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Sekhar

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Everything posted by Sekhar

  1. FYI, the Amazon mobile app (Android and iOS) lets you upload a picture and get a link to the product. They use humans for this (called "Mechanical Turk"), not software, so the results are generally good. Something worth checking out.
  2. Thanks Ebrahim, you're the first one I've seen who clearly explains why film looks the way it does.
  3. ​Isn't that what the secondary correction did? He's applying S-curve on top of that. Read last two messages.
  4. ​Seems specific to his face and scene, like he's getting the orange from a reflection. If so, you could apply a secondary correction, like below - I just moved the midtones gamma toward blue for his face in SpeedGrade.
  5. Guys, thanks so much for all the input. Here's my summary of what look like the best settings (based on input here/elsewhere and my little experiments): Sharpness: -10, I think everyone agrees with -10, default is too sharp.Gamma: DR. Definitely wider than Normal, probably best till we get a log option.Contrast: -5. Many like it. Had lowest banding (vs. 0 and -10) in my test scene. Highs can look weird in some scenes though.Smart Range+: Off. I have no idea what this does. Per the Samsung manual, it "corrects for the loss of bright detail."Master Black Level: 0. Many recommend +10, but in my testing it's just lifting the levels, so useful only when not planning on post work.Luminance Level: 0-255. Some like 16-235, but that too squishes the waveform - would help when using directly out of the camera however.Please let me know if I'm factually off base on any of these here.
  6. ​They're rolling it out, see their help entry. Currently pro members can upload and allow downloads of 4K content, but as I understand they will soon be able to get it streamed as well.
  7. ​Oh, that's good to know, thanks. Any idea what Smart Range+ does?
  8. ​How on earth did you come up with these settings? I'll experiment. DR gamma actually seems to work fine (even with Smart Range+), the problem is coming in only when I reduce contrast.
  9. Well, Vimeo is streaming 4K for sure, see these videos. And they did announce back in December that pro members will be able to upload/download 4K content. It's not entirely clear though if current pro members can see their 4K content streamed in 4K or if Vimeo is rolling it out in phases. Philip Bloom says they are getting streamed. May be some pro member here can confirm. Regardless, I'm pretty confident it's imminent. If not, hey we're down by less than $50 for the year.
  10. ​I actually happen to agree with this approach (being bold/frank). Yes, NFS has advertorials as articles, as do others actually: even DP Review with its oddball intro XC10 article and the follow-up puff-piece interview. AFAIK EOSHD was the only one going against the grain on a limb when the rest were kissing up (circa NAB time, now there are more that have come around). Please stay this way, we need a bold and independent voice in this age of megacorps and fawning reviews.
  11. ​Thanks, but looks like you're talking about how Neat increases bit depth so you can grade with more latitude without introducing banding. I'm asking about video that already has banding, like the example I gave in the link earlier - can you take a clip with banding and reduce/eliminate the banding using Neat? I don't believe it's possible because banding is not noise that Neat can eliminate. In fact, it won't even allow you to build a profile by sampling the area because it's not uniform. But if you're able to reduce banding with Neat, please do tell us how because banding is something we all have to live with, certainly when using 8 bit videos.
  12. Vimeo has a promo for their Pro subscription (which is $199/year), where they're giving away $150 in B&H gift card if you get it by 5/17. Any opinions on Vimeo and specifically Pro? I'm thinking on jumping on this, mainly to host 4K videos, I understand Vimeo is now supporting 4K streaming for their Pro members.
  13. ​True, but he does make a fair point about EOSHD not covering art related aspects of filmmaking and focusing only on gear. May be you don't want to cover art stuff, but it'd be great if Andrew/you address that suggestion directly. No Film School has a decent balance of the two, for example.
  14. Thanks, please ignore the part about not being able to change DR gamma settings. Could you comment on the other two questions please? Do you see a color shift when reducing contrast (whether in DR gamma or DR normal)? I'm getting a weird color shift at the transition between highs and mids when I reduce contrast, see attached images (both with DR gamma, but one with contrast 0 and the other with contrast -10) - see the color changes in the light pattern.What exactly does Smart Range+ do? It seems to do nothing for me. Are you using it?
  15. Guys, I was wondering if you all figured out how to extract the most DR out of NX1 for video. I did a lot of searching on the EOSHD threads, but didn't find much. Here's what I've tried so far: Set the gamma to DR - works and gives a nice enough range, but I can't change sharpness because apparently custom profiles only work with normal gammaTried normal gamma with contrast all the way down - gives a range similar to that of DR gamma, but is badly messing up the colors and also adding pretty bad banding compared to DR gammaTurned on Smart Range+ with DR gamma - doesn't seem to make any difference (I thought I noticed cleaner highs at one point but am not sure)For now, the best option seems to be to go with DR gamma and accept the sharpness at its default value. I also turned on Smart Range+ in the hope it will make a difference in the highs. Do you have a better setting? I'd really appreciate your input.
  16. New XC10 footage and more critical reviews and comments (some even from guy who shot the video) at Cinema5D and NFS.
  17. Sekhar

    Giving Up

    ​I'm not qualified to advise you on your career, but as someone who's been married for some time I can tell you this (having someone who loves and supports you) is worth more than everything else you mentioned when it comes to happiness. My suggestion is to recognize and cherish that.
  18. OK, what exactly is exciting you guys in NX1-LX that isn't appealing to you in NX1? Is it the 60 fps in 4K or the 1.5 more stops? Just curious.
  19. OP asked why we tend to have threads on tech rather than art. Tech discussions are based on fact; art discussions are based on opinion. Consequently (as this thread is already showing), art threads invariably degenerate into attacking the straw man, where even reasoned opinions are countered by making an extreme and absurd interpretation of them. If one can shoot a Star Wars movie on T2i today that competes with "Gravity," great.
  20. You may not need the latest tech to tell EVERY story, but better tech makes it easier to tell better stories. Steven Spielberg, on the role technology played in his filmmaking: "Well, my filmmaking really began with technology. It began through technology, not through telling stories, because my 8mm movie camera was the way into whatever I decided to do. Film was so slow that you were forced into a technological choice - if you wanted to create something indoors, you suddenly had to discover a bright light. So that was technology for me: going to Sears and Roebucks and buying a bunch of those floodlights you put outside to light your backyard and putting them on stands with Scotch tape, because we didn't know what gaffer tape was in those days. I had the will and the technology was the way in for me."
  21. ​I see what you mean. But the problem is we tend to evaluate based not the merit of the film but on other confounding factors like biases, preferences, and expectations. In this case, seems like you would've liked pretty much anything he'd have produced, more because you sympathized with him and had very low expectations of him. Ask yourself: if you didn't know who made it and had to hire the person as the DP for your next big feature, would you have picked him? I'm guessing not. Likewise with Ed's video IMO. I'm simplifying here, but Ed says he likes the film look, all its flaws included; so he's going to prefer anything that looks like film over anything that doesn't, ceteris paribus. And I presume he'd forgive/overlook other flaws if a piece looks all the filmic qualities, I'd think. Probably Cinegain also likes the film look and he was willing to take the effort to find a pattern and meaning in the rapid cutting. Nothing wrong, but my point is the whole thing is subjective. I think at least some of the positive responses here of Ed's video are colored by their knowledge and respect of Ed for his skills. Like very few will admit they hated 2001: A Space Odyssey, even if they did. Say you found Ed's video at random without knowing who shot it and there were NO GORGEOUS MODELS in it, but just some average looking guys. Would you have had the same positive feelings about it? If yes, your reaction is a genuine appreciation of the core skills; if not, you're letting your biases take over.
  22. It's not my video, just something I found Googling for banding. I tried with the video available through the download button.
  23. Not sure what to make of this video, but it shows how music can completely change how we interpret the same clip. What did you do with the pan at 0:19?
  24. I just tried on a clip with lot of banding (downloaded from https://vimeo.com/57128145 - it's not my video, but it does have a lot of banding we can test with) and unfortunately Neat Video didn't seem to help. If you're able to fix it, would you mind giving us a quick tut on how to do it? It'd be a great help!
  25. ​Hey, don't make this out to be an American thing. I've never seen these kinds of antics in a BTS before (with young or old folks), must be something specific to these guys. At least they seem to be enjoying themselves.
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