of combining effects and layers in AE gone. It's a winner.
 
Stu - YES, in massive agreement, but you know more about this stuff than I do.

Just spent the day shooting white cars in broad daylight on a cloudless day, we'll have ample opportunity to explore these concepts in post.
 
Stu - you would absolutely love this footage I am processing right now - flat, desaturated, apparently underexposed - looks perfectly awful -

But seriously, I am pretty stoked about how a bunch of white cars at high noon resolved today. Now Graeme if I could just get a slightly more stable build of the QT codec ... (*ducks*)
 
Stu I'm noticing a small discrepancy between your sig and avatar info bar on which RED you have reserved. ;)

Yeah, well, it's one of those... :)

Think I got it fixed now.

-Stu

Not sure if you do Stu, my contract for 1073 says otherwise :huh:

Your advice on the other hand is unquestionably brilliant :)
 
Hey Stu, I love your blog. I really appreciate you sharing your expertise with the rest of us!

Does your reservation contract also say 1073?
I have two RED ONE reservation contracts for #1073 and #1080 (cool number eh?).

I guess we should see that this is sorted out before December 10.
Of course I'd be more than happy to have you come by and use 1073 in exchange for some of your vast stores of insight and experience :biggrin:

Good times!
 
This is the problem when you have people handling this stuff for you. I'm pretty sure I'm 1033—until someone chimes in and tells me otherwise! :)

P.s. Stu, Magic Bullit Looks beta Is my new favorite app. It has the same freedom and creative feel as Lightroom does on the still side. I just can't get enough of it. Hours of combining effects and layers in AE gone. It's a winner.

Thanks Mike! MB Looks is a passion project for me, and it should be the ultimate complement to a RED One—or to whatever camera you currently have that you're shooting with as if it was a RED!

-Stu
 
Now Graeme if I could just get a slightly more stable build of the QT codec ... (*ducks*)

That would be me actually... What's wrong with it? It's been extremely stable here and in certain projects.
 
Timecode and batch exporting

Timecode and batch exporting

Hi all.

We've been exporting r3d files to 2k log dpx but our systems (baselight/flame/smoke) can't read the timecode. Are we doing something wrong when we export?

Also can we get Red Alert! to batch process convert all the shots or is manual until RedCine comes out?

One more thing, any pointers on exporting the frames for grading in a baselight system?
 
...REDLog for 10bit DPX Export to retain maximum precision.

Graeme, will there be any documentation forthcoming on the RedLog curve? I assume it's not quite Cineon Log, although in many circumstances it could probably be treated the same way, but in the name of accuracy, is it to be documented somewhere?
 
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