ntblowz

People seem to be obsessed with nit-picking the colour science of cameras, but indicate they don't colour grade for one reason or another.
To me, even a few simple adjustments can improve the image so much more than the differences in colour science between manufacturers.  In fact, the image out of camera is like a plain sponge cake straight out of the oven - it's nice and the quality matters but it's far from the final result.
Colour grading is also talked about as being super complicated, and it can be, but it doesn't have to be.  Simple grades can still be really powerful.
Here are some examples from online, to show how much of a nice image is camera colour science and how much is colour grading.
ARRI  LOG:

With ARRIs LUT:

Grade:

The above grade was done using only white balance, the lift / gamma / gain controls, a vignette, log wheels, in that order.
To look at skin tones, the holy grail of camera colour science - here's a before and after....   before:

Then on top of the previous look, here's additional treatments to give it more of a film look.

These additional adjustments were: Gain (to lower exposure), white balance, saturation (lowered), darken shadows, in that order.
Which was inspired by this frame from Sicario:

Here's the video showing the whole grade: https://youtu.be/8GkcqEA72QM
 
Next example - SOOC:

with 709 conversion:

Grade:

Video link: https://youtu.be/fRDjEB6ryyQ
 
Next one - with 709 conversion:

Grade:

Video: https://youtu.be/OmBBYHMi_ek
 
Next one - SOOC:

With 709 conversion: 

Grade:

Video: https://youtu.be/UNW_8jcGJqw
 
There are literally more examples online to count, but I just focused on the more neutral looking colour grades, as the people doing dirty film grades probably don't care about skin tone minutia when they're going to pummel the image with Dehancer etc.
So, what's the TLDR?
Even half-a-dozen simple steps applied in addition to the manufacturers LUT can make a huge difference It's about making small changes to make the image look slightly nicer, and they add up The reason that fancy cameras look incredible is because the colourist takes the great work done on set and expands on it How do I get started?
Look at the image and work out what tool might improve it (if you have no idea, just try the basic ones) Wiggle whatever tool back and forth, deliberately going too far one way and too far the other way, then find the best spot Compare the adjustment you just make to see if it makes the image better or worse, if it's better then keep it, otherwise undo
(sometimes a really good adjustment will look completely natural and the 'before' will look like something is being applied to the image and is damaging it) Go to 1. Repeat until you can't find anything that makes the image look better. If you're using another image to inspire your look, then for step 1, just look at both images and work out what looks different about yours, and try and fix it.  Is it brighter? Darker?  More contrasty?  A different colour?  More or less saturated?  Adding a vignette to lighten your subject or darken the other areas of the frame is a good trick.  Looking to find anything in the frame that's distracting and de-emphasising it is really useful too - even just lowering the brightness or saturation can really stop it from fighting for attention.
Even by the time you've adjusted these basic tools, you'll be well ahead.  

Maybe that isn't the wildest and craziest idea ever then. The Nikon V1 is about US$130-ish (Nikon V2 can be found for only marginally more cost, but V3 would be crazy expensive), and the  Nikkor 10mm f/2.8 is about US$70-ish, a slightly pricey combo for something so old with a dead mount, but not too bad either. 
20 minute recording limit though.
But it does have that bonkers 320 x 120, 1200 fps slow motion option.
 
I do quite like the idea of getting the Sony RX0 (either mk1 or mk2), as they both have a mic input. Maybe in a couple more years the RX0mk1 will have dropped down to something super cheap. 
Or maybe if one my plans for a 360VR production become viable, I'll end up buying a handful of RX0 camera bodies for that purpose. 
Then people will be asking me if I'm happy to see them or if that is just a big cellphone in my pants?
Watched a video last night that was saying something quite similar:
"...why did you bring me in today? What was it about my qualifications that made you attracted to my candidacy?"
 

Yeah, I have and use one of those:

Very true. As someone who has fielded 5000+ enquiries and booked 800+ of them over 20+ years, I can identify with the process.
Provided your work is of a standard and potential clients can find you, it very much comes down to; price, first point of contact, followed by connection.
I have a question on all my contracts which asks why they specifically chose me and the result is a pretty consistent:
"Love your work, exactly what we are looking for", (happens prior to any form of contact or me even being aware of their existence, ie, them finding my on-line or social portfolios).
"Speed of response". If I am still awake and an enquiry comes in, I will at the very least personally acknowledge receipt and interest and a promise to get back to them at a specific time such as "first thing tomorrow AM". I know some use auto-response software, but I never do and keep it personal at all times.
"Clarity of information including pricing provided". When you reach the point someone asks, 'how much?", simply tell them how much or more often than not, you will lose them at that point.
"Personality, - we felt we clicked with you straight away". Often the job will go to the person/company they click with first, or at least gives you a massive advantage going forward.
The above are not necessarily the exact words or phrases used, but more or less exactly what they are saying every time.
And in case you think 800 from 5000 is only 16%, "so what about the 84% you lost?!", there are many reasons but no excuses including;
Price. Cost is the biggest one by far. The vast majority enquire (or inquire if they are American) often with little to no idea what my type of services might cost. For most, it is above their at the time projected budget and that's fine.
Style. Extremely rare. They are unlikely to even make contact in the first place unless they liked your shit.
Not a good fit. That one is a hard one for me as in it's very difficult for me to put off, never mind say no to a potential client, but it happens occasionally.
Simply not available in the first place. That is around 20-25% of all enquiries.
Finally, I don't like the sound of their job so turn it away at their first point of contact. Currently, over 50% of enquiries immediately go politely in the bin.
My enquiry to booking ratio of the actual jobs I want is somewhere between 75-90% so I think quite good actually.
As Kye said, if this kind of info helps anyone, particularly noobs trying to get into business, good.
Quite simply, showcase what you want to be booked for. Keep clarity a priority. Don't put obstacles in the way for clients you'd like to book. Always be honest (as you can be) and certainly not deceptive or desperate and accept you can't book them all!

just an interesting sidenote: basically every belgian dp agrees that the standard arri r709 conversion is way too tame. thats why they always shoot with a custom lut (usually per project)

So you can make NZ's own "The Creator" or "The Mandalorian"? 😉 
Keen to lend in a hand in whatever way on one of these little test shoots of that, while you figure it out, to be part of it. Mixed production interests me too. 

In 2024, I will be releasing five new products.
Two for live production, one for virtual production and two for music production.
In 2025, I will be having a series of long naps and returning to capturing images.

I do wonder if they'd slowed down a little, added a bit more grip / VFX manpower support , say produced it for $12M instead, if they could have then slashed down post production costs to say $40M. 
As I think the general concept of how they went about making this was a worthwhile idea to trial out, to make it with smaller nimble crews that go out and seek the most amazing locations. And then put that money saved into postproduction VFX instead. (but perhaps spending $80M on VFX was a step too far??)
 
Have a video out now about the audio recorder that I used on this shoot (as what recorder is being used is of course far more important than what camera body is being used! Let's discuss this instead, the fantastic Zaxcom Maxx, perfect for little mini shoots where you want a very lightweight configuration.... just like The Creator??):
 

Ha! I jinxed myself, a couple of days later I found myself working on a short film being shot with a P4K:

Was a micro sized crew, myself plus two others (although, quite a lot of actors!). Was quite a chill day today, very enjoyable.
 

Now that my 2023 season (weddings mainly) is drawing to a close; all shoots in the bag, just 4-5 jobs still to edit and finish up, I am thinking about next year.
I’m always thinking about ‘next year’ actually because one eye on the future and all that, but as is so often the case, thoughts and plans over the course of a season begin to stack up, the season ends and I’m exhausted/run out of enthusiasm to see all of those plans through.
Year on year.
But 2024 is going to be different…
First of all, I am not carrying the fatigue off 33 jobs as I was at the end of last year with a more controlled 21 from this and a strict cap of 15-20 going forward.
The two Covid years of ‘20/‘21 caused another kind of fatigue, a weariness due to lack of development, due to lack of work and funds; just 6 from what should have been 60 jobs over that period.
So after 4 very inconsistent years job-wise; 1+5+33+21 and some kit and work practices that I am less than enthused about, I am not only making, but will be sticking to some fairly fundamental changes that I will be putting in place over the Winter.
The first of these is volume of workload with 15 jobs as my minimum and perhaps ‘fully booked’ target but with the capacity to go as high as 20 depending on my level of interest. That is the point I have already hit actually…
The second is tightening up what or rather who, I take on. Most of my clients and jobs are exactly what I was looking for but could still be tighter, so turning up the screws in that dept. 
Third, revising my approach to capture, ie, kit. My lighting is nailed down as is my audio but cameras and lenses less so and I have been frustrated with all the combos I have been using since…well since forever actually. The hybrid nature of my work requires not only a specific skill set, but a specific set of tools. Fortunately, those do now exist with various brands so it has become a question of who and what rather than hoping the next gen will deliver. All of the current main players deliver, it’s just which will suit me best. (It’s a Nikon/Lumix mash up for me BTW going forward).
Fourth, workflow/edit. From the photo side of things, not unhappy and my only plans there are to refine a specific look over this Winter based on what will now be Nikon rather than Lumix files. On the video side, less than happy. Not unhappy, just not quite where I want things to be and whilst I could do an @kye and ‘learn colour grading you fool!’, it does not interest me enough beyond a point. I’m not even sure I’ll stick with log and may go back to shooting a profile because whilst it might not have the ultimate scope, there’s a lot more consistency (*for me*) with that approach. I love editing pics, but hate grading video! Possibly if I shot raw video, I’d enjoy it more and that is an option I am at least going to explore…
So in a nutshell:
1. Take on less work.
2. Tighten up who I work with.
3. Brand switch including more compact set up/less tools.
4. Revise/refine output.
5. (Bonus Ball) All of the above combined = greater enjoyment = greater job satisfaction = greater output = leads to more of the same.
How about you? What plans do you have? Any direction changes you might be making?

I've seen quite a few videos from the BMCC6K now, and they all seem to shoot and edit in 3:2, which I find quite strange....   CAN doesn't mean SHOULD!
This one is an 8K YT upload:
 

Last weekend was shocking. Absolute pure evil and terror. A brutal loss of life in Israel.
It is understandable they are out for revenge, but it should be Hamas and terrorist groups that get wiped off the face of the earth. Not women and kids.
A lot of binary views out there, with people taking sides, that's the nature of war I suppose.
This isn't my war.
And it isn't even many of theirs. There are so many civilians in that part of the world who want nothing to do with Hamas and just want to live peacefully in their home without the threat of Israeli bombs falling and occupation.
Surely we can all agree on this - that women and children should be spared.
The Israeli government doesn't seem to want to do that.
Many of the young Israeli victims at the music festival who were slaughtered in the prime of their lives also sympathised with the NORMAL people in Gaza who are NOT terrorists. Most people are not in nodding-dog mode USA-government style total adoration of the Israeli government and their politics.
I also think it is darkly ironic that so many on the extreme socialist left of Western politics and even many in the LGBTQ community seem to want to think of Hamas as heroic freedom fighters. Actually if these people ever came face to face in reality with Hamas they would be the FIRST in line to get beheaded.
I despise the actions of both Hamas and the Israeli government. Palestinian civilians as mere collateral, the occupation of their land, it is all so wrong.
Before wiping out terorism in Gaza there should have been a MASSIVE humanitarian effort to evacuate the civilian women & children population by sea.
By going ahead with a ground-invasion possibly as early as this weekend, is the Israeli government comfortable to be seen in the eyes of the world to be committing genocide? Does it want the death of nearly 2 million innocent people on their hands and to lose the support of the world's public?
Yes they are entitled to destroy Hamas and defend themselves so that what happened last weekend will not be repeated.
No, they cannot be allowed to take senseless revenge on Palestinians by bombing kids in their beds, it is the stuff of war crimes.
Hopefully people in a binary view, blindly supporting ONE SIDE against the other will be able to come to terms with the fact that no binary argument is ever valid in war.
As for the West, we seem to be standing by without any plan whatsoever to get the civilian population out of Gaza to safety. We are sending the navy, warships, no rescue boats, no proper safe corridor into another country, nothing.
Of course it would be a big logistical effort, with massive number of security checks, but even a few large ships could save thousands of lives, even if you just take children or those under the age of 18 and their mothers, sisters, brothers.
Leave the Hamas hardcore fanatics to fight, and get the kids out of there...

Will it overheat in 4k120?

Will it overheat in 4k120?

Finally, a proper test... Let's try this again @gt3rs 🙂
 
To be honest, the differences between the SDR (processed) and Apple Log modes is quite staggering.

That looks very nice. I recently used the S5IIx with Dehancer in a tutorial video I made. Was shooting this with the Lumix 24-105mm f4, 4k log long gop. This is just a tutorial but the end of the video has some longer sample footage. I was struggling quite a bit with autofocus, but the end results were fine - couldn't get the camera to detect her face the majority of the time, it would just track the body most of the time which is ok but not ideal. I don't know if I was doing something wrong but need to test AF again
 

24p movies with this one will be very expensive. 🙂

I’m pretty happy with my setup. Bought a MagSafe magnet off of amazon for $12, glued it to the T5, and then found a short usb-c 20Gbps for $7. Super secure and inconspicuous.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/the-creator-ai-director-gareth-edwards-interview-1234908016/
 
He used 10% budget for the actual shoot, and rest goes to post.
So 8 million for the actual production and 72 million to vfx/sound/design.
 

There's an interesting IBIS comparison including the XH2, R7 and S5II and several micro4/3 cameras here: 
 

Interesting ITW of Oren Soffer here.

I recently asked for book recommendations to learn about human vision and was given a link to a free PDF.
It is incredible.
I'm only a quarter of the way through, but I'm absolutely blown away.  The human vision system looks like it was designed by committee and then re-imagined by Dali and Picasso, while on drugs.  It is a wonder we can see anything at all!
Did you know that the rods and cones (which detect light) are BEHIND a bunch of nerves and nerve cells and blood vessels, so the light has to go through a bunch of crap before you even sense it?   
The book is actually a mix of how the human vision system works and also what we have done with the tech to try and align to it, so it's a nice blend of biology and tech.  It's also very readable and tries to be as non-technical as possible.  This is a rare find compared to other books that are hugely tech heavy.
Take the red pill with me...  download it here: https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/support/documents/colourbook/colourbook.php (download it by clicking on the box next to the file size).

From petapixel it more like 10-15% better