Daniel Rheaume

Hello! I have been using an ipad as an additional reference check for a consumer display. I've seen that this is fairly common, but what I've never heard anyone talk about is how to setup the ipad for best results. Specifically, in regards to things like keeping Trutone on or off, and most importantly, what brightness setting to keep the ipad at. I have been keeping the brightness at around 50%, but now I'm wondering if it would be a better reference to let it do it's auto-brightness adjustments to more accurately reflect what might be displaying on a consumer screen. Any thoughts on this? I didn't see a previous answer, but sorry if this has been asked before! Thanks! -Daniel

Nicolas, Thanks for the reply! That is encouraging. Where did you see the announcement? I've tried to find it but have been unable. Best, -Daniel

Hello! I was just curious if there are current plans for new content this year, or anything else to look forward to? I absolutely loved the Look Development course, but just noticed that it dropped in August of last year! Sheesh, time flies! The last insider tip seems to have been back in June as well. It's been a bit quiet in here for a while, so thought I'd reach out and ask! Best, -Daniel

Bruno! Yes, I've been through that course and loved it! Of course, there is so much to learn from it that it is indeed probably time for me to revisit it and watch that lesson again in particular! Keidrych, Thanks for your reply! Very much agreed. I do have a whole lot of random shots that I have been using to confirm I'm liking where a look is going. The Isabella chart has simply been my "gold standard" - since it's always the same, I can compare it to other looks I've created to see how it's different or the same in that particular chart. But I usually use it to get things looking ballpark, and then refine on a broad range of material. Thanks for your replies and input!

Hello! I've just spent the last hour or so in a Google deep dive trying to get an answer to this question, and I'm stumped! In a nutshell, I want to familiarize myself with the way different popular motion picture film stocks (like 250D, or 500T, etc...) look and render colors I thought would be easy enough to find some example images of a test chart or color checker shot on a given film stock....to no success! I've been scraping around on youtube, searching google images, and scouring the Kodak website. There are plenty of images shot on a stock, but virtually nothing that was done in a repeatable or analytical manner. I realize there are a lot of variables with celluloid, so I'm not looking for anything super precise, but I was hoping to find something that at least gave me some broad strokes to work with in understanding which direction a stock likes to take colors, or how the contrast/DR looks on a grayscale step ramp. And while I could just go watch clips shot on a specific stock, that doesn't give me much idea what was done in the grade or was inherent to the stock. Is anyone around here aware of a place to find these kind of resources? Does Kodak not have any test chart images available? Hopeful that someone out there has found something! Thanks!

Seems silly to reply to my own comment, but in case anyone else has been wondering the same things I am, I just came across this comment on a NoFilmSchool post about using gray cards - "This honestly changes based on IRE scales of the camera. If your shooting C-log the middle gray may reside somewhere between 33-35 IRE for middle grey and it can be perfectly exposed. Same with SONY s-log 2; it is meant to be exposed at about 32 IRE for middle grey according to manufacturers , but tends to look better at 55-65 IRE on an 18% grey card." So it sounds like the Isabella chart is probably sitting exactly where the Arri team intended it to sit, as is.

Hello! I was hoping someone could help shed some light on using the Arri Isabela test chart for me - I've downloaded and have been using the logC Arri Isabela test shot to have a consistent reference when I'm trying to build my looks, specifically in creating contrast curves. The assumption I previously had taken was that this shot was "ready to go" as far as exposure being in the "correct" place and all that jazz. Anyhow, listening to the Masters of Color podcast, I think it was Ian Vertovec who was mentioning how he keeps a neutral 18%gray on his show LUTS. So that got me paying attention to the little gray card in the bottom right of the Isabela test chart - and it looks as though the card is a bit underexposed? In log, it sits at about 35%. In Arri's R.709 Isabela test chart it sits around 27%. Bringing the logC version to 42% on waveform took a significant boost in the offset (11 points in R,G, and B). So my question is - was this chart intended to be have exposure adjusted and color chips brought in line with the vectorscope targets, or did Arri intend for the gray card to sit at the luminance level that it does because skin tones are properly exposed here? Sorry for the muddled question! Still really trying to get the hang of the best way to use a test chart consistently! Thanks in advance for your help! -Daniel

This was one of the most insightful and fun classes yet! So many of the uncertainties about order of operations and workflow that I had were finally made clear in this course. Bravo! Hope to see more like this, and I'm still very much interested in a course about show luts!

@Bruno Mansi Thanks for your input, Bruno. That is very helpful and makes sense to me! Cheers, -Daniel

@Bruno Mansi Thanks for sharing that information! Interesting, and still perplexing! In my example above then.... If I bring in log footage (scene referred according to above) and do a cst into log c, I assume that would just be a scene ref to scene ref transform, since they are both log? So I should have ootf boxes unchecked? Conversely, when I go from log c to r.709 at my final output cst, that would be scene referred to display referred? So then forward ootf should be enabled? Is that how you would understand it as well?

Hello! Not to hijack this thread, but I too am greatly confused. Checked the manual. Checked youtube. Checked Google. Checked Lift Gamma Gain forum. No one seems to have a good, simple answer about how to approach this. So far the best I can find is that when going from scene referred to display referred - use Forward OOTF. Conversely, when going from display referred to scene referred - use Inverse OOTF. Okay that makes some sense...but here is where I'm personally getting confused... If I am doing my own color management in a Davinci YRGB project with a Log C timeline color space (ie, display referred I thought?), I am usually adding a CST to convert my log footage into an Arri color space (alexa/log c) for compatibility with power grades that expect that. Then, my final node is a CST that converts from Arri color space to Rec.709 for target display. So I don't see where I would be converting from display to scene or scene to display, and yet Resolve enables the OOTF checkmark when I select those transform settings. Is Resolve making an incorrect assumption, or am I not understanding when the conversion from display to scene is happening in my workflow? Insight into this confusion is much appreciated! Thanks! -Daniel

Hello! I work as a commercial DP in a small creative agency. Because of our size (and my love for the coloring process!) I have become our "colorist". These masterclasses on Lowepost have been one of the best things I've ever seen to help me improve and learn new techniques. That being said, I'm finding a huge information gap, which leads me to this suggestion for a new Masterclass! Most of the current classes show the colorist working on their shots in the clip node tree. But reading between the lines, they seem to often grade through a show LUT or Look placed in the timeline node tree, for instance. I would love to see what goes into one of those show looks/luts - ie, how are they made? If the colorists are doing a lot of work in the clip node tree, what elements of the look go into that show lut or look timeline node tree? A film emulation seems to be one common thing, but are there other things that belong in that group, or perhaps things that definitely should not go into there? A new masterclass to address this colorist show LUT/Look "black box" would be incredible! Also, if anyone happens to have ever seen a good interview or tutorial on this very subject, please respond! I am very keen to learn this!! Thanks for your consideration! -Daniel

Just my own experience here, so take with a grain of salt... B&H is one of the more reputable companies I know of here in the USA. I've purchased many things from them - cine cameras, lenses, you name it. I have never had a problem and they always ship super fast. That being said, my understanding is that both B&H, as well as Adorama are NYC based businesses that seem to operate around Orthodox Jewish holidays. It's usually not a problem, but these holidays are sometimes long and they don't process orders (even if you place a web order) during the Jewish holiday. Usually when this happens they have a giant banner on the top of the webpage stating that they will not be processing orders, along with a date when operations resume. When I need something during those dates, I usually look at other online retailers like filmtools.com.

Thank you, Stefano! That does make sense that the curve will be very much driven by the source material. I guess I just was curious if anyone had any specific curves that achieve a particular effect - for instance, the raised black point, but crushed shadow look that is a very popular curve with photographers! haha! In any case, matching reference material does always seem to yield the best results for me, so thanks for that reminder and tip!

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone has come across a good resource that shows various types of common tone curves side by side? I have been using a basic s-curve in most of my grades, but would love to see examples of other types of curves that work well, for example, in Kevin's masterclass where he lifts the black point and drops the white point to their nearest default anchors for a film print look. Thanks for your input!

Hey Amada! Thanks for your reply and directing me to those Fusion lessons - I had watched them before posting, but I still don't see how to recreate John's tool in Baselight. He seems to have access to multiple frequencies that he can blur or sharpen locally. Following the lessons above, you either get the Resolve Beauty tool, which is a bit of a black box as far as what frequencies it's working on, etc... The custom frequency separation tool he describes building in fusion also seems to basically only separate the frequencies into high and low, and then controls the re-combining of them. But I don't see any way to isolate frequency ranges as John's tool in Baselight does. Maybe I'm missing something? Thanks again!

Loved this class! I was definitely interested in how to achieve a similar effect to what John does with Baselight's Texture Equalizer tool in Resolve, as John mentions it is possible (albeit with a large node tree). I have seen tutorials online about frequency separation with resolve, but all seem to essentially break the frequencies into low/high, whereas John's tool seems to have many different frequencies he can isolate. Is there anyone with knowledge to share on how to build a tool like this in Resolve/Fusion? Many thanks again for this great course!

@Abby Bader Totally missed that! Thanks so much!

So excited for this course - any update on release date?

Hi Lowepost! I've loved this course and learned an incredible amount! I do have one question regarding the lesson on grit and texture - The instructor seems to be using a logC timeline color space for his projects, which I've embraced. When he goes into detail about using the LAB color space on a node for sharpening, when I try on my own footage I get an extreme highlight shift (gray blotchy highlights) from performing the LAB conversion. If I have my timeline colorspace set to rec709, I don't get these issues. What is the instructor doing differently, and why is it working for him? Thanks! Here is an example of what I'm seeing ....This is the ungraded log clip. Here is the log footage with a single LAB conversion node, no adjustments. Here is a version with an r709 output display at end of node tree. No other nodes. And here is the LAB conversion node with no adjustments and no other nodes, prior to the display output node.

Oh snap! Can't wait for the masterclass! The professional color grading series was amazing, but I'm anxious to learn more! Glad I recently renewed my subscription 👍