{"id":26975,"date":"2012-08-23T01:02:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T01:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philipbloom.net\/?p=26975"},"modified":"2012-08-24T19:08:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T19:08:53","slug":"grading-the-blackmagic-cinema-camera-dngs-in-photoshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philipbloom.net\/blog\/grading-the-blackmagic-cinema-camera-dngs-in-photoshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading the Blackmagic Cinema Camera DNG’s in Photoshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have my Blackmagic camera now for evaluation.\u00a0Unfortunately\u00a0when I say I have it…it’s at home in London and I am in LA just wrapped on a shoot. I wont be doing a review straight away, I\u00a0don’t\u00a0want to rush it but if you follow me on twitter and facebook will do mini updates… James Miller my right hand man has been playing with the files and has written the below for you…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today I downloaded some RAW test footage from the Blackmagic Cinema Camera (BMCC) shot by John Brawley. John has has allowed 5, 12bit clips in Cinema DNG format to be downloaded.<\/p>\n

I won’t go into detail about the Camera as it is covered here:
\n http:\/\/philipbloom.net2012\/04\/16\/blackmagic<\/a>
\nand also in greater detail at http:\/\/www.blackmagicdesign.com\/products\/blackmagiccinemacamera\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Blackmagic Cinema Camera – Image from\u00a0http:\/\/www.blackmagicdesign.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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Here is the link to download the DNG shots. Hosted by Blackmagic Design – http:\/\/www.blackmagicdesign.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Shot 1: http:\/\/video.blackmagicdesign.com\/Shot_1.zip<\/a> (141 frames)<\/p>\n

Shot 2: http:\/\/video.blackmagicdesign.com\/Shot_2.zip<\/a> (109 frames)<\/p>\n

Shot 3: http:\/\/video.blackmagicdesign.com\/Shot_3.zip<\/a> (69 frames)<\/p>\n

Shot 4: http:\/\/video.blackmagicdesign.com\/Shot_4.zip<\/a> (131 frames)<\/p>\n

Shot 5: http:\/\/video.blackmagicdesign.com\/Shot_5.zip<\/a> (101 frames)<\/p>\n

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Below are a few frames with grading and the original DNG.<\/p>\n

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Graded shot 1<\/p>\n

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Ungraded RAW DNG (converted to jpeg for this post)<\/p>\n

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Graded shot 2<\/p>\n

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Ungraded RAW DNG (converted to jpeg for this post)<\/p>\n

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Graded shot 3<\/p>\n

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Ungraded RAW DNG (converted to jpeg for this post)<\/p>\n

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Graded shot 4<\/p>\n

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Ungraded RAW DNG (converted to jpeg for this post) – The shot above and the graded version above really show the power of using a RAW workflow – the white balance can be shifted away from daylight.<\/p>\n

These DNG’s are single frame images, so in this case there are 24 files per second. The simplest, most powerful way to view or grade these DNG files is to use the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in (included in Lightroom and Photoshop). You will find you have the full range of RAW processing power to hand.<\/p>\n

Latest version of Adobe Camera RAW is 7.1 –\u00a0http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/support\/downloads\/detail.jsp?ftpID=5390<\/a><\/p>\n

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Screen grabs from Adobe Camera RAW v7.1<\/p>\n

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The original DNG files are 2,400 x 1,350 pixels (2.5k).<\/p>\n

Of course if you have DaVinci Resolve<\/a> you could just process them straight away. But I like to use Photoshop’s Camera RAW to see how much they can be pushed. You can use any Adobe application that can handle Adobe Camera RAW, like Lightroom.<\/p>\n

I upscaled the DNG files to 4k in Adobe Camera RAW (really makes the difference using the RAW plugin to do this). Using Adobe Camera RAW you can adjust colour temperature, shadows, highlights, sharpness etc, the list is endless. You will see very soon just how powerful these RAW DNG files are. After I have a colour grade I am happy with for that clip sequence, I then save a colour preset and then go back and open all the DNG files as a batch, applying the colour preset I have saved. You have a dynamic range of 13 stops to play with here, so have fun.<\/p>\n

You can then render these out to TIFF or JPEG (on max quality). These 4k still files are then assembled as a sequence in Adobe Premiere like you do with time-lapse set (open as sequence).<\/p>\n

I also added sharpness and, on a couple of clips, a slight amount of grain to cover the enlargement, this too was in Camera RAW.<\/p>\n

I output from Adobe Premiere as 4k (4096 x 2304) H.264, ProRes master. Knowing the downscale will really help on transcoding to 1080p. You can also upload 4k H.264 to YouTube now.<\/p>\n

Try your hand at grading the RAW footage. Here’s my first effort:
\nBlackmagic Cinema Camera – BMCC \u00a0https:\/\/vimeo.com\/48025934<\/a><\/p>\n