Post Processing RAW footage from 5D iii ML in Mac

Hello fellow Wetpixellers,

I am interested in learning more about shooting and editing with the RAW footage available from ML hacked 5Diii's

What are people using out there and what seems to be the best solution?

I am currently using FCP 7 and PP CS4 so a solution using either of these would be best. I've heard about the RAW2DNG plugin that's available. How does that work?

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Richard

Hi Richard,

I've used this setup for a few projects now. My workflow is to convert the .RAW files to .DNGs with Rawanizer, then import the dngs into lightroom, do a grade then export as a stream of jpegs. I then import the jpegs into my NLE, which is Sony Vegas. This is partly because I have come from a mainly stills background, so I'm very familiar with lightroom.

The flow will be slightly different on a mac, but I think the raw converters are pretty similar whichever platform you use, so you could do something similar on a mac. Or instead, a lot of people then import the dngs into Davinci Resolve Lite which is free to down, to do a rough grade then export to the video format of your choice- maybe a high quality prores and import into FCP. I did toy with Resolve, but found it difficult to achieve a satisfactory white balance. I'm sure you can but I'm just not used to it. I guess if you export the clips as high quality Prores, you could probably do the grading in FCP or Color.

In any case, I find the results very nice, once you're used to the extra steps in the workflow. Not sure I'd want to shoot an entire longer format project in this format unless I had lots of time/extra help, though!

Cheers

Fergus

Hi Fergus, I am using 5D3/ML setup too, do you touch the clarity/shadow/highlight/exposure sliders when you grade with LR? I have tried imported the dngs into AE (ACR) and LR and there are flickering if I touch those sliders.

For easier shots I just import the dngs into AE, grade them and render to quicktime mov with DNxHD. For trickier shots I have to treat them like time-lapse, import into LR and grade them, smooth out the flickering with Bridge and export as PSD sequence for further editing.

Thanks for the feedback guys,

I'm wondering how the number crunching method would work?

The frames treated individually then exported as whatever you want in FCP?

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm wondering if just treating every frame individually then exporting to FCP would work?

Testing Testing 123

Hi Fergus, I am using 5D3/ML setup too, do you touch the clarity/shadow/highlight/exposure sliders when you grade with LR? I have tried imported the dngs into AE (ACR) and LR and there are flickering if I touch those sliders.

 

For easier shots I just import the dngs into AE, grade them and render to quicktime mov with DNxHD. For trickier shots I have to treat them like time-lapse, import into LR and grade them, smooth out the flickering with Bridge and export as PSD sequence for further editing.

Hi kkfok,

Sorry for the delay. Yes, I do use the sliders in Lightroom and I did have the flickering problem initially- I looked into it & apparently it's related to the LR process used, so if you change the process to 2010 (in the develop tab- down near the bottom- Camera Calibration> Process). I think the newer processes much introduce some very minor 'auto exposure' type thing which introduces the flicker. Anyway, try it- I'd be interested to see if it works for you.

- Richard- not sure if I understand you correctly, but if you mean processing in Lightroom, then exporting as jpeg frames or whatever and importing to FCP it should work just fine (but see above about flickering). In lightroom I just grade one frame, copy the develop settings and paste to all other frames. I don't have FCP here in front of me, but on my PC NLE (Vegas) I can just import a series of high quality jpegs- I then sometimes also do some more minor grading if necessary.

Cheers

Richard,

It really depends on how much work is needed. For simple work, I usually use GingerHD on PP CC (7.2.2), then . There's no conversion , just the .raw files directly in and color correction is done in PP or if I feel adventurous SpeedGrade. Then back to PP and maybe AE for titling/graphics etc to finish. This route takes the least time and conversion.

For better quality color correction, I use Resolve 11. As others have noted, RAW2DNG/RAWANIZER convert files and then it's a matter of color correction in Resolve then export XML to your NLE like FCPX/7. Then back to Resolve for final correction and finish back in FCP with replaced proxy DNG sequences.

Now if you check the internet, the original chatter about AE having the better debayering was true vs Resolve 9. 10 improved a lot and now 11 is just... different to Adobe RAW converter. I choose resolve because it's faster in render and also color correction prowess, especially with CUDA.
I assume you are using an older Mac along with FCP7 and CS4? Another method is to download Resolve 11, convert the files after correction to ProRes then edit and finish. It'll be the path of least resistance but also requires the least grunt from your work station.

Hi kkfok,

 

Sorry for the delay. Yes, I do use the sliders in Lightroom and I did have the flickering problem initially- I looked into it & apparently it's related to the LR process used, so if you change the process to 2010 (in the develop tab- down near the bottom- Camera Calibration> Process). I think the newer processes much introduce some very minor 'auto exposure' type thing which introduces the flicker. Anyway, try it- I'd be interested to see if it works for you.

 

 

Cheers

Thanks, I heard that too but I was tempted by the 2012 process as it seems to be much better in highlight and shadow recovery.

Eventually I bought a quite expensive plug-in (AE/PP/FCP) called flicker free and it solved most of the flickering problems.

I will go ahead to try 2010 process, thanks.

Thanks for all the feedback, I'll be experimenting with the various workflows soon

Cheers

Richard