How I Color Grade 16mm and Digital Footage

[@EpicLightMedia]

This was fantastic!! I learned a lot!

[@lewispotts]

🙏

[@kylegherman]

For the skateboard clip you should do most of the grading before the node with the LUT. That way you preserve all the highlight and shadow detail from the log image

[@tomaszbejnarowicz]

so if you using perhaps phantom luts, you should first do grade and then put it on?

[@kylegherman]

@@tomaszbejnarowicz put the LUT on the last node and do any corrections or grading on separate nodes before the LUT

[@tomaszbejnarowicz]

@@kylegherman wow i didnt know. But I've seen some tutorials from people like qazi and he never mentioned that, why is that?

[@kidcoma1340]

@@tomaszbejnarowicz lol Quazi is a tool, you shouldn't watch his videos if you ever plan to do serious colorgrading with an effective workflow (other than making a single frame look good with an overcomplicated node structure)

[@tomaszbejnarowicz]

@@kidcoma1340 could you tell me why?

[@HHKFilms1]

Excellent stuff Lewis. One note, the film print LUTs supplied in DaVinci are designed to use with cineon log. Meaning you can use them not only with the flat cineon scans of your 16mm, but also when applying to digital footage, you can use color space transform to change Red Log or Log C or whatever into cineon gamma for a more accurate transform. Love the stuff, Keep it up man extremely useful content you produce .

[@shebbe]

REDLogFilm is actually the same response curve as Cineon Film Log so it's fine to have the footage set to that. The only other thing is that REDWideGamut is much larger than Rec.709 making the image very non-saturated if not converted. The DaVinci filmlooks expect Rec.709 colorspace with Cineon Log gamma so for better results it's better to convert RWG to Rec.709 first. I would do it with a CST node before the LUT instead of on the RED raw settings so you have some control for gamut mapping if your footage has out of Rec.709 gamut colors. You could also increase saturation before the LUT but it will be less accurate.

[@alex-botton]

Another banger dude. Love your work as always. As an Aussie living in Canada for the last 2 1/2 yrs, 'old mate punching a dart' teleports me back home instantly!!

[@flipnap2112]

I love that most of the film stock are almost tailor made to be graded, and most look like LOG out of the gate (obviously not technically, but you know). I mean, wouldve KILLED to be able to color grade like this on a computer in the 80s. We spent YEARS trying to fine tune the baths and looking for that "next" revision of the chemistry to really give us the flexibility. We truly live in a great world! I think the tech hit us so hard and so fast we all lost our frame of reference. its nice to see people getting back to the basics, but not be a snob purist about it. these are just tools. hopefully the "reckless" days of abandon are over

[@RickyJDee]

You are legit one of my favorite KZbin personalities 🤣🤣 Fantastic work man, I’m impressed by very video

[@desmondmacnamara6068]

Greatest intro statement truth.

[@victorfilm_]

This channel is a gem! Thx for sharing all your knowledge, Lewis!

[@sebastianfalckstigsby5010]

Everytime you upload is a treat.

[@arobindoroy3903]

Man I love that last music you put in this video.

[@nic_dre]

This video is really helpful as I am finally moving to davinci resolve. Side note, every "crank that" made me pause so I could catch my breath 😂

[@lawagyei]

Lewis, thank you so much for this! Would love to see another video of just grading 16mm. I've searched everywhere and this is the only video that showed up. Thanks a ton!

[@oniriscope]

That intro tho… Cinematography & color grading skills are simply stunning! Bravo! Super helpful content since it’s really hard to find color grading tutorial for film thanks a tone for that!

[@flochfitness]

My favorite cinematography 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@filmbyakiljoefield]

Your style is excellent, I think I just found my best DP KZbinr! Keep up the excellent work bro!

[@rodrigolev1]

cool that your still publishing !!! ur channel is important

[@dillondfernando]

i could watch your videos for hours, keep up the amazing content

[@NaveedKhan-ft2qh]

Epic light media told me to come here amazing content 🥰

[@naeemashaari]

cool, can't wait for your next video

[@vladislavbalce3031]

i see u like small sharp grain with no softness. just subscribed!

[@artsvanberg]

So fun intro and it reminded me of the humor and grainydays and also the music😂 great tutorial and interesting to see what your approach is to grading film, it looks so fun as well😍😄

[@controversylab]

You’re beyond talented dude

[@DanielGomez-rb5bu]

LOVE LOVE LOVE your videos... seriously. bell notifications are on

[@ashley.caldwelldp]

"Old mate punchin' a dart". Oh man it is satisfying having this content created by a fellow Aussie. Always great videos that are easy to follow along with, to the point and packed with helpful info and insights. Keep up the awesome work mate.

[@crs2crs2]

Thanks for posting, great video!

[@JackSarcone]

gooood lord this is the best channel. I wanna work with you!

[@LouisKobetz]

Lewis, love you videos man! Keep up the excellent work!

[@mozzfather]

So glad I stumpled across your channel! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and techniques! There's very few cinematographers on youtube and your work is stellar! Greetings from germany!

[@derekjcooper]

Definitely sublime yet again Lewis - top shelf.

[@majidshanaa5812]

Thanks for making this! great stuff. very helpful

[@mcgreevs24]

Love watching your process. Thanks again for sharing!

[@thebrownskinwithcurlyhair.]

Need more 16mm videos !!! love your eye +!

[@Souchoroukof]

Your grading skills are out of this world. thanks for sharing. amazing workflow. wish I can get to that level in the future

[@rivenmotors7981]

Thanks for creating this informative presentation, you gave me a good place to start with grading my 16mm feature. Very little information out there for actual film other than digital video makers calling themselves filmmakers.

[@TwaynePereira]

Simple yet effective!! been dying to shoot 16mm film, but can't seem to get my hands on a camera here in Toronto!

[@Volpearg]

Awesome bro!

[@saikatchattopadhyay8263]

Workflow is different for everybody and I don’t think there is one particular way,however for the first short I think it would be Cineon Log in CST rather Log C as Films are scanned in Cineon . I am not sure though but it may be worth trying

[@MrSindriSvan]

Came here to say this. But I think you’re also right about workflow. Sure there some best practices but if you get there somehow, thats perf! Crackin videos Lewis!

[@welchworks]

Cranked that button to "SUBSCRIBED." Excellent work going on here!

[@klatchabobby]

Some cinematographers will only shoot tungsten film and just adjust colours in the grade, or only shoot daylight, not only as a cost-saving measure, but also because it can produce "better daylight" footage if the colours are changed in post, rather than recorded on actually daylight WB film. But IDK about any of that, it's just what I've heard some say, most notably Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, of course

[@JonWolf]

thank you

[@Pootie23]

This dude is a genius!!!

[@VariTimo]

Kodak 2383 transform, sharpening, printer points. Done.

[@ehoarndesmas]

Great video 🙌

[@IvanC14]

this is amazing, thank you!

[@jackbynum]

Love the videos Lewis! Keep it up bro!

[@joecal2360]

Extremely useful for a newbie like me, thank you so much!!

[@juliancantillo97]

Hope you keep uploading this kind of content, especially with film is not that easy but there ir so little information, great videos.

[@artdoneus]

Loved this!!! 🤓🤓🤓 thank you for sharing your ways 📝📝📝

[@jftvrwk]

awesome, love seeing your flow on film. Could be fun to ask your lab to scan it in DPX. A bit of a different workflow, and for sure way less raw (which can really benefit the 16mm look) but a dpx scan just gives you alot more options. I do like to see some of your tricks like Lum-mix, interesting way to balance for tungsten to daylight. i tend to just use the temp slider top left, but im going to try your way.

[@apmanti12]

dope!

[@Omriki_triki]

Such a great knowledge, and your sweatshirt is really cool! ♥ Thank you :)

[@Niamee2011]

Thankyou, this was really helpful!

[@G1NJO]

more videos like this pls ;) u are awesome

[@edwardcrockett]

gosh the freakin intro did it

[@charlieweston2292]

Where can we see all your finished projects your works great!!❤️

[@OverdriveMusic]

Crank that up..... Soulja Boi! 😂😂😂😂

[@Dennis94913]

I think the proper color space transform for film would be rec709 and cineon/redlogfilm gamma

[@julienpierb]

"Then Fuck You" HAHAHA! I like your vibe. Thanks for doing that, it's always cool to see how others do their craft

[@chris.chiutena]

Crank that soulja boi! haha love your work @lewis thank you for these videos

[@maxstapelfeldt1292]

thank you really much for the cool videos, I find it really interesting that you use the offset to set the black level instead of the lift. Is there any difference? maybe on how the gamma slider reacts? If anyone knows feel free to answer, I am no pro at this

[@bobvanillace3641]

“So if I’m doing something wrong, and you want to blast me about it. I probably am, but fuck you.” Subbed 💀

[@666kaysar7]

Thank You For Your Shared Lewis! I have concerns about this,I have a shooting I will shot on 500T, but I will use HMI & tungsten practical light & color tube light, day& night as well. Do u recommend I just correct on the postproduction, and then I don’t loose to much stop for my exposure. I might be exposure as 320 at day time, and 250 at night scenes. So just wanna ask u should use 85 filter to correct the white balance or ?😅

[@Owlbot]

If that image is Log (I don't actually know if it is in this instance) it'd likely be Cineon.

[@lewispotts]

Yeah sort of ..half log

[@michaliskim2319]

Hey man! This is one of the best c.grading I've seen in much time. That's really good work! I tried to find you in imdb, but there is only this youtube channel. Are you interested in cinematography- film wise?

[@dust9307]

This is more related to the general use of Da Vinci Resolve, but when handling multiple shots for a single scene, must one colour grade each each shot individually (one at a time), or can you grade them all collectively (all at the same time)? Cheers to whoever has an answer :D

[@IanSPeterson]

You can apply the same grade to multiple clips by using the middle mouse button.

[@brennanmartignoni4192]

Create a “look” using the “timeline” level node graph, then use the “clip” level node graph to grade individual clips. You can also create Groups by selecting multiple shots, right clicking, and adding it into a group or new group. You can divide them up into scenes, camera profiles, etc… just a helpful organizational tool

[@Diminish12]

Do you actually use Promist filter or some kind of diffusion filter in the Digital camera to give it a more film look?

[@nghtfall]

This was awesome! I’m curious what you shoot your KZbin videos on?

[@nikolasdove]

I’m wondering if you can CST film footage from rec709 cineon film log to rec709 gamma 2.4

[@robieibor]

crank that soulja boy 😂😂😂

[@romainszuwalski]

but why alexa with logC that's just incorrect

[@NigelZhen]

i'm still here because of the calm music

[@jaysvids5320]

How did you put video that you shot on film stock onto your computer to edit digitally?

[@JoaoSilva22222]

Lewis.....one question....even Shane Hurlbut said that the old Blackmagic Pocket can give you a very good 16mm footage......with the additional practicality of getting it already in prores or RAW....what do you think, compared to real film? Sometimes it generates some moirée, which i hate, but what are your thoughts?

[@sakoneRR]

Could you share the color space you are working with DaVinci as well as the export color space you use? I find your videos have such a good contrast ratio and I don't know how you achive that without getting color and gamma shifts on Mac

[@bluefilmsltd]

Is there any point in colour grading 16mm??? I mean, what with the film stock and stuff it's all there? I can see why one may need to colour correct and do exposure adjustments, but why not just let the film stock speak for itself?

[@danielebarberis1146]

You have at least to convert 16mm film, because if you play it like that, it would look like a log space from a digital cinema camera. This is due to the digitalization of 16mm which is usually done in the cineon space, that is not a common log, because it was designed in the 90s based on print density of film negatives, so it's specifically designed to contain all the data resulting from a digital film scan.

[@matthewphillips5483]

You can if you shoot on reversal film. Reversal film is projection ready.

[@bluefilmsltd]

@@matthewphillips5483 I might just do that then

[@tomaszbejnarowicz]

is it possible to save grain preset?

[@skepsys]

which would you say is the mirrorless that comes closest to the analog filmic look when graded? i mean between cameras like sony's, panasonic, fujifilm etc.

[@matthewphillips5483]

Not sure what he thinks but I have had great results with Sony a6000 with Neutral Creative Style (-3, -3, -3). Shoot with a color chart, add some Cinegrain, and you are very close to 16mm film look (need to set proper white balance, bump saturation a bit, and keep highlights/shadows at reference) but it will look shockingly similar.

[@TeipelFilms]

What always confuses me with film scans is bit depth... You said the 16mm footage you got back from the lab comes as ProRes 422. When shooting digital and capturing the footage using that codec, you end up with a certain bit depth. As this is only a film scan, what bit depth does this footage come with? Would be nice if anyone could explain.

[@matthewphillips5483]

When I get flat scans done, they are usually 10-bit. That was a few years back though and I got flat 2k DPX scans

[@rileyking1895]

Hey, you might have covered this but where do you get your film developed and scanned? I'm from WA too.

[@lewispotts]

I use Neglab and MemoryLab

Great video! What hardware do you use for color management and accuracy?

[@obody-sl9np]

Idk which one is that he's using, but if you wanna know, Da Vinci Resolve is a pretty good one. Beginner friendly, too

@@obody-sl9np thanks, by hardware I meant computer system and monitor.

[@Sephsson]

Do you have patreon or something? I have never used patreon and not sure what it’s for but please take my money!

[@lewispotts]

Haha!

[@MxMattieRose]

I haven’t shot 16mm since film school, but I would overexposure by 2 stops and then have the lab pull it back to neutral when developing the film to get a balanced image. That’s what I was taught at the time, but I don’t know if that’s still good practice as the tech has advanced. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[@matthewphillips5483]

It is awesome how film neg can be overexposed by that much and still look great...now underexposure looks bad and I would prefer digital for an underexposed image.

[@DarshanGajjarFilms]

thank you

[@Lisardust]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Mr Potts.

[@tc_da_f]

what laptop do you use for editting? like ram size, storarge etc...???

[@zx_Xander]

Great! Thanks for sharing the workflow

[@GarettMcKelvieDoP]

My man