The Wielage Edition – Sunday Color Grading Newsletter

You are reading the 600th edition of this Newsletter!

I skipped it last week due to workload. As I prepped and gathered my sources for review for this Edition, Newsletter Reporter-At-Large Marc Wielage did some heavy lifting for me.

Thanks Marc for sending me all those links the past 3 weeks!

In fact, if any of you ever find something you think belongs in this Newsletter, forward it to me. Please give me a quick sentence about why you find the link interesting.

I try my best to attribute every article shared with me. In the few instances where multiple people send the same link, the first one gets the attribution.

Change of subject…

A few years ago I delivered a Dolby Vision concert to Disney+ but didn’t have a reference display to keep offering HDR grading in-house. Fast forward to today, and with a Flanders Scientific XMP-310 now in my shop – this week started my new professional journey of committing full-time to color grading in HDR and using the Dolby Vision (DV) workflow for SDR deliverables.

If a client wants to hire me, the initial pass will be in HDR. Period. Even if the deliverable is SDR.

Having just gotten approval on the first episode of a 10-ep series (delivering to PBS in standard dynamic range), here’s my first thought on this commitment:

Grading HDR is WAY more fun and satisfying. Working SDR trims – not so much, as I know what’s missing from the ‘flatter’ image.

Compared to grading this series in previous seasons, I’ve traded a 9-hour struggle session working in SDR for a much more satisfying 9-hour grading session in HDR, followed by a 60-minute SDR struggle session.

That’s a trade-off I am more than happy to make, even if it makes my day just a little bit longer. I will have much more to share on this topic in the future.

That’s all for me now.

Happy Grading!

I’ll see you next Sunday.

Sincerely,

Pat Inhofer
Chief Photon Wrangler, Publisher
MixingLight.com