🎨 Colorist Newsletter #514

Published: Sun, 04/03/22

Issue DXIV: The HDR DCI Edition
The Color Grading Newsletter
News, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sundays. Curated by a professional color grader.
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Curated & Published
by
Patrick Inhofer
The Craft
Featuring the work of creative craftsmen, the theory of color, and industry news. Learn practical workflows, useful theories, and actionable insights from existing (and emerging) leaders and teachers in our industry.
The mother of all User Group meet-ups is back at Vegas for NAB this year. As always, registration is required. Monday, April 25, 2022 at Beer Park.

(video) "This is a passionate conversation, with lots of technical detail, which highlights why so many of these artists are so excited to be working with these new tools available to them." The colorists are your Newsletter publisher, Joey D'Anna, Dan Moran, and Robbie Carman.

(video) "Members of the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) Technical Committee explain the double-blind image testing that culminated in the numbers used by DCI for minimum black level and peak brightness of a differentiated theatrical High Dynamic Range (HDR) experience."
Philip mulls if the US Copyright Office was correct to rule that Machine Learning art isn't copyrightable by the machine's owner: "It was argued that the owner of other types of machine were the owners of the output of the machine, and that’s quite valid. It almost swayed me for a moment, then I realized the fundamental difference is that other types of machine are churning out identical copies of the required output."

"This allows filmmakers to give the illusion they are ultra-high-tech holographic devices in camera. Just as an LED volume updates the LED wall with the correct parallax to give the illusion the LED wall is actually a vast vista, so too does the new approach update the screen to give the illusion they float in a holographic way in 3D."

(video) "Understanding how different colors interact and how you use them to complement, balance, or play off each other is a fantastic way to start making more creative, harmonious, and compelling photos. This fantastic video tutorial shows how to use the power of color theory to make eye-catching portraits."

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The Tools
Our craft keeps changing. And growing. Learn about updates to your favorite software. Discover new tools to help you work faster or more creatively. Build your toolchest with new techniques and approaches. 

New codec support, performance improvements, and bug fixes. The link is to the Read Me.

What's the odds on DaVinci Resolve ProRes encoding on Windows being released at NAB? In the meantime, this roundup gives you alternatives.

(video) The use of the term 'Ai' in place of Machine Learning continues to be a fly in my soup - but that ship has sailed. In this post, Colourlab explains their approach to working with reference images for shot matching and creating looks. Click through to read and watch their approach.

"Ci (pronounced “see”) workflows enable users to collaborate in a more effective manner ... by potentially replacing up to five separate systems that are currently being utilized for media management, file transfer, transcoding, collaboration and archive. What kind of a difference can using Ci actually make in a practical sense and in terms of the bottom line though?" This is an interview with the product manager.

Another good one from Pomfort.

For my on-set peeps: "Altera lets data managers replace a clunky workflow that often involves three different tools to edit: CSVs, ALEs and CDLs."
Sponsor
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Pushing Photons
These stories are from MixingLight.com's membership Library of color grading articles, tutorials, and podcasts (Tao Of Color is co-Owner). Do you want to read a story listed here but not a member? Sign up for a free 7-Day Test Drive.​​​ There's also color correction Practice Projects for purchase. 

(video) "Using Resolve's Edit Index and EDL comments, you can prepare a preconformed timeline for color management much easier than you think."

(video) "Team Mixing Light, in a live conference call, takes member questions on Resolve's HDR palette and the practice of handing over project files."

(video) "Learn how to extract the hue and/or saturation shifts of a 3D LUT, without getting stuck with the LUT's accompanying contrast adjustment."

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Gear Heads
Stay updated on the latest hardware that's shipping - because the craft of color grading isn't just about software. Plus, keep an eye on future equipment trends and hardware odds-and-ends.
US-based customers can get large discounts on show floor models. There are some good deals in here if you're in the market for monitors and hardware.

"Compared with the Apple Pro Display XDR, all but one DreamColor models, Sony multisystem consumer HDTV sets I have reviewed and broadcast JVC monitors I have covered in articles, the just released Apple Studio Display has begun to show severe limitations for video editing and grading"

"The Stream Deck Pedal hides under your desk, letting you trigger complex actions with a tap of your feet. It's unique and worth checking out."

More like this: "Considering that the RTX 3090 Ti has a MSRP that is $500 higher than the RTX 3090, consumes 100W more power, and doesn't any additional VRAM, the RTX 3090 Ti is likely going to be a bit of a hard sell for most Resolve users."

"Nvidia and Apple are playing at different ends of the pool with their respective high-end chips. Apple is prioritizing power consumption and will continue to release more efficient chips while Nvidia is prioritizing performance and will keep pushing the envelope there."

(video) "There are different types of SSDs on the market. You may have also read about the various standards such as SATA, SAS and NVMe, and PCIe. SATA and SAS refer to how the drives connect to a computer. While the core technology is the same, certain SSD solutions use different connections to achieve fast transfer speeds." The embedded video goes into detail.

"This means that no matter how many times your laptops address changes, because it is on the same network as the TV it can be associated back to the original IP address and your usage can now be tracked."

Sunday Fun(nies)
Random thoughts, tidbits, and fun stuff that caught my attention this week. Maybe it's color grading related. Maybe not. Ya got'ta read to the end of the Newsletter to find out.
It seems one of our Newsletter sponsors has a sense of humor on the first day of April: "Due to supply chain and certain “unobtanium” chipsets, we expect the arrival of the OWC Gargantuan Dock to planet Earth by April 31st, 2028, with an estimated MSRP of $4,999.99." The product image is definitely funny.
(video) If you're old enough to remember the march of the extensions on boot using early Macs then you'll love this: "I’ve extended James Friend’s in-browser Basilisk II port to create a full-featured classic 68K Mac in your browser. You can see it in action at system7.app or macos8.app. For a taste, see also this screencast..." (via Glenn Rempe)

"Vision is the primary way that humans sense the world, so what happens when you suddenly strip sight away? In 2004, researchers at Harvard Medical School found out." Whether this is funny or not depends on your perspective.

 
Th- th- th- that's all folks! I'll see you next Sunday.