Sunday, October 21, 2012

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Monday, September 10, 2012

Prores Film (Log Mode) on BMCC with and Without Ultracon

Here are some Prores (FILM) Log mode samples for you from the #BMCC.

 Sunset with Ultracon 1/2
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7MFaN1VTm4mMkR0ZzRzRWxMc0k

 Sunset without Ultracon 1/2
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7MFaN1VTm4mVVluRThrdFI4S28

 Dark To Light Pan with no Iris Pull (sunset)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7MFaN1VTm4mQkwxN1A3VnJMVWM

 Enjoy!

 Try grading them and see what you come up with. Definitely try the Alexa Curve if you haven't tried that in Resolve 9 yet.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Monday, September 3, 2012

Using Raw

Raw is not meant for shooting your images underexposed and then pulling them up to find your black level.

Unless noise is what you are looking for.

Everyone tends to shoot differently, and people shoot differently in different scenarios.

When I shoot something as "black" I tend to want it to be black. If I wanted it Grey I would:

a. Put a light on it
or
b. Expose brighter

Of course this can be dangerous if you don't know where you want your mids. I don't want noise in my mids and I don't want my highlights to blow out, So I make sure the subject of interest is:
a. Lit
or
b. Lit enough that they aren't noisy - if this means opening the lens then that's what I do.
I'm not a big fan of shooting at super high ISO.

When you do that you are just telling yourself a Lie.

Because I used gain on this then I exposed it correctly.

It doesn't mean I won't underexpose and use a high iso intentionally EVER, but it does mean generally speaking.

As John Brawley said - this camera doesn't do noise reduction. It's an HONEST Camera. This is true.

LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT FIRST STEP AFTER SHOOTING YOUR SHOT IS TO MAKE SURE WHITE BALANCE IN THE RAW IMAGE IS EXACTLY WHERE YOU WANT IT. THIS IS

 !!!!!________IMPORTANT_______!!!!

The other thing is - I would rate this camera at 400 under tungsten Light, and 800 under daylight.
You won't be convinced you are exposing correctly when you aren't if you don't expect to be running at iso 800 in the dark and then LIFTING things without White Balancing first.

I took a frame that someone was VERY worried about because it showed noise in the DARK AREAS when LIFTED and showed how it should be viewed here:







Now, this not exactly a masterpiece of cinema shot, but It's not meant to be lifted. Everything in the room is black. 
Black is black. 
The carpet in front of the camera is Dark Grey. And it's not lit.
You aren't supposed to be seeing anything because I didn't lift anything.

Thoughts? Questions?

Friday, August 31, 2012

BlackMagic Cinema Camera + Pomfort LiveGrade + HDLink Pro for Live Color Correction

Here is a basic overview of the BlackMagic Cinema Camera being used with Pomfort Livegrade to affect the signal for client viewing of a Log Image.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go6kK_-tRac

For some reason the upload flickers on youtube sometimes, but it doesn't flicker on the original file... might have to reupload later.

Link to the ProRes Film Gamut File that I recorded simultaneously:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7MFaN1VTm4ma1NXOVR0VUthUG8

Link to a Davinci Resolve .DAT lut that was created in Livegrade. Based on Default Alexa Log to rec709 transform for 800ASA.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7MFaN1VTm4mY3R5bFhadlNDX3M

Link to Free Pomfort Livegrade Demo:

http://pomfort.com/livegrade/

Best,

Dan


Thursday, August 30, 2012

Today I was privileged enough to attend one of the few open Committee meetings of the ASC - the technical committee. I was surrounded by many people who have made many amazing films and amazing technical advances in our craft. It was really neat to see so many people who share my love of art and technology, and many were drawn to investigate the BMCC and I talked at length with several members who were curious about this cool new tool. Fun was had by all. Enjoy my snaps here - all taken with the Tokina 11-16. Mostly at f2.8.

Need I remind you that all of the DNG's coming out of the camera in a "normal" non-DP-lit environment look pretty heinous. Open them in the editor of your choice and enjoy tweaking them! In situations like this I like to use a lot of recovery in the highlights (like bare bulbs) bring up the fill, find a point that just touches black to your taste, and oh yeah - the first and most important thing - find a white balance point that gives you "white" where white should be.

Best!

Dan

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

More DNG's uploaded including walking Eddie in Daylight with my Wife, and a basic field of view post showing focal lengths on the 11-16mm f2.8 Tokina.






Please keep in mind that these are straight out of the camera. There is no Green/Magenta Tint Adjustment in Camera at this time, and I have tried opening the overexposed images in photoshop and Resolve and it's crazy how much you can pull back with the exposure, fill, and recovery sliders. Wow! Cool!


Eddie DNG Zip File Thanks to Google Drive:

Monday, August 27, 2012

Youtube Unboxing By Yours Truly. I also shot one with myself on camera and decided it was too lame for the internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m14NPkYp4Ms
These are the Results of Pointing the BMCC at my Dog Eddie. He's a brindle Boston Terrier and my ThunderBuddy for Life. The darker ones were shot on a 24mm f1.4 Rokinon at 800asa, F2.0 The Brighter Ones were shot at 1600asa, F2.0

Updated with Google Drive Sharing of Zip File: