Last week I presented a Webinar in conjunction with Visual Impact on how to shoot ProRes Raw with Sony’s FS5 and FS7. The Webinar was recorded, so if you missed it you can now watch it online. It’s almost 2 hours long and contains what I hope is a lot of useful information including what you need, exposure and how to get the footage in to FCP-X. I tried to structure the FCP-X part presentation in such a way that those that don’t normally use FCP-X (like me) will be able to get started quickly and understand what is going on under the hood.
Since the webinar it has been brought to my attention by Felipe Baez (thanks Felipe) that it is possible to add a LUT after the color panel and grading tools by adding the “custom LUT” effect to your clip. To do this you will set the raw input conversion to S-log3. Then add your color correction, then add the Custom LUT effect.
A big thank you to Visual Impact for making this possible, do check them out!
Here is the link to the video of the webinar:
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Your webinar was super helpful! Thank you.
Regarding adding a LUT further downstream in the FCPX pipeline, I’ve tried that and it’s nice to be able to adjust color before it hits the LUT, but… this means your timelines will now have to render. That slows things down dramatically (on my 2013 MacBook Pro, anyway).
The amazing thing about ProRes raw in FCPX is that you can apply any LUT you want WITHOUT rendering. But only if it’s applied at decode. So choosing the correct LUT becomes very important.
And that’s why I like your Venice look LUTs so much – they come in half-stop increments, so I can apply a different LUT to each shot depending on how it’s exposed, and apply that right at the beginning to get things looking fantastic from the start. It’s an incredibly efficient workflow.
First off all I like to thank you for all your work that you share on the internet. I own an FS7 and have learned a lot reading your articles and looking at the videos. After seeing your proress raw webinar I recently bought an FS7 Extension unit and the shogun inferno. Beside proress raw & fcpx I have also try cinema dng & adobe premiere 2018, looks amazing. Although I overexpose by 1,5 stops the original dng files that come out of the shogun are very dark. What I like you to ask: is this normal? or I am doing somthing wrong? Of course I can change the exposure in premiere on the raw file to + 1 (or 1,5) stops but I don’t understand why I must do that. Normally I must bring down the exposure in post and now, for dng raw, I must bring the exposure up. I really appreciate your reply,
This could be a couple of things. If you are using EI to shift the exposure then this dat is included in the raw metadata and Premiere may be correcting for this in the transform. It may be because the wrong input transform is being applied by Premiere. You can change the source settings for cDNG clips via the master tab in the effects control panel. IMHO You really need to use proper grading software to get a decent result from cDNG raw. Using cDNG raw in Premiere is like having a Ferrari and only fitting it with bicycle tyres.
Yes, I am using EI to shift the exposure (IE800/white@90% -709/800 monitor lut).
Just set the IE to 2000 without changing the exposure. No change in Premiere. Without any special setttings I imported the same footage in Davinci Resolve 15 and it looks also very dark. If I change the source exposure setting on the master tab in Premiere, for example to + 1.5, I get a neat picture.
Hi Alister. Thanks so much for all the great information you’re providing. I am a little bit confused about setting the camera according to the brightness reading of a white sheet of paper: how do you get best result if there’s sun, shade and sky in the image? Where do you hold the paper? There’s a huge difference in the reading when you have the sun reflection on the white paper. Sorry – basic question. Thanks Georg
That’s the skill of the camera operator! Normally you put the piece of paper, grey card etc wherever the important part of the scene is. If your shooting a person, you put it close to their face. Don’t expose for the sky, expose for the mid-range, that’s what’s normally the most important bit to get right.
Tried watching today Alister, I don’t think the video is online anymore?
Hi Alister
Is this webinar still available? The link looks invalid on my device.
If it’s not I have a very silly question about fs5/shogun inferno for you I was hoping may be covered in the video
Try a differnt browser. The file is still there.
Hi Alister. I’m renting a Sony FS5 M2 to see if I’d like to buy it. I’m trying to watch your video regarding ProRes Raw but there’s a “media error”. Would you mind pointing me to where I can watch the video? Thank you in advance Alister.
Try a different browser. I’m not sure why some people are unable to watch the video.
Alistair – greatly appreciate all the info!Purchased your LUT package yesterday.
I’ve been trying to view the recording of your July Webinar about Pro-Res on the FS5 but it will not play via the link provided. Was that a short term link, or is there anywhere else I can view this?
Thanks
Hi Alister. Re-watched the webinar for a third time — always something new to be picked up. I shoot prores raw and am wondering if your workflow in Final Cut is still the same, meaning, you still leave the Camera Lut at the default of Sony S-Log3? I shoot FS5M2 in PP7. Reason I ask is that I’ve typically changed FCPX “Camera Lut” to Sony S-Log2 but Sony S-Log3 seems to be less noisy in the shadows. I do overexpose about 1 1/3 stop. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
On another note, I hope you and everyone else out there get through the Corona virus “challenge” as well as possible. Thank you for all that you do Alister.