LOG Test

Jon R. · Jan 27, 2015

A very not special flight, but I wanted to film something in LOG to test out in post. Bright golden hour sun versus dark shadows. I feel like the dynamic range holds up pretty well! As usual, please ignore the muddy/soft look of Youtube compression.

By the way, it was 25˚F with winds gusting to 15mph. Pretty darn steady!

The Editor · Jan 27, 2015

Now play with that footage in DaVinci Resolve and you'll really see a difference!
I'm spoilt... I get to play every day

...... https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davinciresolve/color

Jon R. · Jan 27, 2015

This actually was lightly processed in Resolve

Good stuff!

AerialJerseyDevil · Mar 6, 2015

flyingclint · Mar 6, 2015

I've been contemplating trying out shooting in Log. What did you do exactly with the
Processing to the footage and did you find the footage to be noisier in log than with the none mode???

Jon R. · Mar 7, 2015

flyingclint said:
I've been contemplating trying out shooting in Log. What did you do exactly with the
Processing to the footage and did you find the footage to be noisier in log than with the none mode???

In Resolve I applied a preliminary color balance mainly using scopes to get a decent waveform (brought up blacks so none were crushed out, lowered highlights where I could from clipping, set mids around 512, and brought up saturation a bit). In a new node, I applied a LUT from my collection and warmed up the image. I don't find more noise if I lock my exposure correctly. For this test, I lock exp around the hill area.

flyingclint · Mar 7, 2015

Cool! Thanks for the info on your grading. I use different LUTS as well as red giant magic bullet looks! Gonna shoot some LOG footage this weekend and run some grading tests. BTW, was your footage shot in 1080, or 4K???

Jon R. · Mar 7, 2015

flyingclint said:
Cool! Thanks for the info on your grading. I use different LUTS as well as red giant magic bullet looks! Gonna shoot some LOG footage this weekend and run some grading tests. BTW, was your footage shot in 1080, or 4K???

LUTs can provide a nice starting point for your grade! I always shoot in 4k to get that extra resolution

sdjackaerial · Mar 7, 2015

Yeah, if you want a lot of latitude in post, you really should be shooting in LOG mode.
I paid a very well spent $50 for this set of LUTS:

http://neumannfilms.net/product/dji-inspire-1-luts/

After I load them (in Premiere), I come back with the three-way color corrector and drop the saturation down to adjust for the LUT's rich over-saturation, and also punch the mids back up.
The LUTS came with some recommended settings to make them really sing. It's made a real difference for me. They are:

MANUAL EXPOSURE IN ADVANCED MODE
EXPOSING AT -0.3 EV PRODUCES THE BEST RESULTS
4K/30p
SHUTTER SPEED: 60/ISO 100
FORMAT: MP4
LOG PROFILE
SHARPNESS: -1, CONTRAST: -3, SATURATION: -3
COLOR: FLAT

flyingclint · Mar 8, 2015

sdjackaerial said:
Yeah, if you want a lot of latitude in post, you really should be shooting in LOG mode.
I paid a very well spent $50 for this set of LUTS:

http://neumannfilms.net/product/dji-inspire-1-luts/

After I load them (in Premiere), I come back with the three-way color corrector and drop the saturation down to adjust for the LUT's rich over-saturation, and also punch the mids back up.
The LUTS came with some recommended settings to make them really sing. It's made a real difference for me. They are:

MANUAL EXPOSURE IN ADVANCED MODE
EXPOSING AT -0.3 EV PRODUCES THE BEST RESULTS
4K/30p
SHUTTER SPEED: 60/ISO 100
FORMAT: MP4
LOG PROFILE
SHARPNESS: -1, CONTRAST: -3, SATURATION: -3
COLOR: FLAT

Thanks for sharing your settings. I'm new to the I1 camera and still testing it out and finding my settings. How did you manually adjust the EV? For some reason when I pull up the advanced shooting, I only have control over ISO and shutter speed, but it won't let me adjust the EV right there in that side screen. Also, how did you adjust sharpness, contrast and saturation when you have selected LOG mode? I don't see those adjustments? Thanks! I'm a Proffesional cinematographer mostly working on Cannon camera platforms, but the I1 isn't exactly intuitive on some settings. I also don't like that I don't have iris control! Without extra ND filters, it's hard to get the right exposure while still keeping the shutter speed double to the frame right with ISO all the way down on a sunny bright day!

The Editor · Mar 8, 2015

flyingclint said:
I also don't like that I don't have iris control!

That's because the Inspire camera doesn' t have an iris

sdjackaerial · Mar 8, 2015

flyingclint said:
Thanks for sharing your settings. I'm new to the I1 camera and still testing it out and finding my settings. How did you manually adjust the EV? For some reason when I pull up the advanced shooting, I only have control over ISO and shutter speed, but it won't let me adjust the EV right there in that side screen. Also, how did you adjust sharpness, contrast and saturation when you have selected LOG mode? I don't see those adjustments? Thanks! I'm a Proffesional cinematographer mostly working on Cannon camera platforms, but the I1 isn't exactly intuitive on some settings. I also don't like that I don't have iris control! Without extra ND filters, it's hard to get the right exposure while still keeping the shutter speed double to the frame right with ISO all the way down on a sunny bright day!

Hey flyingclint--glad I can help--even a little.

Like you, I'm a professional editor/motion graphics designer/cinematographer using (mostly) Canon platforms. Ya, the Inspire has a fixed 2.8 iris, so we have to compensate for iris adjustments in other ways. When I read the settings from those LUTS I got from Neuman Films, I saw that he recommended that the shutter speed should be set at 60, and said: ya right---how? On the beach? LOL. Just yesterday at the beach in LaJolla (San Diego), the lowest shutter I could work with to not have everything completely blown out was 400.
So-----I'm trying to track down a variable ND filter that we can work with (ie: mm size, weight, thread pitch) and when I do I will post about it immediately.
As for what you are asking about the manual control of EV--this is what I see it as--and I'd love to be corrected if I'm missing something: you can't "directly" control EV. It shows a result of other adjustments. ie: what you are achieving with your various settings of ISO and shutter. When I spin the shutter dial (upper right dial on the controller) or adjust the shutter in the app, I see the EV adjust in the app. Make sense? You adjust EV by adjusting other things. Please correct me if you learn otherwise.
Ultimately I am working to get my shutter to 60 all the time. In a perfect world (haha), I'd keep my shutter at 60, and adjust a variable ND as needed before takeoff. If I got up in the sky and wanted it different, I'd be fine with adjusting my shutter to 100 or so, and if I wanted it lower I'd have to land to adjust the ND. Not a big deal when you need to get the right shot the way you want it.

flyingclint · Mar 8, 2015

The Editor said:
That's because the Inspire camera doesn' t have an iris

I know, that's my point!

flyingclint · Mar 8, 2015

sdjackaerial said:
Hey flyingclint--glad I can help--even a little.
Like you, I'm a professional editor/motion graphics designer/cinematographer using (mostly) Canon platforms. Ya, the Inspire has a fixed 2.8 iris, so we have to compensate for iris adjustments in other ways. When I read the settings from those LUTS I got from Neuman Films, I saw that he recommended that the shutter speed should be set at 60, and said: ya right---how? On the beach? LOL. Just yesterday at the beach in LaJolla (San Diego), the lowest shutter I could work with to not have everything completely blown out was 400.
So-----I'm trying to track down a variable ND filter that we can work with (ie: mm size, weight, thread pitch) and when I do I will post about it immediately.
As for what you are asking about the manual control of EV--this is what I see it as--and I'd love to be corrected if I'm missing something: you can't "directly" control EV. It shows a result of other adjustments. ie: what you are achieving with your various settings of ISO and shutter. When I spin the shutter dial (upper right dial on the controller) or adjust the shutter in the app, I see the EV adjust in the app. Make sense? You adjust EV by adjusting other things. Please correct me if you learn otherwise.
Ultimately I am working to get my shutter to 60 all the time. In a perfect world (haha), I'd keep my shutter at 60, and adjust a variable ND as needed before takeoff. If I got up in the sky and wanted it different, I'd be fine with adjusting my shutter to 100 or so, and if I wanted it lower I'd have to land to adjust the ND. Not a big deal when you need to get the right shot the way you want it.

Thanks for your specifics! Good info to go on! I'll be interested to see some good ND filters to use on these cameras...!
On another note, what production house if any do you work for and what is your primary style of work that you do?