xt-3

Color Grading In Spectachrome Part 2 – Working With The Fuji XT-3

January 9, 2020

Working with new cameras is always a challenge. Get an inside look at what Dan does when working with the Fuji XT-3 camera


Series

I had some great questions in the comments section on my previous Insight in this Series about working with the Fuji XT-3 camera. But it has taken me some time to restart this series, as I was learning/working Baselight and grading the amazing ‘Star Wars: Origins’ fan film. It was a huge project and I left a longer break than intended. For the next little while, my plan is to alternate between this project and my Baselight series on ‘Origins’, to keep both series moving forward. Onward to the Fuji XT-3!


Day 9: 24 Insights In 24 Days – 2020 New Year Marathon!

Part 2: Answering Your Top Question – How Is The XT-3?

After working with so many camera formats I’ve accidentally developed a checklist of things I do when I first see new footage. I always like to check:

  • How does the log curve respond? Do we have a nice roll-off in the highlight and shadows?
  • How does the saturation respond at max and min values so I can see if I need to keep an eye on certain colors?
  • Are there any compression artifacts I need to be worried about?

In This Video Insight We Take A Look At:

  • What Is F-Log And How Do I Work With It?
  • Using F-Log Luts / Colour Space Transforms To Normalise Your Footage
  • Adding Grain As A Matte In Resolve
  • How I Like To Set Up My ACES pipeline in a non-RCM, non-ACESĀ  Resolve project?

Questions Please!

I’m always extra excited to hear comments on these Insights, as I can make sure to cover any questions in the next part.

-Dan

Member Content

Sorry... the rest of this content is for members only. You'll need to login or Join Now to continue (we hope you do!).

Need more information about our memberships? Click to learn more.

Membership options
Member Login

Are you using our app? For the best experience, please login using the app's launch screen


Comments

Homepage Forums Color Grading In Spectachrome Part 2 – Working With The Fuji XT-3


  • Jason Bowdach
    Guest

    Happy to see part 2 for this series. Also, thrilled to see that the XT-3 isn’t too bad at compression artifacts. Forgot if you mentioned this in Part one but was this captured on an external recorder (like a Ninja V) or internally in camera using H264h265.

    Do you find that cineon ever restricts your dynamic range? I love that workflow but I’ve heard that cineon is obsolete due to it being limited to ~12 stops and we’ve gone beyond that now with RED & Alexa cameras. I know the Fuji is still within the DR of cineon but curious about your thoughts for the high-end cameras as well. Look forward to Part 3!


  • Aaron H
    Guest

    I also love using ACES in this same way! I prefer to convert my LogC into ACEScct with an ACES transform node (within a DaVinci YRGB timeline), then do all my grading after that ACEScct node (as opposed to using an ACEScct project), and then I use another ACES transform node to go from ACEScct to Rec709. However, I’ve found that this method isn’t 100% consistent with a true ACEScct project for some reason. Any idea why? Like, if I grab a still of all the nodes that are in between the two ACES Transform nodes (the IDT and the ODT), and apply those same nodes on the same clip within a true ACEScct project, then the grade ends up quite a bit different, even if I have the same Rec709 ODT. The math is a bit different for some reason, which is odd to me. Because shouldn’t the two grades be the same if all the operations are being done in ACEScct?


  • Dan Moran
    Guest

    Interesting! On my first tests I only made sure that my transforms were giving an identical result as ACEScct project. I’ll test out the nodes and let you know if I also have the same issue. Which version of resolve are you running?


  • Jason B
    Guest

    Quick Question about this method as you showed it on the video, because I was tinkering with it when conforming a C200 source short film. In this instance of your video, why do you ignore Input Color Space and Output Color Space of your CST node and focus only on gamma? In my case, changing input and output color spaces to match source (Canon cinema gamut to Alexa) brought the saturation to a really good starting point. In addition, you turn the Source Gamma into Log C, but don’t change the ACES input transform of the ACES transform Node to anything (I think this might be because ACEScct is so similar to LogC?). It is strange to me that the transform is ACEScct to ACEScct. Obviously with Canon, I could probably do everything with just the ACES Transform node as well but was experimenting with the CST node before the ACES node as set out here in case I come across certain codecs or need to export things for VFX.

    I chickened out because I had a client coming early next day so defaulted to use the standard RCM methods. Even though I really liked the starting point of the resulting color transforms with this method more than RCM, I didn’t want my naivete of the way these color sciences interact to bind me with a client in the room (plus I am a lot more used to how my controls on the surface react working in 709 timelines than Log).


  • Xavi Julia
    Guest

    Yeah that’s weird, I’d love to know why!

Log in to reply.

1,000+ Tutorials to Explore

Get full access to our entire library of over 1,100+ color tutorials for an entire week!


Start Your Test Drive!
Loading...