Custom Profiles for GH4?

[Jason McDonald]

I was using some custom profiles for the 5DM3 and was wondering if there were any good ones out for the GH4? I like the idea of shooting flat for projects, but would like to cut down on post for personal projects. Any advice?

[Gary Huff]

The GH4 is very limited with profiles than the 5D. Really nothing more than tweaking. Best bet will be to use a Shogun once the LUT recording mode is activated.

[David Parks]

Actually there are pre-built profiles in the GH4 you can customize adjusting saturation, contrast, noise reduction. In addition, you can adjust the highlights/shadows curve as well as master pedestal.

The two most widely used profiles are CineV and CineD with Cine D being more of an expanded dynamic range setting. I recommend using CineD for heavy color correction and CineV for quick turn around. GH4 also has natural, vivid, standard, and monochrome profiles. So, the GH4 doesn't have as many choices as a 5d Mark 3, but it still allows enough customization to get you in trouble. :)

Coming sometimes soon Pansonic will release V-log L, which is an expanded log curve setting that will extend the GH4 to 12 stops and is derived from V-log on the Varicam 35. . According to one of Adam Wilts Panasonic slides on the home page of this forum, you can use V-log LUTs for GH4 and DVX 200 to start as a grade for V-log L. So, pretty impressive that Vlog-L will add a whole two stops of exposure range to GH4.

Also FYI, version 6.2 of Shogun already supports 3d luts in .cube. I recommend using the existing V-log to Rec 709 LUT from the main Panasonic Varicam download site as good all around starting point.

http://www.dvinfo.net/article/acquis...ate-suite.html

http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/varicam/35/

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by David Parks

Actually there are pre-built profiles in the GH4 you can customize adjusting saturation, contrast, noise reduction.

Which is not that much of anything, really.

In addition, you can adjust the highlights/shadows curve as well as master pedestal.

And you should really leave these alone as they can mess with your image in a way in which you cannot recover from.

[David Parks]

Well as long as you are safe with your luminance range, and don't way overexpose or way underexpose your image, then you have some latitude to adjust highlight and shadow curves in the curves settings.

Just watch your scopes in your NLE of choice and make sure your not in the mud below 0 ire or above 100 ire clippng your highlights.

Some people set their luminance range to 0-255 which means your nle needs to map that range, otherwise to be safe set the luminance range to 16-235. 16-255 isn't advisable.

But to answer Jasons initial question and not be argumentative, the GH4 allows the user to customoize a profile and save it. It is as simple as that.

Cheers.

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by David Parks

Just watch your scopes in your NLE of choice and make sure your not in the mud below 0 ire or above 100 ire clippng your highlights.

By the time you have it in your NLE, it's too late.

But to answer Jasons initial question and not be argumentative, the GH4 allows the user to customoize a profile and save it. It is as simple as that.

But Jason stated he was coming from the custom profiles on a 5D Mark III, and the GH4's "picture profile" settings are in no way comparable.

[Luc Spencer]

Originally Posted by David Parks

Some people set their luminance range to 0-255 which means your nle needs to map that range, otherwise to be safe set the luminance range to 16-235. 16-255 isn't advisable.

As someone who recently bought a GH4, may I ask for an explanation regarding this setting? I have set mine to 0-255 because that made sense to my somewhat lacking technical video expertise. As in, I just know 0 is black and 255 is white, so it only made sense for me to give it this max range. I am obviously not understanding this correctly.

I have since filmed 3 weddings using 0-255, the footage looks very good. As for Premiere mapping that range, do I need to do that manually? I will only start work on the first wedding on Monday, so I can't check the waveform quite yet. Any tips are appreciated, thanks :)

[Luc Spencer]

Here's a very useful link that clears up all this confusion:

joe12south | The three most misunderstood GH4 settings ? PART 1: Luminance Levels

In short, what David said is true: avoid 16-255. Both 0-255 and 16-235 are good. I can breathe easily now.

By the way, make sure you read the next 2 chapters as well, very VERY useful info on the pedestal setting (Gary was right there) and on the highlight/shadow adjustments.

[Luc Spencer]

OK, I got home and took a look at my 0-255 footage in Premiere. That link I posted was indeed correct. You do not throw away information when shooting in 0-255, you just need to apply a fast color corrector on (probably) each clip and bring down the highlights to 235 and, at least on this clip, also raise the black input level to 16.

Unless I'm missing something, I think shooting in 16-235 from now on is the way to go.

[Pete Carney]

I have also had issues with bright scenes clipping hard like that when shooting 0-255. I found that the harsh over exposure on top with bright clouds and other super bright objects is cleaner when shooting in 16-235.

Cheers,
Pete

[David Parks]

Panasonic New Zealand has stated that V-log L will be released for the GH4 in October.

#waitingwaitingwaiting

[Steve Burkett]

A fitting Birthday present then. Shame Wedding season is over by then. However I have Winter to run it through its paces in time for the next.