Hi everyone,

It,s almost a year since I bought my P3 pro so I decided to show You some sample with pre and after colour grading when using Colour Finnale (Grading plugin I obtained few days ago). The more I red about best P3 settings, ND filters and basic  of colour grading the better my footage became I think. It really make a diffrence in my opinion so check how nice results (in my personal opinion) You can get if You focus on these three key things: ND filter, D-LOG, decreasing sharpness and the rest of settings and Colour grading which is fantastic improvment once you learn how to use it properly. Enjoy:

Escellent work, thanks for sharing. CF is one of the best FCP plugins without a doubt as your results show

great one!  I keep saying that the good shots is 33% shooting skills, 33% equipement  and 33% post production

PopArt, were those horizons level like they are out of the camera or have you had to straighten them ?

what settings did you use on the drone? Which ND filter?

birdingbilly Posted at 2016-4-12 18:21
PopArt, were those horizons level like they are out of the camera or have you had to straighten them ...

horizon line leveled straight from the camera. Actually I've never had the problem with the horizon line being not leveled :-) Have you?

Nice Finale there PopArt!

granne@hotmail. Posted at 2016-4-12 19:08
what settings did you use on the drone? Which ND filter?

I shoot these 4k 25p, sharpen -2, , contrast -3 , saturation  -2. LOG Color profile. These settings make the picture very flat and not sexy when You watch it straight from the SD card, however it gives You lot of possibilities in post. I am using Polar Pro ND/PL filder 8, 16, 32. The lake shoot was with the 8 ND/PL. Actually I am very satisfied with these ND/PL - most of filters are just ND, and the PL (polarizer) is very usefull when shooting reflections on the water and so on. At the end graded in Color Finale which is extremly usefull plugin for color grading in FCPX. You can find many tutorials how to start with it :-) Good luck!

Second shot the difference is amazing. I've taken to shooting with pretty similar settings in the last week, and am liking things so far. I'm also using Final Cut Pro X, so I appreciate you mentioning Colour Finale - I am going to look into it. Honestly, I already have a ton of color grading plug ins for after effects, I just don't see using it (AE) for every edit. But it would be nice to have some more options.

Nice vid showing the difference! And, agreed. We just did an article saying pretty much the same thing (with a lot more words though ). Only thing we'd recommend that you don't mention is setting the white balance manually as that can make things easier in post

phantom-four.co Posted at 2016-4-12 21:48
Nice vid showing the difference! And, agreed. We just did an article saying pretty much the same thi ...

Good point with the white balance. However I never know how many Kalvin I should choose in various conditions. Any tip about this one?

PopArt Posted at 2016-4-12 18:13
horizon line leveled straight from the camera. Actually I've never had the problem with the horizo ...

Yes, but then I have a P4

PopArt Posted at 2016-4-12 22:39
Good point with the white balance. However I never know how many Kalvin I should choose in various ...

As you were not the only one to ask this we've put up a short article with a cheat sheet.

Just click this link to go there.
It should help you get started with kelvin color temperatures

phantom-four.co Posted at 2016-4-14 08:45
As you were not the only one to ask this we've put up a short article with a cheat sheet.

Just cl ...

I'm showing my age, but these days I'm confused how to do a colour balance.  In the old days using professional video cameras, we used hold a white card in front of the lens and had a switch on the camera which conducted a white balance based on the total lighting that was reflecting off it.  There was also a black balance/level function.  The reason this mattered was you may have many mixed light sources -- you may be recording inside a building with fluorescent lights, and using tungsten fill lights.  Daylight is streaming in through the window, and there is an open fire throwing off light.  Also some of the windows have coloured glass like in a church...  it's a nightmare to work out what the overall colour is!  In modern cameras there doesn't seem to be a function to actually sample the light, just a bunch of presets instead.  The same with still photography, you used an 18% grey card.  I guess you could take a shot of the card and then use that in post production to colour grade /correct/balance -- is that what everyone does these days?   I guess I'm used to actually taking a properly composed and exposed photograph, and not relying on fixing it in post.

endotherm Posted at 2016-4-14 01:42
I'm showing my age, but these days I'm confused how to do a colour balance.  In the old days using ...

Professional video cameras still have the option to black balance. Pro and prosumer cameras can still white balance the way you described. Heck, even most consumer DSLRs have that option.

Consumer quadcopers unfortunately don't.

Can't see my reply anymore so apologies if this turns into a double post.

Pro cameras still have the option to black balance. White balancing can still be done the way you describe in pro, prosumer and consumer full size cameras (read DSLRs).

The phantom camera, like the GoPro and Point and shoot cameras, doesn't fall in that category though. DJI likey agrees as the P4 is marketed to the hobbyist, not the pro.

endotherm Posted at 2016-4-14 09:42
I'm showing my age, but these days I'm confused how to do a colour balance.  In the old days using ...

You appear to be referring back to the days of three-tube colour cameras or 3-chip cameras, and in those days the black level of each channel could be subject to fluctuations. Nowadays with single chip sensors, the need for black balance is not there, but interestingly, the meaning of the term has changed. A Black Balance these days is performed automatically in most cases to help conceal cell differences in the sensor that create dark patterns in the image. In more expensive cameras, you can make the camera perform a black balance, but in low cost cameras like the Phantom ones, it is called pixel mapping and is done once when the camera is being initially aligned.

White balance can still be done manually by shooting a recognised colour chip card, and the better colour grading packages, such as Blackmagic Resolve, can automatically recognise the chip card and adjust the colour balance correctly for you. The trouble is, with aerial photograpghy, shooting a colour chip card on the ground for reference has no bearing on what the camera sees once it is in the air.

On the other hand you can select a setting and go with it. I tend to use 6000K for most daytime stuff. And I post grade everyting, that's the way it is done these days, especially if you shot DNG or Log.

Geebax Posted at 2016-4-14 11:41
You appear to be referring back to the days of three-tube colour cameras or 3-chip cameras, and in  ...

You say "The trouble is, with aerial photograpghy, shooting a colour chip card on the ground for reference has no bearing on what the camera sees once it is in the air."

Why ? and surely you would use a grey card for White balance not a Colour Card ?

birdingbilly Posted at 2016-4-15 01:42
You say "The trouble is, with aerial photograpghy, shooting a colour chip card on the ground for r ...

Using a colour chip card does more, not just white balance but it also corrects for colour temperature variations and any casts present. You have a choice of different makes of card, and the application knows exactly what hue each chip should be, so it can adjust accordingly.

With regard to being in the air, the balance can be quite different, depending upon the time of day, most notable around early morning or late afternoon.