Speedgrade is amazing

[Brandon J.F.]

I've spent the last few days digging into Speedgrade and I'm very impressed. You need to go through tutorials to learn how to use it, but it's really worth the time.

What I find most impressive is how Speedgrade handles R3D footage. I get real-time playback the whole time with no Rocket and one GPU. And call me crazy, but it also seems that the image quality you get from R3D files in Speedgrade is better than what you get in Resolve. Has anyone else noticed this?

The biggest thing SG is missing is some sort of stabilization functionality. I'm sure that is coming though.

 

[Kwan Khan]

What I find most impressive is how Speedgrade handles R3D footage. I get real-time playback the whole time with no Rocket and one GPU.

Wow.. Impressive

 

[Ryan De Franco]

+1. Speedgrade starts with the word "speed" for a reason. It processes uncompressed Raw 2K files from the Ikonoskop much faster than DaVinci. Color adjustments are subtle and the look up table / camera calibration built in works wonders.

I wish it would include curves. I wish it would recognize audio embedded in CinemaDNG, but no one has figured that out yet. I wish it wouldn't crash when you undo and redo without realizing that it has stalled. It has a little ways to go but I'm loving it where it is.

 

[Curtis Stanton]

I know it's been asked before, but I've never seen an answer. Do you know how to get SpeedGrade to recognize a Macbeth color checker?

 

[Marc Wielage]

I've never found a traditional Macbeth color chart to be useful in terms of digital color correction, because there are too many variables involved. My brother color timers at the old Technicolor labs did use them for photochemical timing, but I never felt they worked in a digital world.

My general preference has always been for gray scale charts on the beginning of each scene (if possible), at least for a dailies look. The DSC Labs Chroma DuMonde charts are interesting:

http://dsclabs.com/chromadumonde1.htm

But I would still lean more towards the gray scale chart in terms of a starting point for color correction.

 

[MichaelP]

Check out:
http://provideocoalition.com/index...._color_grading_with_the_new_dsc_labs_oneshot/

Michael

 

[Jean Pierre Schoch]

I know it's been asked before, but I've never seen an answer. Do you know how to get SpeedGrade to recognize a Macbeth color checker?

Look at the end of this tutorial:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/no-stupid-questions-with-colin-smith/introduction-to-speedgrade/
you should go to clip section/colorspace, check override input format (...) and then click GO

 

[Curtis Stanton]

Thanks for the good information, everyone. This is all helpful.

 

[Phil Holland]

I love SpeedGrade too. Can't wait to see more integration and features coming down the pipe.

I do a lot of VFX cinematography where color accuracy or reproduction is very important. Three tools I can't live without are a ColorChecker Passport, a larger Macbeth chart, and a mid gray card.

Here's a still of the Passport Color Checker.

The vast majority of the time the gray values are what is needed for accurate color correction and tonal balance. However, you can indeed profile the rest of the color chart for more technical work. I do this for texture and reference photography.

The majority of the time I match gray for general white balance purposes instead of white. It's more of a preference and control thing.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

Seams like getting the edl to work is a problem.