colour correction for 5d mark 2 film look

RAJENDRA BISWAS · October 31, 2012

Hi guys,I am from India.I have always been a admirer of film and good cinematographers,I have always seen they present a very artistic work to the public and colouring is one of them.colour correction might not be needed every time but it certainly can help the mood and feelings of particular scene.I have yet to shoot on film(arri 2c). I saw a couple of videos on vimeo on 5d mark 2 and theres lot of pro movies out there.I noticed most of them do get help from a pro colourist. I have been fascinated in programs like lustre and colour finesse.can anybody guide me that what I should do after shooting stage 24fps in 5dmark 2 and editing.Is it possible to do coour correction on your own are the softwares helpful in learning?

Phil Rhodes · November 1, 2012

You can certainly do useful colour correction work in desktop software. Most of the major edit systems, including Final Cut and Premiere, offer basic colour correction. You can get a free version of Da Vinci Resolve from Blackmagic's site, which is more than enough to get you started.

Regarding what you should actually do with it - well, that's a matter of what sort of result you want. This is a completely subjective area in which personal taste is paramount, although people who do it for a living will generally have a taste that doesn't offend too many people.

The most important thing is to remember that the final look of your pictures involves all aspects of production, from production design, costume, lighting, filtration, choice of lens and camera, and then colour correction. Grading cannot make something look good if there was nothing good about it to begin with.

P

RAJENDRA BISWAS · November 1, 2012

You can certainly do useful colour correction work in desktop software. Most of the major edit systems, including Final Cut and Premiere, offer basic colour correction. You can get a free version of Da Vinci Resolve from Blackmagic's site, which is more than enough to get you started.

Regarding what you should actually do with it - well, that's a matter of what sort of result you want. This is a completely subjective area in which personal taste is paramount, although people who do it for a living will generally have a taste that doesn't offend too many people.

The most important thing is to remember that the final look of your pictures involves all aspects of production, from production design, costume, lighting, filtration, choice of lens and camera, and then colour correction. Grading cannot make something look good if there was nothing good about it to begin with.

P

Thanks phil,I will try to get some program. whats your opinion on colour finesse?

Phil Rhodes · November 2, 2012

Don't know. I haven't used it seriously.

RAJENDRA BISWAS · November 5, 2012

thanks... will either try after effects or davinci

Max Gutfeld · November 8, 2012

I've seen good results using using 5DtoRGB (http://rarevision.com/5dtorgb/) to transcode 5D footage. As I recall, you get a lot more detail in shadows and highlights compared to using the normal quicktime plugin. You also just get more color info in general. The more color info you have, the more you can push the correction.

RAJENDRA BISWAS · November 9, 2012

Hi max,I am fine with 5d mark 2 raw video footage...

Vincenzo Condorelli AIC · November 10, 2012

if you want the so-called "film look", then you should shoot film.

and that does not mean that film look is the only acceptable look that can be created nowadays.

Max Gutfeld · November 11, 2012

That's fine Rajendra. 5D footage looks pretty good on it's own. 5DtoRGB will give you more lattitude for manipulating the color of your footage. My understanding is that the 5D does not record 'true' raw files in raw mode (not uncompressed 4:4:4 color), but actual still adds compression in-camera. When you bring the footage into an editing program, such as Final Cut, that program uses a quicktime plugin to transcode those files, and you can loose some color information along the way (because the plugin does not do the best job). Any pro colorist will want the maximum amount of color information in the file, because that gives them the most lattitude to do their work.

Also, film has a much greater dynamic range than the 5D, so getting some of those extra highlight and shadow details will help you acheive a more 'filmic' look.

RAJENDRA BISWAS · November 15, 2012

if you want the so-called "film look", then you should shoot film.

and that does not mean that film look is the only acceptable look that can be created nowadays.

your right,film is beautiful....

RAJENDRA BISWAS · November 15, 2012

That's fine Rajendra. 5D footage looks pretty good on it's own. 5DtoRGB will give you more lattitude for manipulating the color of your footage. My understanding is that the 5D does not record 'true' raw files in raw mode (not uncompressed 4:4:4 color), but actual still adds compression in-camera. When you bring the footage into an editing program, such as Final Cut, that program uses a quicktime plugin to transcode those files, and you can loose some color information along the way (because the plugin does not do the best job). Any pro colorist will want the maximum amount of color information in the file, because that gives them the most lattitude to do their work.

Also, film has a much greater dynamic range than the 5D, so getting some of those extra highlight and shadow details will help you acheive a more 'filmic' look.

is there any video of before/after 5d to RGB?