Q&A | 08. { Canon + Technicolor: Cinestyle scene setting review }

A couple months ago Canon USA announced a new partnership with the long time color professionals at Technicolor. They developed a new scene setting for the 5d mark II ( that also works with other Canon HDSLRs ) This new setting essentially helps drive the most latitude out of the sensor possible. While it may look like the imagery comes out flatter, it actually helps preserve more of the information contained within the image -- capturing more vibrant colors, better gradation in the highlights, and also more information in the darker areas of the image. While this step forward isn't yet to the golden standard of a RAW video image, its a huge step forward in creating better imagery with your HDSLR. 

If you haven't downloaded the scene setting or the Canon EOS app yet I put a .ZIP file below that contains all the files you'll need to get everything set up. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (right click and save as) 

It includes: 

Canon EOS Utility App

Technicolor CineStyle scene setting

Technicolor CineStyle installation guide 

I put a short video together that highlights some example video clip shot with this setting switched on and off. The main things I set out to test were dynamic range, highlight retention and color gradation + saturation. 

PART 01/dynamic range: The beginning of the video starts with a simple comparison of the dynamic range of the image. I was in my garage and happened to dig up some old color transparencies that have been passed down through my family over the years -- most of them happened to be processed by technicolor :) Anywho, since film inherently has more dynamic range than the image coming out of the 5d, I thought this test would be perfect for looking at how much more range the CINESTYLE setting brings out in both the highlights and the dark areas of the film images. 

PART 02/color: The second part of the test focuses on what a properly graded image can look like when using the cinestyle setting -- it's important to note that the cinestyle setting isn't your typical shoot to edit setting. It required a few more steps in the color grading process to bring the most out of it, so if you are planning to use it, make sure you have planned a bit more time in the color grading pipeline so that you can make the most out of the imagery. If you look closely you can see that the colors form the cinestyle setting are slightly more vibrant and have better overall fidelity than when on the standard setting. 

PART 03/contrast & color rendition: In this section I shot a light house that had white paneling. You can see that a greater amount of detail is held within the whites in the cinestyle graded footage, as well as the cinestyle straight from the camera. 

PART 04/shawdow details: I think one of the greatest strengths of cinestyle is the ability the setting has to bring out the details in the shadows. You can clearly see that even when the light is turned on behind the slides, there are details still preserved in the image... the red color of the football uniform as well as the shadows hitting the house and door behind him. If I were to shoot anything at night, I would definitely turn cinestyle on just for the couple stops of light it preserves in the shadows. 

THOUGHTS...

I am glad that Canon is working on building relationships with companies like Technicolor. I think that they created one of the most successful DSLR cameras in the world with the 5d --- its gotten into a ton of peoples hands and the freedom to tell stories in a more cinematic way has definitely been expanded by these products. Hopefully more advances like this will come in the near future from Canon. 

I drew up a list of pros, cons, and tips from having used the cinestyle setting for the last week or so on all the projects we've been working on...

PROS:

• As you can see, the cinestyle scene setting helps make imagery out of the 5d look flatter and more evenly toned. From a grading point of view this is very good, because you have more data in the image to work with. The end result, is that your going to get smoother gradated color tones as well as overall luminosity when you apply your final color grades in an app like Color, FCP, AE, or Premier. 

• At this point, Cinestyle (FREE) a 5d ($2600) and Final Cut Pro ($599) are as close as you can get to having the most filmic image without using film or a RED camera ($17,500 for the body) 

• Canon is listening.... Im hoping that the future is bright and that they can give filmmakers a video image that looks as good as the still image that their cameras can produce. Compared to film, the image is 65% there...it just needs 3-4 more stops of dynamic range and 3-4 times the resolution -- then it would be a digital cinema camera that could content with much of whats seen on the big screen today. 

• you don't lose anything by using this setting, you only gain. While it takes time to get the image looking good -- you gain a lot in the process with the increased fidelity of the image with higher quality colors + overall image gradation.

CONS:

 • Although the benefits are there, the cinestyle setting doesn't offer the tremendous benefits that you would get by being able to shoot RAW images in video mode. The next step to take in getting the absolute most out of the imagery would be to improve resolution, compression, and add the ability to shoot RAW video. 

• Time. Plain and simple, to make the image look good when shot with cinestyle it takes a good deal of time and tweaking. So if you are shooting a project on a tight timeline and do not have a "pseudo RAW" workflow already in place for image processing, you would be better off staying in 'standard' mode on the camera and grading from there. 

• Becuase the image looks washed out, you lose alot of the contrast that you would noramlly get on your LCD, so focusing on the fly can be a bit more tricky -- I have found that I just need to get a bit closer than I normally would to the LCD and i'm fine. 

TIPS:

• Make sure you shoot in multiples of 160 with your ISO. These settings (160, 320, 800, 1600 ) are native to the 5d's sensor and you will thank yourself later for sticking to them when shooting in cinestyle mode. You will get a much cleaner image shooting at 320 rather than 100 iso. 

• Its often hard to judge white balance when using the cinestyle setting -- primarily because there are so many other colors that come into play because of the "boost" that the setting gives to the darker parts of the image. What I have been doing recently, is to switch over to standard mode, get the Kelvin temp set correctly, than I switch back to cinestyle and start shooting. It gets pretty easy to get down quickly if you do it 5 or 6 times in a row. 

• You can underexpose a bit more than you would normally because the setting boosts the data in the darks so much. This helps when shooting outdoors. I found that I could underexpose by almost a stop and a half and the image would still look great. I am currently underexposing everything by 1/3rd of a stop when using this setting. 

~CaseyW~

Kristy {ONE2ONE} workshop DC.

Kristi emailed us last year wanting to do a ONE2ONE session with us. She is already a fabulous photographer who owns a 5D mark II. She had played around with doing videos and experimenting with different techniques but she wanted to take her films to the next level so that she could offer them to her clients. 

As a part of the two day session we also set up a shoot where Kristi could plan and practice some of the techniques we had covered earlier in the workshop. It rained almost the entire workshop, but Thu & Alex (our models for the film) were super sports throughout the whole thing! 

If you are interested in a one2one session send an e-mail to info@mindcastlestudios.com

-danielle

Alaska Trailer

Alaska is definitely one of the most beautiful places that we've got to shoot at this year. From shooting in downtown Anchorage to driving all the way up to Willow -- it was surreal being surrounded by snow covered peaks that seemed to tower over the horizon. I'm happy to finally post the short piece that we created for Canon to use this year at the 2011 NAB show. There is a longer version in the works that we are just about to finish up as well, but I thought I would write a bit about the project that we've been working on.

A couple months ago we were asked by Canon's CPS department to create a film that showcased the unique service that they provide. Part of their support program is that they are on-site at different events across the US to support pro's as they shoot. So, essentially if your lens breaks at a sporting event, they are right there to either fix it, or provide you with a new one to use for the event. They also have a clean and check program that they set up, so the night or two before an event starts, you can take your gear to them and they will clean it all for you there on the spot. Danielle and I have been CPS members for the past year and we love it. We've sent in our gear a ton this year to be cleaned, and its awesome to get your cameras + lenses back in pristine condition -- CPS has been a huge help for us on all our shoots this year. 

~CaseyW

Q&A | 07. { White Balance & Kelvin }

Last week I had a really fun time writing on how we use monopods, as well as shooting a bit with them in different situations. Towards the end of the blog post, I mentioned that there is an easy process for turning a couple monopods into a simple jib/crane. I got rained out yesterday, and I am working on shooting some additional video content for that post. So I decided to look through recent e-mails people sent in and see what pop-ed up for today's post. 

Some of the most frequent questions have been on color grading and camera settings, which really excite me because I love working & experimenting with color. I have been in the process of creating a 5 part color grading series which I am going to post once I finish it up. On the topic of color, I thought I would start with one of the most important tools we use in our process and that is Kelvin.

Kelvin is a powerful & helpful tool and definitely plays a huge part in the filmmaking tool kit. It plays a the role of getting you the best imagery in-camera and when you start with the best image that you can possibly make in-camera, then grading will come easier in post production so you'll be doing a lot less color correcting and more color grading ( i.e. establishing a "look" to the image)

I thought I would list some general rules we follow as well as answer the questions that were sent in.

---- Rules we follow:

1. I NEVER use AWB (auto white balance) 

It would be like if a painter were to choose a different color tone for every wall of your house... you don't want every sequence of frames in your video to be constantly changing color all the time. Even in emergency situations, its better to have something shot with an entirely "wrong" Kelvin temp. than to have it be set on auto. 

2. memorize the basic Kelvin system 

lowering the number will cool your image, increasing it will make it warmer. 

3. memorize the basic reference numbers

2500 K ---- fire and candlelight 

3200 K ---- typical indoor light, incandescent and tungsten lighting 

5600 K ---- typical setting for outdoor light - direct sunlight

6500 K ---- overcast skylight -- if you live in Seattle than this is the typical light thats outside ;) 

4. Keep things consistent. 

To me, I focus less on getting the whites balanced and more on overall color balance & consistency. If you are shooting a narrative, then focus in on the people. If you are shooting a product demo video, the focus is on the product --  make sure that the focus of what you are shooting is kept consistent throughout different lighting environments in the piece. For example, if you were to make a brochure for the Canon 5d mark II, you would want to make sure that the black color of the camera is kept consistent in daylight, indoor, mixed, etc, etc lighting environments, and you can do this with Kelvin. 

---- Here are some of the questions that were sent in:

Why use Kelvin over presets? 

The simple answer is that Presets can be too limiting. Kelvin can hit all the "in-betweens" on the color temperature scale, allowing you to precisely dial in the number that works best for your environment. 

Using Kelvin is also really helpful for matching cameras. Since we shoot many of our projects with the 5D mark II, the Mark IV, and the 7d it's helpful to get the images from them all to match, which saves a good deal of time in post. These cameras all have a bit different tints to the images, so by tweaking the Kelvin settings on them as well as using the "WB SHIFT/BKT" function, it becomes easy to match them accurately. 

What do you take as reference?

There are many different ways to set K properly, and also many definitions on what people think the proper way is -- the truth is, its all about finding the method that best works for you, your workflow, and shooting style. The industry standard to get a reference is using a white or 18% grey card.

Grey/White card method {custom WB setting on camera}

01. turn the dial on your WB to the custom WB setting

02. snap a photo of a white or gray card

03. click the custom WB function in the menu and it will determine the best WB setting for the environment that you are currently shooting in. 

When we shoot in studio, or on larger productions, its always great to have a grey/white card handy for reference. While this method works great, it can be time consuming and it's not ideal for run and gun situations when your shooting on the fly. Which leads into the next question...

How to use K during run and gun situations?

There are a couple different tricks we use for run and gun situations. Danielle and I usually go by WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) where we judge the colors to the best of our abilities from the back of the camera or off an external monitor. There's nothing more powerful than actually looking at the image that you are about to record and finding the best K number that suits your needs in that moment. What we like about the WYSIWYG is that its quick and works great for fast paced shooting environments, however, there are a few things to note when judging imagery off of your LCD. 

As with any digital camera, the monitor is not always going to show you what the image actually looks like when you pull it into the computer. It is good to get out there and practice with different white balance settings on the cameras so that you can learn how what you see on the LCD will translate later to what you view on computer. For instance the LCDs on our 5d's have slightly more red/magenta than the actual image does when viewed on my computer. So when I shoot, I know that my images can be just a hair or two on the red-ish side but still look great on the computer. 

How often do you change the settings during a shoot?

The amount of times we change K depends on the amount of lighting situations we come across throughout the shoot. For instance if we are shooting an interview in a controlled setting, we will choose the K at the beginning of the shoot and keep it the same throughout the entire shoot. However when shooting sports, or a wedding we will change our K constantly throughout the shoot as the light changes. This helps us get the best imagery in each location even-though it can be tricky at times. If you are moving in and out of different places, its good to get a general number set while you are in transit (i.e. walking down the hallway, or through a stadium, and so on) so that location you can just bump up or down the K number slightly. One thing to keep in mind is even though we are changing the K a lot throughout the shoot, many times we are only shooting in 3-4 different lighting situations and so if we remember what K we used when we were shooting there before we can simply go back to that K again. I like to carry around a little notepad with me that I carry in my backpocket to keep tabs on my settings so that I can refer back to them as I shoot.

White balance, by far, is one of the most important things to learn and know as an image maker. With the advent of video and digital film cameras that can shoot RAW video, its even more important, because it's something that will become hugely important in post production when you are setting the look of your imagery. 

If you have any questions you would like us to answer or a suggestion for a tutorial leave a comment in the comments section or simply click the e-mail us button above.

~CaseyW

DC : Lincoln Memorial & Cherry Blossoms

One of the days in DC we took the subway from Kerra's house to the Capital building and then walked the entire day to different museums, tours and monuments. When we were at the Lincoln Memorial we were taking pictures and turned around to see a man down on his knee proposing to his girlfriend. She was crying so loud and it was so heartwarming that both Kerra and I burst into tears. It was such a beautiful moment with the sun setting and the crowd surrounding them. On our way back from the Lincoln Memorial we passed the Washington Monument and with the evening light and the cherry blossoms in full bloom it was so beautiful.

-danielle