Thoughts and Tips...

[Jannard]

This is a new thread designed to make it easier to find new or critical information and tips for a better RED experience (hopefully). Responses won't be allowed.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

3 important things to do to get the best image from a RED camera are:

1. Expose properly. "Stay inside the goal posts".
With the new "goal posts" in-camera and the addition of FLUT Color Science, you now have a TON of exposure tools. USE them. There is no excuse to miss exposure and cut short the latitude available to you. If you do not clip RAW, you will not clip RED footage at any ISO.

2. Set White Balance BEFORE converting to RGB space for grading.
Color science is based around White Balance. If you lock in a twisted (rotated) color matrix to RGB space for grading, there are no tools to un-twist the color. If you set 5600 and the real WB is 5000, you will only be off a little bit and probably not notice. But if you mistakenly set 3200 and the real WB you want to achieve is 7000, you will NEVER get there with any grading tool in RGB space. You will need to go back and re-white balance your R3D and try again. People who complain about RED's color usually find out that they have made this tactical error. The easiest thing to do is hit AWB in camera and/or shoot a white or grey card in the scene and hit it with the WB tool in REDCINE-X or other app that uses the SDK.

3. ALWAYS do a full resolution debayer output for grading and finished work. Half-res ONLY for offline editing.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

RED spinning Drives are a "no go" at concerts and on helicopters. The sound levels and/or vibration will cause dropped frames. For long takes use RED Ram or 16GB-64GB CF cards only.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

RESOLUTION.

RED 4K-RAW cameras have 4096 horizontal pixels. Since RAW is a Bayer pattern, the actual measured resolution is less. You can use 80% to figure out exactly what the final measured resolution will be. For example, 4K-RAW will end up as roughly 3.2K (4096 x 80% = 3276) measured resolution. 5K RAW (EPIC) will actually measure 4K (5120 x 80% = 4096).

4K delivery.

We believe that 4K delivery (4096 x 2160) is the future of cinema, both in theaters and in the home. 4K is roughly 430% more resolution than 1080P. We also believe that it is not a good idea to acquire in 1080P or 2K for a 4K delivery.

A 4K film scan has measured resolution of about 2.8K for fast film (ISO 500) and about 3.2K for slow film (ISO 100). We do believe that 3K of measured resolution will scale to a 4K delivery with no problems. 3K of measured resolution is 256% greater than 1080P (3072 x 1728 = 5308416 vs. 1920 x 1080 = 2073600)

We don't believe that we are alone in this thinking. Sony, Christie, Barco, Meridian, JVC and Epson have 4K projectors (the newest Sony T Model is incredible). Panasonic has just introduced their 152" 4K plasma. Samsung, Sony and Sharp have all shown 4K displays. Now all they need is RED 4K (RED Ray) to deliver the content.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

RED Ray has been re-named "RED 4K". We have successfully shown RED 4K delivery at 10 mbits/sec. We now prefer to deliver at 15 mbits/sec because we can do a one-button encode at that data rate and include audio.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

RED LCD. You need to use the arrows on the top of the LCD to gain up to maximum brightness... then tick down 4 clicks to get proper brightness that matches the rest of the system.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Why you need this.

You don't really. But it is nice to know that you can configure an EPIC or Scarlet just about any way you can think of... there are millions of ways to set up your system. You just have to open up your mind.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

 

[Jannard]

FLUT Color Science. A Graeme Nattress special. The beauty of this is that you don't need to learn anything. It is behind the scenes magic. If you don't clip RAW (with help from the new "goal posts")... you won't clip at any ISO. The highlight control is incredible. Included in this program is an updated color science, for both Mysterium and Mysterium-X sensors. Since EVERYTHING you have shot on RED is REDCODE RAW... you can use this new science in it's entirety on old footage. Select REDcolor in camera (Default actually) and REDgamma is automatically selected. These selections will show up when you open the footage in REDCINE-X. If it is old footage, change your color space and gamma to these choices. Then adjust (if necessary) using the FLUT Control to "center-up" your image in the histogram. We have added Lift, Gamma, Gain to REDCINE-X for initial grading along with the existing controls.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

The wonderful thing about REDCODE RAW is that when color science improves... you can go back and old footage becomes NEW. This is an example. This was shot two years ago. The 1st one is Camera RGB and REC 709. The 2nd one is REDcolor and REDgamma. No other changes...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

REDCINE-X

OK... here is an EXPERIMENTAL build for the RED faithful. Do NOT consider this an official build. Use and enjoy at your peril.

IMPORTANT! Set REDcolor and the color space and REDgamma as the gamma.

BTW... I would check this thread often if I were you...

REDCINE-X

* Beta REDCINE-X, Build 221 for Mac OSX : http://red.cachefly.net/redcinex/REDCINE-X_build_221_mac.zip

* Beta REDLINE, Build 194 for Mac OSX : http://red.cachefly.net/redcinex/REDline_build_194_mac.zip

Windows build follows later this week.

Please see release notes and/or readme files for further details.

ALWAYS READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE DOWNLOADED INSTALLATION FILES BEFORE PROCEEDING.

WARNING: AS THESE ARE BETA BUILDS, THEY ARE RECOMMENDED FOR PREVIEW AND TESTING PURPOSES ONLY. THEY ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE ON COMMERCIAL PRODUCTIONS.

Change list:

New Features:
- Redesigned User Interface
- Frame Store added. Recall saved images with keys 1,2,3 Save images to the Frame Store with Option+1, Option+2, Option+3
- Enable crop for a clip and a resizable crop box will appear in the video window.
- Clip Settings Panel added
- Look Presets, Look, LGG, Curve, Framing Tool, and Framing Presets can now all be found in the clip settings panel.
- Snapshots can now use export presets
- Browser/Bin/Export have been combined and completely collapsable.
- Manual Audio Sync Tool has been added.
- BWF Audio syncing improvements
- Batch Export list has been reordered for better usability.
- Euphonix MC Color support added for Mac.
- RGB Curves added
- Ability to select a single channel R,G,B for viewing in histogram added.
- QuickTime reference file (re)generation with all image processing settings (requires new REDCODE QuickTime codec v4.1 BETA which can be downloaded here : http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?p=584169#post584169)

Bug Fixes:
- Avid Exports to case sensitive drives fixed
- Avid ALE now respects clip in/out points.
- Speed improvements.
- RMD saving improved.
- Project saving/loading improved.
- Exporting of large timelines has been fixed.
- Video playback lockup bugs fixed.
- Delayed/Jerky start on playback fixed.
- Tangent Wave panel jog now moves video player scrub bar.

Edit: added the new QuickTime reference file creation feature and link to the REDCODE QuickTime codec 4.1 beta release
______________________________________________________

http://red.cachefly.net/redcinex/REDCINE-X_build_183_mac.zip (posted 3/26/10)

http://red.cachefly.net/redcinex/REDCINE-X_build_183_win.zip (posted 3/26/10)

ROCKETCINE-X
http://red.cachefly.net/redcinex/ROCKETcineX1740.zip (posted 2/8/2010)

Manual http://red.cachefly.net/redcinex/REDCINE-X_Build_158.pdf (posted 3/5/2010)

Feedback goes here: http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=40103

Jim

 

[Jannard]

TIPS...


CAMERA FIRMWARE
Perform frequent firmware upgrades. We are improving builds on a regular basis. Take advantage of that. If you experience anything outside of normal camera operation, re-load firmware and email log files to RED for evaluation. Do a black shading calibration after EVERY firmware upgrade.


HEAT
If you're not recording audio, then set the fans to "Hot" to avoid ever even getting close to over heating. Don't tape off/block the ports on the side of the camera since heat escapes out of those ports. If fans get noisy, replace them. Professional cameras need maintenance.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

RED Rocket...

Once you use it, you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

REDundead.

REDundead is a command line tool that recovers R3D files from drives and CF cards that have been formatted to the file system that has been corrupted. It does a great job of recovering the R3D files unless the drive was erased and then recorded onto again... but it might recover the remaining files.

Filesystem corruption usually happens when a drive is unplugged from the computer when the filesystem is being written to.

REDundead has saved many a project. Thank Deanan.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

REDcolor vs. Camera RGB.

Camera RGB is the native color coming off the sensor. REDcolor is corrected Camera RGB matched to industry standards. The punchline is... use REDcolor.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

MYTHS.

"RED doesn't do good skin tones".
Last weekend, Tony Pratt of Park Road Post showed footage from The Lovely Bones with film intercut with RED footage. All the scenes were "skin tone scenes". He challenged the audience to tell which was which. Between the presentations, he confided that whenever he actually gets an answer to that question, most get it wrong.

So if Park Road Post can get great skin tones from Build 15 and Build 16 footage, why can't others? Here are some possible answers:

1. You committed to RGB space for grading without a proper white balance first. If you are off a significant amount in WB, it will make it very difficult to get back where you want. This has been discussed in Post #2 of this thread.
2. Early RED color science was not as exact as it is now, which meant that some work was necessary (as opposed to none) to get great skin tones. Today's new FLUT Color Science (see Post #11 above) makes it extremely easy to get proper color, including skin tones.

"RED footage is soft".
Sorry, nothing could be further from the truth. Peter Jackson has compared RED 4.5K-RAW footage to 65mm film as recently as one month ago. If you have actually seen projected RED 4K footage, you realize how incredible this statement is. So why do some people say this?

1. They actually didn't see RED footage but heard someone else say this.
2. They shot 4K footage and did a half-res debayer to 1080P (half-res throws away 78% of the recorded information) and did not "un-sharp mask" the RAW footage because _________ (insert another myth here).
3. They shot RED 2K footage (1/4 of the resolution) and expected it to be the same resolution as 4K.
4. They watched a bad film print.

RED 4K-RAW footage has 256% more measured resolution than a 1080P camera (assuming it actually measured the captured resolution). RED 4K-RAW footage has more measured resolution than a 4K scan of S35 film. Resolution is not something that the RED ONE is deficient at. Shoot a zone plate and see for yourself.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

White Balance.

So just how important is WB? Check out the two grabs below.

The top one's WB is from metadata (about 4200K, -6 tint) left over from a previous in camera Auto WB (I forgot to do a new one in different light). The bottom is the same clip but with a picked WB in REDCINE-X (about 5100K, -2 tint). Seemingly not a ton of difference... but look at the histogram of each. The 1st is clipped in the blue channel, the 2nd not even close. If I had exported the 1st clip to an RGB space for grading, I would never have been able to bring the clipping back in.

(Note the RED logo on Force's car)

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Mysterium-X News.

The 1st project shot on the new Mysterium-X sensor is "The Social Network", directed by David Fincher... cinematographer- Jeff Cronenweth. The movie is being shot with two RED ONE cameras modified with the new sensor upgrade. David and Jeff were kind enough to shoot "The Match" (DiCaprio) for us a week before RED Day One.

The next project to be shot with the M-X sensor (RED ONE upgrade) is "Knockout", directed by Steven Soderbergh. Shooting begins in two weeks.

Interestingly enough... Fincher is using Soderbergh's original cameras that were used to shoot "Ché 1&2", "The Informant!" and "Girlfriend Experience"... so we had to prepare new RED ONE M-X cameras for "Knockout".

The 1st round of customer M-X upgrades have begun.

Here is a reminder of what the images can look like from this sensor. This is ISO 2000 at T 1.3. No noise reduction whatsoever.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Words from Graeme...

This will get updated over time.

Regarding clipping and FLUT Color Science...

"Clipping can be a tricky subject - there's strict mathematical clipping and then there's practical clipping.

FLUT doesn't allow anything that is not actually clipped (ie 12bit value = 4095) to actually clip. They will get crushed up towards 4095, might actually reach 4094, might in extreme circumstances get quantized up to 4095, but that's it.

In practical terms, if you crush the highlights way way up, any detail left in them, assuming they are un-clipped and have detail to begin with, will get diminished, just like what happens in film's soft clip knee. The histogram and right clip meter in the histogram are "practically" oriented. There are 9437184 pixels in your 4k image, and if just a few are clipping, then the bar on the histogram that represents that will be very very short, and probably not visible, even though it does exist.

With visual display of data over such a range of values, some manner of scaling should be used to ensure you can see a reasonable representation of that data, which means unless clipping is "significant", and the white bar at the right is to help you see that, you may have small amounts of clipped image that the histogram doesn't reflect. This is perfectly correct and normal as if it works the other way, you end up vastly under-exposing the image to save those odd pixels and ruin the over-all effect.

Hope that explains the histogram monitoring methodology for you."

Graeme
__________________

 

[Jannard]

FLUT. What?

FLUT (or Floating Point LUT) is a science developed by Graeme that efficiently allows you to balance your mid-greys in the center of the histogram without worry that you're pushing highlight detail over the edge.

FLUT works to smoothly bend in any highlights that might get clipped when going to a higher ISO, working like film's smooth highlight roll-off.

As a user, you really don't need to know anything about how FLUT works... just that it should be your primary brightness control.

Jim