Sharpen my Dragon r3d

[Andrew Allsbury]

So I have often heard others on this forum talk about their different approaches to sharpening footage, as Red cameras do not apply any sharpening in camera. Generally I do not apply much if any sharpening to my footage, but being that we are rapidly moving from mostly 1080P delivery to mostly 4K/UHD delivery I'm starting to think I may need to rethink this position. But what is the best way to sharpen? RedCineX? Neat Video? Unsharp Mask in AE? I've heard lots of different approaches over the years. So I was thinking kind of in line with grade my r3d, maybe we could do a little sharpen my r3d with the technique you would choose and list what program/effect and the settings. Below I have a link to download the r3d files and also the jpeg thumbnails so you can see what you will be downloading. Also this exercise would be sharpening for UHD HQ delivery. Thanks guys!

Download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B077sOfEkEI2ckVnZUVOb1ZlbU0/view?usp=sharing

 

[Matt Ryan]

Personally, noise reduction I do second to last because sometimes my color creates noise, and sharpening is my last step. I have just been using unsharp mask or the neat video sharpening to do the job. The most important thing with shooting is to nail focus. The larger than s35 sensor means you have to be very critical, especially when finishing at 4K (After having a 4k tv I can tell immediately when something is slightly out of focus because the typical image is incredibly sharp and detailed. Focus becomes very obvious at higher resolutions, so you must get it right. Otherwise sharpening can only bring out so much detail. This is just straight unsharp mask on your images:

P.S. I noticed in your R3D that you were using the saturation slider. I'd advise you to not use that slider and use the post saturation slider at the bottom if you need to saturate via RCX. The saturation slider makes the image ugly fast, post saturation is more gradual and after debayer. Try it out and I bet you will like the results better.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Stop trying to sharpen it. It's sharp enough. There's a real danger in over-enhancement, especially if the monitor you're using to judge pictures hasn't been properly calibrated.

Sharpness is a function of lenses, contrast, diffusion (both in light and in filtration), image content, and lots of other factors. Shoot a standard industry focus chart and see how everything is set up. Maybe your lenses are faulty, maybe the images are just not in focus to begin with, or maybe your expectations are too high.

 

[Les Dittert]

If you crop out a 1920x1080 window from your UHD and play it on your HD monitor it should look like high quality HD.
If it does look soft, you don't have UHD resolution. Those are the facts, because UHD is four HD streams playing at the same time, each one full HD quality.

 

[Sabovic Adis]

Stop trying to sharpen it. It's sharp enough. There's a real danger in over-enhancement, especially if the monitor you're using to judge pictures hasn't been properly calibrated.

Sharpness is a function of lenses, contrast, diffusion (both in light and in filtration), image content, and lots of other factors. Shoot a standard industry focus chart and see how everything is set up. Maybe your lenses are faulty, maybe the images are just not in focus to begin with, or maybe your expectations are too high.

+1

:thumbsup:

 

[Andrew Allsbury]

Thanks for the input guys, guess I don't feel too bad about not sharpening in the past (lol). Sometimes it's nice just to check the room for other techniques, the info above makes sense.

 

[Anthony Berenato Jr]

P.S. I noticed in your R3D that you were using the saturation slider. I'd advise you to not use that slider and use the post saturation slider at the bottom if you need to saturate via RCX. The saturation slider makes the image ugly fast, post saturation is more gradual and after debayer. Try it out and I bet you will like the results better.

My favorite RCX secret.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Andrew you can add sharpening to your liking. Its done all the time. And yes, Red footage can look a bit soft, depending on lenses, contrast etc... Nothing wrong with sharpening.

Hans

 

[Bérenger Brillante]

If it's for TV, no sharpening as most consumer TV aloready have too much of it inside.
For theater, a bit of sharpening won't hurt.

Usually, if a shot needs a spot of sharpening because of soft focus, Davinci can easily do the trick without endangering your whole image.

 

[Lakis Amarantithis]

or maybe he's not using a high quality lens. If you use a lens that is not to the Dragon level then sharpening and post will not make the image pop. I had this problem when I bought first the Dragons until I started using Leica Summilux and Summicrons and then it became obvious. Huge difference.