Barron Gorge National Park

[Doug Jensen]

Michael, I just noticed in your email to me that you have sent me down-rezzed version of the files instead of the originals. Is it possible that you buggered up these files when you created them? They really look awful. I wonder if the original files (as I had requested) would look better?

[Michael Warren]

That's a limitation of the camera. If sharpness is set to anything less that +1 a really aggressive NR is applied that turns everything below mid-tones to mush.

DJI Mavic Pro - DON'T Get This Setting WRONG! | Soft Footage Fix - YouTube

I've done some experimenting and found adding a 1.3 to 1.5 pixel fast blur tames it to some extent.

[Michael Warren]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

Micheal, I just noticed in your email to me that you have sent me down-rezzed version of the files instead of the originals. Is it possible that you buggered up these files when you created them? They really look awful. I wonder if the original files (as I had requested) would look better?

Are they not 3840 x 2160?

That's what the properties on the files on my hard drive say. I just losslessly split the clips out of the larger files. There was no processing at all. Maybe DropBox has resized them.

[Michael Warren]

I just downloaded one of the files from the links I sent you and it came out at 3840 x 2160.

[Doug Jensen]

Yes they are 3840x2160, but bad things can happen to files during a conversion. When you look at the downloaded file would you say that it is representative of how overly sharp the original is? I just got back to my computer after being out shooting for awhile, so I watch the video above in a few minutes.

[Doug Jensen]

Okay, I think I've narrowed down the problem. The footage is way too sharp for my taste (as talked about in the video you linked to) but it's not as bad as I thought it was at first. The way my setup is displaying your 25P footage on my monitors has really made the problem look worse than it really is. I've made some changes to the way 25P is being displayed and things look a little better. So I'll go back to ground zero now and start with a fresh grade from scratch.

PS. Sorry for misspelling your name in a couple of threads -- my dyslexia rears its ugly head sometimes. I've fixed them.

[Michael Warren]

The camera on the Mavic is tiny and the file compression very high, but the Mavic is very appealing for it's compact size and weight (734g) compared to the Phantom, which produces slightly better video. But the picture quality only starts to become decent on the Inspire, which is much larger again, and way more expensive.

With the Mavic, I can fit everything in a small bag and carry it with me into the bush along with normal camera gear. The whole drone kit including spare batteries, chargers, all accessories and bag only weighs about 3kg. If it was much larger or heavier I wouldn't be able to carry it and therefore no aerial footage at all.

As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. Adding the fast blur tames the sharpness and makes it usable IMO.

The split screen grade you showed me looks great on my laptop at 1920 x 1080. You've made the colours rich without crushing the blacks or blowing the highlights.

I'm pretty sure the files I spilt out for you are made from completely unchanged data. The program that I used, Wondershare Filmora is supposed to do lossless file trimming.

[Doug Jensen]

Like I said, a lot my initial reaction to the footage can be chalked up to viewing 25P video on my 30P/24P monitors. Once that was changed it looked a lot better. I will take the blame for not catching that sooner. I'm rendering out a "final" version and will end will try to send it to you when it finishes. I'm traveling and the WiFi is not up to par for moving big files.

[Michael Warren]

Here's Doug's grade:

YouTube (Short URL)

I very much like it. Lots of contrast and pop without crushing the blacks or blowing the highlights. I need to learn how to do that.

The contrast is a little stronger than I would probably make it, but I can see how Doug's grade would make a great impact to viewers.

Thank you Doug. I really appreciate all the trouble you went to.

[Doug Jensen]

Michael, thanks for letting me play with the files. I think you did a nice job flying the drone and the viewer really gets a better feel for the scale of the gorge with the camera moving like that.

I've tried a couple of times to send you the original ProRes files but it craps out every time. A problem on my end. I will try to send them to you later when I am home next week and have better WiFi speeds.

I agree with you completely that a big part of grading is just a matter of taste and everyone doesn't need to agree on what looks best. I might have graded it differently myself if I knew what the gorge looked like in real life. We don't all have to agree on the same flavor of ice cream, as long as it is good ice cream.

It was a learning experience for me as well to work with some Phantom files. I will say that Phantom footage was much harder to work with than Sony's XDCAM, XAVC, or even RAW files. It is not as malleable and it plays back horrendously. I can play back gigantic 16-bit RAW files smooth as butter in Resolve, but the Phantom footage won't play smoothly at all. Also, it took 90 minutes for the five ProRes files to render out, but if the footage had been any of the Sony formats it might have take 5-10 minutes at most.

[Michael Warren]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

I will say that Phantom footage was much harder to work with than Sony's XDCAM, XAVC, or even RAW files. It is not as malleable and it plays back horrendously.

I think now that shooting in D-Log may have been a mistake. With only 8 bits of data available, D-Log probably only uses about 7.5 bits. Once graded, there are far too few tones left and the compression artefacts become much more prominent.

I'll experiment with shooting in D-Cinelike, but will have to be careful not to over expose.

[Bob Safay]

WOW Doug what a difference. It looks so vivid. I think I will give resolve a try. Thanks to you and Michael for first off posting the video and then to you for showing us how much better we can all make our videos look. Every day is a learning experience. Bob

[Michael Warren]

I've been playing with Resolve for the last few days and it's actually quite a capable NLE.

But I'm having a similar problem to Doug in that the Mavic footage comes out terribly flickery, and I have my frame rate set right.

I've been using my laptop, but will load Resolve on my editing computer in the next few days.

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Bob Safay

WOW Doug what a difference.

If you like that, you might like this. Of course the ungraded footage is S-LOG so it has to be graded, but still, I'm always surprised what a difference grading makes and how much color and texture can be pulled out of the footage with very little effort using Resolve. Shot with Sony FS7 and an assortment of Sony e-mount lenses.

Sony PXW-FS7: Before and After Grading - Cape Cod Stock Footage on Vimeo