Video footage taken is this mode needs some post production to realize it's potential. In brief, the adjustments are to contrast & brightness, correct?

DF

Hi Daniel,

Absolutely correct.   LOG protects your highlights and shadows by pushing everything to the center.  That way you can pull out all the beautiful information in grading.

Otherwise you risk blowing out highlights and crushing blacks, which is why 90% of drone footage looks like terrible video instead of beautiful imagery.

I talk about LOG and post in my first two tutorials in this thread:

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... 8&fromuid=21263

Jim

jimhare Posted at 2015-7-27 19:42
Hi Daniel,

Absolutely correct.   LOG protects your highlights and shadows by pushing everything to ...

I am confused ...

You explain this with the words "pushing everything to the center" and that really makes it easy to understand as I started to learn how the grading tools work in post software ...

I have read that some even lower the saturation and contrast to -3 ...
What is your opinion on this?

My thoughts now is that 0 is closer to "the center" ... If you get my point!?

w1der Posted at 2015-7-27 23:16
I am confused ...

You explain this with the words "pushing everything to the center" and that re ...

I was mainly talking about luminance.  the biggest thing to avoid are blown out highlights.   Think of all the marina footage we see on the forum where you can't make out the different tones of white on the boats.  Or darker scenes where there are just big patches of black where you should still see detail.   This is where LOG will save you and that's what I meant by "push to the center."   I meant the middle of the histogram.   That way when you stretch out the highs and lows you know that everything is there.

Saturation and contrast adjustments in-camera are made for a very different reason.  

LUTS only work if you have a common starting point.  Makes sense right?  If you apply a LUT to footage that isn't in LOG it's going to look really weird because it was designed to take milky footage and make it pop.

The reason we drop contrast and saturation is because DJI's version of LOG doesn't go far enough.    True LOG footage has very low contrast and low saturation, but DJI LOG still has much of it left in.   So to fit into the LOG world we take more out through these settings.  In a nutshell we try to make it "look" like normal LOG footage that comes out of professional cameras so when the LUT is applied it is starting from the right place.

But it does also fit into the "push to center" concept since contrast and saturation are always overdone by camera manufacturers.   They push them up to make the images pop right out of the camera, but this is to the detriment of grading as they get rid of a lot of information in the process, pushing you towards a specific look that makes it difficult to alter.

Thank you for that Jim and I have watched & appreciated your tutorials. I use a different editing program so I can't use luts so I meant to confirm that if use Video Log the upshot is that I have to make some minor adjustments to brightness & contrast afterwards.

Btw My observation so far about the I1 camera is that it has a lower then usual exposure latitude, that is to say it is less tolerant of different levels of brightness within the frame.  That being said I haven't worked with wide angles that often either until my I1 arrived so it may just be a feature of wide fields of view.   I notice people here are very supportive of using 3rd party ND filters.  I must experiment with this as I cant imagine the benefits; when I'm filming Im always checking my exposure and make spot adjustments often. Do you do this too?
Regards
DF

daniel.frederik Posted at 2015-7-28 08:34
Thank you for that Jim and I have watched & appreciated your tutorials. I use a different editing pr ...

Hey DF,   

I have found the opposite.  I think the Inspire camera has more latitude than GoPros and the like.  But this is why you use LOG.  

I think what you're saying is that the aperture is fixed at f/2.8, which means it's substantially brighter (better in low light) than most.   This is FANTASTIC and allows shooting in many more situations.

But it also means there is often too much light for the sensor, hence the third party stronger NDs.

And shooting LOG isn't just about LUTs, LOG is the way you would shoot if you want to color correct, full stop.

Even if I don't use LUTs I start dialing in from a LOG start.

It's all about knowing the camera and experimenting to get the best out of it in every situation.

Jim

jimhare Posted at 2015-7-28 06:21
I was mainly talking about luminance.  the biggest thing to avoid are blown out highlights.   Thin ...

This is the type of answer that I really appreciate ...
It´s not only an answer ... it´s also an explanation ... Now I don´t only know how to do ... I also understand why I need to do it !

Thank you Jim !

I agree Jim, experimenting with and knowing the camera is very important.  So far I've come to a few simple conclusions; an overcast sky is a great diffuser; use it!    Where ever possible keep the light behind you and spot expose for the highlights.  I'm going to shoot two very similar clips today; one in log the other not.  I look forward to the post production, to see how much I can improve the image which frankly doesn't need much work ( I'm pretty happy with the I1 but it's good to know it can do better)
DF

w1der Posted at 2015-7-29 00:18
This is the type of answer that I really appreciate ...
It´s not only an answer ... it´s also a ...

My pleasure buddy!  

daniel.frederik Posted at 2015-7-29 02:21
I agree Jim, experimenting with and knowing the camera is very important.  So far I've come to a few ...

Sounds great!   Post some results!   

jimhare Posted at 2015-7-29 05:32
Sounds great!   Post some results!

Hi Jim,

What color profile would you recommend for just still images, not video?
Would you still use log?
I will be shooting an acreage property, lots of sun, Renaat ND, Raw and JPEG.
I have been shooting log the whole time and the images, after the post editing is done (LR5), look great!
I am curious if another color profile would "optimize" the images.
Lastly, shutter speed, min 500, 400, 200, keeping historiography chunky and always 100 ISO?  I don't take still images in much wind so the bird is like a tripod.
Cheers!
Peter

Sky High Aerial Posted at 2015-7-30 13:23
Hi Jim,

What color profile would you recommend for just still images, not video?

Hey Peter,

Yeah, I would definitely still use LOG for all the same reasons.   You want to protect your highlights and shadows.   The nice thing about stills is you can bracket, so it takes some above and below your exposure levels.   You can also experiment, using different shutter speeds.   Just hold your position until you've taken the photo a dozen different ways.  

You might find you are best with no ND at all, and just let the shutter control the light.   Unlike video, there really isn't such a thing as too fast a shutter for stills, just makes everything crisper as it's freezing the moment in even less time.

Cheers,

Jim