Hey, on a side note, has anyone had any luck finding a simple system for grading 4K V-Log footage quickly on a PC? I found this route to be very fast when dealing with 4K ProRes footage from my Odyssey 7Q+ in DaVinci Resolve 12:

1. Import footage onto an internal editing SSD
2. Open footage with Media Encoder, transcode to DNxHR 10-bit 4K and edit metadata
3. Open transcoded footage in Resolve 12, a simple timeline layout, and get started with colour:
4. Apply a REC709 LUT (I use the Osiris M31 REC709) to stop the crushing of blacks that happens when using a LOG LUT, but still add some awesome colour to the shot
5. Increase the contrast of the shot to about 1.30 (depending on shot... adjust as necessary)
6. Increase the Saturation to about 90% (depending on shot... adjust as necessary)
7. Adjust the Pivot, tweak the basic colours for the atmosphere, add in a touch of red to increase the fleshy tones
8. Add a light pass of Neat Video noise reduction to get rid of excessive grainy features.
9. Export to another internal SSD, different SATA port, produces at about 20 fps (no Neat Video) or 4 fps (with Neat Video).

Very efficient work flow, creates images like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w629u3lw7x0ars6/Love%20this%20grade%21.mov?dl=0

Does anyone have any tips on a faster workflow? Other than kicking Convergent Design for not including DNxHR on their Odyssey to stop the extra transcoding steps... :D

@fredfred27 ProRes was not designed to work well with Windows, and Windows was not designed to work well with ProRes... DNxHD and DNxHR on the other hand, are specifically designed to flow smoothly with Windows.

When editing Prores 4K UHD 10-bit 422 on my PC, my average frame rate in my NLE while editing is about 6 fps... I transcode to DNxHD/R and instantly my frame rates go over 35 fps. That alone, no matter anything else, makes me transcode to DNxHD/R.

Besides, my clients all seem to think that the name DNxHR sounds more high-end than "ProRes"... :D So I play this up and they pay more for it! More work for me in transcoding, but it actually saves me time in the end... And the frustration of slow playback!

Me too!

@swiss_boy you can't control contrast or sat in V Log. The only settings that you can change are sharpness and NR. The highlight recovery is pretty good in V Log so if you're exposing with zebras I would set them to the highest setting. An easier way that I've found to expose is to get your bracket right at 0, assess your highlights, if you can afford to raise the exposure one more stop then go for it.

I tested and stop using my ('adulterated') V-Log because GH4 doesn't extend histogram to the right margin and because of those known issues with 8-bit recording.

Exposure wise, 85% zebra (if I'm not mistaken) did the same as 105% in other picture modes - if you just 'touch it', it won't saturate. I found zebras very reliable in V-Log, in fact, zebras were the only way to expose correctly (in this case, to the right).

@jopereira when you say just touch it you mean if i just start to see the zebras set to 85% i'm good, the footage shouldn't clip ?

I just got a GH4 with firmware 2.3 so i wonder is it worth doing the update 2.4 and buy V-LOG or should i just get the v-log for free ? i've red that the free V-log do not enable 12 stops dynamic range but only 10...

Also does the paid version(GH4R) unlock the 30min limit on european GH4?

@Swiss_Boy Yes, that's what I meant. I do that all the time IF those spots are not your main subject - if so, play safe and expose without zebras in there.

I think R stands for recording/recorder :) . For Panasonic, GH4 is a stills camera - they just took good care of the video part of it :)

@Vitaliy_Kiselev, thank you for posting that video -- VERY informative and interesting. And here I was thinking that I always needed to overexpose V-Log... Now I have some work to do testing out lower exposures.

If changing the exposure in V-Log L changes the colors, then you are processing the colors incorrectly. Exposure is something that you should be able to fully compensate for in post with very little shift in colors.

The GH4 has rather poor dynamic range. Expect noisy results if you underexpose by so much.

I think Shane is off his rocker. Nothing he shot in that test looks very good to me.

@brennank that's the beauty of V Log in my opinion. Using the correct LOG LUTs gets the footage to a wonderful look without much work. Grading C Log, Cine D, S Log 2 are MUCH harder to get a good look.

@BrennanK Osiris M31 LUT has that orange/teal look that is so over used. I'm downloading your clip and I'll post a grade for you. Davinci Resolve colour managed, no LUT.

And one thing that I thought might be critical to Shane's results was how much he crushed the shadows. One reason I was overexposing V-Log was to keep the shadows clean-ish. Shane doesn't care about that because he's going to crush them anyway it seems.

As far as beautiful Monette's skin tone, his underexposure certainly worked well. Even after he lifts the overall exposure, he still crushes the shadows. The only remaining evidence of his strategy is that the pictures on the wall get brightened some.

@caveport What is wrong with the Orange/Teal look? I mean sure, all the professional films use it, hence we feel it is overused... But I can't go wrong when a client's jaw hits the floor when they see their commercial for the first time, they quote "looks fit for a cinema screen..." :D (I wish I could make this happen every time for all clients...) If you want to play around with some good footage, try this one, it is a DNxHR 10 bit file converted from the ProRes original from an Odyssey 7Q+: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6fruwmm767xn9uj/Test%20Clip%20-%20Grade%20away%21%21%21.mxf?dl=0

All: Have fun tweaking that file, it is a .MXF one, it should open inside most pro edit suites... Post images here of your final grade! Let's see who can get the nicest skin tones! :)