HD For Indies

OK, folks, now is the time when you get to annihilate my server bandwidth.

: )

The following are 16 bit, 4096x2048 (yes that's 2:1 aspect ratio, 16:9 mode isn't enabled yet, in a coupla weeks) TIFF files output from Offhollywood's source Redcode RAW files. Pliny tinkered with the optimal settings to get out of Red's software and codec, and here's the results. We agreed that putting them up in the rawest, as-shot format was the best decision - so YES they look flat, but YES that is a good thing - that means you have maximum lattitude in post. If you download one/some/all of these, open them up in Photoshop and click the Auto button in Levels and it'll POP - then boost the saturation if you want to, and you'll have a visually pleasing image. Why haven't I done this for you? Because people like Stu would send me polite but strident emails about how incorrect this is to do, and I would heartily concur. So these aren't pretty as is, but are GREAT to MAKE pretty the way you want them to be, because they have good lattitude to play with.

I'm also putting up these particular images to be instructive as to how to optimally shoot with the Red One - it is a bit of a different beast. Talking to a DP about how to shoot with this camera, he started with working with a light meter and calculating exposures and all those kinds of things. That can certainly work. The thing I'm really looking forward to, when I work on set with folks with my own in the future, is to be able to fire up the histogram and just interactively doodle with lighting, filters, and iris until I get a Happy Histogram - one that has a nice bell shaped curve across the majority of the middle of the histogram - not scrunched up on one side of the other. If you're working in daylight or with shiny items, it is inevitable that you'll have a spike of some size at the far right of the curve where pure white is, unless you're REALLY stopped down or ND'd and polarized out the wazoo. In any case, if you're going to go to the trouble to pull down these 48MB files, open them up in Photoshop and take a good look to see what does and doesn't work well. You will, of course, always have exceptions for particular shots (dark and moody Godfather chiaroscuro bunches to the left, the movie Sunshine bunches to the right at the end, for instance).

Here's an example that works quite well:



Right click here and Download Linked File to download the 16 bit, 4K resolution, 48 MB sized TIFF file. YES, it will take a while to download, so be patient and make sure you want it.

Clicking on the above PICTURE will open a slightly larger 1K-ish JPEG preview image, so no great excitement there. Use the text link above to the get full 4K image. You can open it up in Photoshop, click command-L to call up Levels, and you'll see a nicely shaped curve that tapers out shy of the black and white points, with a spike near the right for the chrome highlights. Click the Auto button in Levels and this shot will pop quite nicely.

Here's another example that works quite well:



Right click here and Download Linked File to download the 16 bit, 4K resolution, 48 MB sized TIFF file.

Note all the reflections not just on the car, but also within the headlight reflectors as well. Note all the detail in the turn signal indicators as well. Wow. Pop an auto-levels on this one to make it pop, or get tweaky and do channel by channel curves - whatever works for you. Or, if you have a Pablo or other heavy iron grading system, go to town on it there. Or convert it to DPX (I _almost_ went with DPX files since they are smaller, but there's a teensie bit of detail it doesn't include that TIFFs do, so I figured might as well do it right), downsample to 2K and give Color a go at it (or whatever other system you have).

I like this one for the same reason - nice curve, uses most of the available range without clipping too hard. And where it does clip, it handles it nicely. I particularly like the smooth rolloff on the black door/window frame between the front and back seat passenger glass. Not the hard highlights, but the gradient down the vertical piece:



Right click here and Download Linked File to download the 16 bit, 4K resolution, 48 MB sized TIFF file.

Here's an example of a shot that can still work if graded properly, but doesn't have as much room to play - it was one of our earlier tests in the day:



This one looks a bit milkier to the naked eye. While you can auto-levels it and get nice results, check out the histogram - it is a bit more scrunched up towards the middle, with not as much towards the right. There's a lot of usable range left on the table.

Right click here and Download Linked File to download the 16 bit, 4K resolution, 48 MB sized TIFF file.

I like this one for the dynamic, flyin' sideways action of it:



Right click here and Download Linked File to download the 16 bit, 4K resolution, 48 MB sized TIFF file.

While there is a clipped highlight in the right side headlight mirrors, it is the exception - everything else is WAY below that brightness value. And it shows in the histogram - there's a small lonely spike over on the far right, and then a looooooong gap until you hit other values. Again, it could have been shot a bit differently for better results, but it is still workable if you want a contrasty final result.

OK folks - have at it!!!

So download one of these, play with it, grade it as you'd like. Come back and pull down more (or all of'em) if you like, and we'll see how beat up my server gets at Dreamhost.

: )

Just for kicks - you can put graded frames up at 1K or 2K res up on the Offhollywood Red Camera Test Shoot - Reduser.net thread Mark started about their test shoot.

Have fun!

(I sure am!)

-mike

Labels: Red