Hands On the Tangent Element and Premiere Pro CC

Working with both a Ripple and an Elements panel at the moment. Yea, SO much more functionality than Lumetri before or without the panels. And I’m well aware of the impending demise of Sg as you mention. Which leaves me with this puzzler among many others: if I need to just quickly expand the blue channel say to neutralize a clip … mostly pull the bottom down to maybe 3 and slightly tug the top up, not uncommon a task. Really fast and easy in Sg. So perhaps use the Lumetri Curves panel/tools, right?

That seems to be somewhat problematic and to get the same result I’m used to I need to mix curves and a couple other things. Lumetri curves don’t always do what I expect.

So … basic shot matching … well, if you’ve got suggestions let us have them. I’m trying all sorts of things.

RNH – Thanks for sharing your thoughts. For individual channel manipulation… yes, Curves are the way to go with Lumetri. Even in Resolve, I often grab curves simply to expand (or even out) imbalances between color channels. Fast, simple… with the downside that you need to go to the mouse.

Been working the last few days with a lot of the masking within Lumetri … and of course, to do multiple masks meaning multiple “instances” of Lumetri, which means … losing surface control on all but whichever is the last instance of Lumetri. Frustrating as you really can do a lot more with it than it seems like at first, but … speed of operation (going to the mouse so much) and shot-matching are such bugaboos. And I’ve found the best way to get my over-brights from say my GH3 (which ALWAYS has overbrights according to PrPro) to grade without clipping in that odd way … is to drop an RGB Curves effect in before Lumetri, sort of neutralize there, then my whole Lumetri panel is available. Use HDR to accomplish the same thing … about half the tools go buh-bye, including LUT slots.

Still looking at the R program, of course … but then … sending out & bringing back are such a pain for the smaller projects. The light at the end of the tunnel … doesn’t seem to be coming my way very fast!

Of course, if you talk to the R team, they’ll tell you to edit those smaller projects in there. I’ve found that using Tint / Temp controls are great for balancing… do Temp to set Red and Blue, then Tint to set the Green channel against Red / Blue. Fast, accurate.

And I agree, when it comes to overshoots, the only way to really pull them down is with the curves. And once you’re in Curves, it’s trivial to deal with color imbalances.

RE: Multiple Instances – Feel free to hound them so we can simply tab between Lumetri instances in the Lumetri panel. I agree, it’s one major sticking point right now.

Still – I think the Element is a fantastic addition to PrPro if you want to really polish up your work without eating extra time.

Have been trying for some time now to get this to work despite the fact that I have only the Tk, Kb, and Bt panels. Tried uninstalling / restarting / reinstalling hub software, but premiere 2015.3 only seems to honor the Bt panel. I am able to select “tangent” in premiere’s control surface settings. Still getting “USB state: not configured” message on the Tk and Kb panels, despite trying custom mapping in Hub software. Any ideas?

My guess? You’re using an underpowered USB hub. Make sure your hub is rated for 2.0 amps of power. Many of the less expensive hubs are 1.1 amps and they don’t offer enough power to fully drive the panels. The good thing is, the 2 amp hubs can be had for around $30.

The other possibility… you need to download and install the most recent version of the Tangent Hub drivers.

If neither works, email Tangent directly. They’ll help you get it working.

Thanks Patrick! I am using the motherboard’s native USB 3.0 ports, and reinstalled the latest Tangent Hub drivers. Guess I will go ahead and contact Tangent directly.

Tangent’s docs specifically say computer powered USB ports won’t do the job. They specifically recommend a 2.0 amp powered hub to manage the power draw of those panels, FYI. If it’s something else, let us know – so in the future I can help others who might have the same problem.

Now that just seems odd to me—the panels work great as configured, in resolve. Seems like a software problem if they just aren’t working in speedgrade. But I’ll give my powered USB hub a shot!

Both the Element and Ripple panels are a ‘fantastic addition’ to PrPro. What you .. and so many other colorists … have said about the intuitive feel one develops working multiple wheels & knobs simultaneously is SO true. You can get “to” things that are vastly more difficult to achieve one control at a time.

And I’ve only spent a little time in ‘editing’ mode with the Elements panel, but see that could be a massive help once re-mapped for Editing panel/workspace personal preferences to do editing …