Been really trying to experiment with what yields the best results from this camera if I'm looking to color grade the footage to look more cinematic.

Here's a REALLY sloppy edit where I got lazy mid-way and got rough on the timing transitions and color grade. Compression artifacts are crazy bad if your shots are even close to underexposed like some of mine are. My advice is to always expose to the right but dont clip highlights.

Color grade isn't consistant its just a whatever test video. No judgment there please as I know how to grade normally.

Let me know what you guys think:



password: test

Very cool.  If you don't mind me sort of digging in a bit here, what does your workflow look like with your Inspire clips?  I've got a sloppy workflow with Resolve 11 and fcpx and I really want to find a solid workflow that just works really well using LUT's. Any input is definitely appreciated.

I have been following your thread, interesting stuff you have... im new to video taking, wonder if you are kind enough to point me to some website/books for video recording like the works you do.

thanks

So I click on the thread below this one and find your workflow haha. Thanks.

Nice stuff!  

I'm actually super impressed with the nighttime shots especially considering the crap I was getting at dusk the other day.  

Are you a FCP user? Would love to know the settings you're using on cam and what you're preferred color grading software is.  I'm super new to grading.

Jealous that you live in SD also. I freaking LOVE that place! I visited again last year and stayed at the Hyatt downtown.  Had my Phantom 2 with me but was super sketched out about flying anywhere in that area with all the military presence and airport there.  I put a very sloppy sequence together that I shot at Swami's without my FPV setup.  Ever been hassled?  I could see in your clips that you were observing proper positioning! :-)

Overall, good work, looks like you have it down.  The color and the dynamic range  with this camera is much better than I thought it would be.  Oh, it's no Canon 5D Mark111 but didn't expect to be.  I've been doing the same running flight and camera test for the past week and love the results.  Battery life is my biggest concern and the more I fly my comfort level has grown.  I did get a 5700mah battery, but still don't have the balls to fly over a lake or out in the gulf.  I'm a Creative Cloud member so I'm not short on apps just time to edit.  Is there any one editing technique you use the most of to save time?  And what do you usually find is a good average flight time (good weather/little wind) for either battery?  Thanks in advance for any thoughts and ideas.  Zack   

Bravo, very nice ! But: as so often mentioned "stronger ND filters". When sunlight is in the camera the shutter speed is too fast. Agreed to very correct exposure, as not much room to grade.

will@willbarnwe Posted at 2015-3-6 09:20
Nice stuff!  

I'm actually super impressed with the nighttime shots especially considering the crap ...

Thank you - Yes I use FCPx. I am using log profile, custom color settings (-3 sat, -2 contrast, 0 sharp) 4K 24 or 30p and lowest shutter possible with an ND. The ND isn't strong enough to get a 180 degree shutter. Never been hassled really. People always inqure about what it is, or want to see the screen (typical) I love talking about it, but hate being questioned when I'm mid-flight. Oh well.

Grading is a learned process. I'm not an expert as I'm always learning but I plan to do a quick tutorial for some of the video editing newbs as I wish there was someone to help me when I was learning. I like paying it forward ;)

zackski@live.co Posted at 2015-3-6 09:59
Overall, good work, looks like you have it down.  The color and the dynamic range  with this camera  ...

Honestly it doesn't really matter if you're over water or land. If it falls, its going to fall and fall hard. It's always a gamble once that bird gets more than 10 feet off the ground. Make sure you do your pre-flight checks and calibrations, know how to fly in atti and dont be an idiot and you'll be just fine.

I understand not wanting to push the limits of the inspire at this point. Too many varibales and too unstable in my opinion. I personally dont let the bird get out of my line of site. I dont see the point of flying a mile away using the HD link. Its awesome it works that far (for some) but I use this as a tool, not a record breaker for the longest distance lol.

Renaat Posted at 2015-3-6 11:41
Bravo, very nice ! But: as so often mentioned "stronger ND filters". When sunlight is in the camera  ...

shutter speed reamined constant in all footage i posted. It was 1/180 as this is the slowest I could go without clipping highlights. Stronger ND indeed. Hopefully some company will put one out soon. Only issue is weight. Needs to be light as hell!

Yeah some nice grades in there.  I think the city scapes/bridge stuff worked best, could really imagine  them as establishing shots in a movie.  Nicely done!  

Some shots may be a bit too desaturated and have a lack of contrast but definitely think you accomplished your goals here.

Impressed with the lack of noise in the night shots though the blacks are towards the crushed side and may be hiding it.    All night flying strictly prohibited in Australia so I night have to do some hand held tests to get some night footage myself.

Regarding exposing to the right, I'm not sure I completely trust the histogram in the app.  I'm used to pushing hard to the right without clipping on my Epic, but sometimes feel like I'm overexposed on the Inspire when I come back to grade.    Also hate what happens when I underexpose and my dynamic range goes to crap, so I'll keep playing with exposure until it becomes instinct.

jimhare Posted at 2015-3-6 12:13
Yeah some nice grades in there.  I think the city scapes/bridge stuff worked best, could really imag ...

Thanks Jim - Yeah the footage was taken at 3 different times using 3 different settings. The in app histogram is so off its laughable. I just eye ball it as best as possible but again its a gamble as the screen isn't a accurate representation of what the camera sees too well.

NIght shots I had to crush blacks to hide noise/artifacting. Is what it is but looks good to me for what the camera can do.

Cant wait for stronger ND's

FYI I too shoot on a RED. I wish I had the balls to put that thing up in the air. Not anytime soon ;)

I thought your daytime stuff was phenom. Now I realize I have a lot more to learn! lol

ChadAustin Posted at 2015-3-6 12:30
I thought your daytime stuff was phenom. Now I realize I have a lot more to learn! lol

thanks mate - always be learning and improving!

First of all, I think you are creating beautiful work and I really enjoy your posts! Keep it up, dude!

As for the color grading on this video, by exposing for highlights I believe the rest of your image area is becoming underexposed. You may want to try using the curves tool to increase light in the shadow areas, but of course be careful not to lose contrast. I'm used to working with RAW Nikon D810 files that have incredible dynamic range, so with limited DR from the Inspire camera I find myself making some compromises. In my case I favor some highlight blowouts to avoid overall underexposure and loss of contrast.

Abe Posted at 2015-3-6 13:16
First of all, I think you are creating beautiful work and I really enjoy your posts! Keep it up, dud ...

Thank you Abe .. I think you misunderstood or I mispoke. Most shots tend to be over exposed. The shots closer to the massive sailboat and Petco park are a tad under exposed. Most shots the highlights are damn near clipping. I pulled them down in post. I'm used to grading .r3d red raw files with so much DR it's insane. Not a lot of room here but it's not awful.

Thank you Scooter. So happy to learn and be a part of the inspire community. It's posts like this that make this a great forum. Color grading is my weak point for sure and it's nice to see it done well.

eaglecook Posted at 2015-3-6 14:33
Thank you Scooter. So happy to learn and be a part of the inspire community. It's posts like this th ...

Anytime my man. I think we can all benefit from one another. I personally know diddly squat about the technical side of why my bird doesn't work the way its advertised in terms of range and signal reliability but hell I work with what I can until it gets figured out.

Happy Flying and let me know if I can help!

scooterlam Posted at 2015-3-6 12:23
Thanks Jim - Yeah the footage was taken at 3 different times using 3 different settings. The in ap ...

Totally!   That's why I got an Inspire, don't want to spend $10k on an Octocopter and then put my $25k camera on it and then hit the ground!   My hands would be shaking so much I'd never get a smooth shot!

Forget about the day light stuff. How do you feel about the night footage? Are you happy with it?

eaglecook Posted at 2015-3-6 14:33
Thank you Scooter. So happy to learn and be a part of the inspire community. It's posts like this th ...

Color grading is not unlike flying. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Reading a few articles on color theory would be a good starting place.

InspiredOne Posted at 2015-3-6 22:58
Forget about the day light stuff. How do you feel about the night footage? Are you happy with it?

If I were shooting with my RED or something else with a large full frame sensor then no but given the small sensor and price of this free camera included with the bird I think it is usable for most web streaming applications...

Blacks have to be crushed to hide noise. As long as the city is somewhat lit up, it makes for good scene IMO

Fantastic test!!

scooterlam Posted at 2015-3-7 00:11
If I were shooting with my RED or something else with a large full frame sensor then no but given  ...

The RED is a nice camera, unfortunately, the Inspire 1 strains just a bit lifting it.

You show 10 videographers the same footage and there's an excellent chance you'll get 10 different opinions. To my eye, it look a bit underexposed. If you're pleased with it, doesn't make much difference what the rest of us think.

InspiredOne Posted at 2015-3-7 01:03
The RED is a nice camera, unfortunately, the Inspire 1 strains just a bit lifting it.

You show 1 ...

Lol well aware that the inspire can't lift my red. Need a cinestar or other heavy lift platform to do that.

As I noted above, night shots with this camera have to be underexposed or blacks crushed to conceal/avoid excessive noise.

scooterlam Posted at 2015-3-7 03:34
Lol well aware that the inspire can't lift my red. Need a cinestar or other heavy lift platform to ...

Of course you were aware, it was a moot point since we weren't talking about the RED. You got meaning just the same.

I can tolerate noise far better than I can tolerate an underexposed (or overexposed) image. There are other ways to minimize noise, I'm confident you're well aware of that, too. Had I hired you for a shoot of mine and you had brought that back to me (and it couldn't be fixed in post), I would have sent you back out for a retake.

Again, this is nothing more than one videographer's opinion. That's why I asked if YOU were pleased with it. Based on your previous comments about your goals as a videographer, I would have presumed you weren't pleased.

InspiredOne Posted at 2015-3-7 04:23
Of course you were aware, it was a moot point since we weren't talking about the RED. You got mean ...

I wouldn't have used this platform for a paid night shoot ;) It was a test. Yes noise can be minimized and even eliminated but not without sacrificing detail and clarity. I de-noise red footage in low natural light situations often. Have you personally flown at night and seen the horrible compression artifacts present in underexposed shadow areas?

The original clip (not the graded clip) was more evenly exposed. Maybe your monitor views the video differently than mine but for purposes of nighttime shots with this platform, This is what had to be done to yield a low noise image.

I'd like to see nightfootage at your desired settings,grade to compare.

doug@nowpicture Posted at 2015-3-7 01:01
Fantastic test!!

Thanks Doug!

scooterlam Posted at 2015-3-7 05:11
I wouldn't have used this platform for a paid night shoot ;) It was a test. Yes noise can be minim ...

I'm not trying to hassle you. On some paid night shoots this platform would be more than adequate (as you pointed out earlier, for some Web applications for example).

No, I have not yet flown at night--not had any reason to at this early stage of the game.

I'm with you, I do hope the camera can/will be beefed up in the near future for all the obvious reasons.

Hey scooterlam, I found some other nighttime clips from the Dubai thread:

Not an issue in the UK since we are not allowed to fly at night.
Come to think of it..... I thought FAA did not allow for night flights either - especially not commercial ones?
If I got caught doing commercial work after dark the CAA would pull my PFAW.

markjacobs.talk Posted at 2015-3-7 06:08
Not an issue in the UK since we are not allowed to fly at night.
Come to think of it..... I thought  ...

"If I got caught doing commercial work after dark the CAA would pull my PFAW."

Whew! And that would hurt like the dickens!

It would make my eyes water.

markjacobs.talk Posted at 2015-3-7 06:08
Not an issue in the UK since we are not allowed to fly at night.
Come to think of it..... I thought  ...

#1 I wasn't flying for commercial purposes
#2 This wasn't technically night yet...sun had just went behind the point.

will@willbarnwe Posted at 2015-3-7 06:05
Hey scooterlam, I found some other nighttime clips from the Dubai thread:

https://www.youtube.com/w ...

Pretty cool. A lot more available light in those shots. Risky if he was over the freeway but hard to tell.

InspiredOne Posted at 2015-3-7 05:36
I'm not trying to hassle you. On some paid night shoots this platform would be more than adequate  ...

I know I enjoy debating technical topics. I really was grading the night clips based on the music track which as everyone knows is from the Dark Knight Rises and tends to be more dramatic. I felt darker scenes complimented the song.

InspiredOne Posted at 2015-3-7 06:47
"If I got caught doing commercial work after dark the CAA would pull my PFAW."

Whew! And that wou ...

This was a test, I think it was supposed  to be positive criticism. Scooter is trying to help all of us understand or figure out new ways of shooting with the inspire 1 as he's continuying to take it to a different level. The fact that he's  allowing  us to somehow be part of his experiment by sharing his private video is pretty awesome! He was not talking about legal matters or charging purposes or been rude to anyone. If you guys  feel that you are experts at shooting with the inspire 1 at different light settings  then show us the perfect ways of shooting and  how to properly color correct the videos. I am sure none of us have yet mastered the perfect settins for shooting Specially when it comes to shooting at night, this is the perfect way of doing it! Inspireone I would love to see some of your work and your amazing shots with your inspire 1. It sounds to me that you have it all figured it out! We look forward to seen a link that will allows us to see your work and be able to learn from you!

Neat Video noise reduction will kill almost any amount of low light noise, especially at ISO 3200. No need to under expose...

joekeantang: "If you guys  feel that you are experts at shooting with the inspire 1 at different light settings  then show us the perfect ways of shooting and  how to properly color correct the videos."

That's just it, there is no one "perfect way" of shooting or color grading. I've been shooting film and video for over 40 years. It's not something you learn from just reading quips in forums. There are no short cuts. No one setting will work in every situation--far too many variables.

I've had the Inspire 1 a little over a month--still learning how to fly this "camera platform."

Your post gives the impression I was being negative toward Scooter. Nothing could be further from the truth. He clearly understood that. Get two filmmakers together (especially a young one and an old one) and watch the sparks fly!

Scooterlam, really enjoyed that clip. When I see footage like that makes me go out and try again. I can't do that level of editing and post but seeing this makes me want to work harder and spend more time practicing. Coming from a novice, looks nice and lets me know what this platform is capable of producing.