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9. How to increase the Canon 7D dynamic range (Tutorial)
1 month ago
Tutorial on how to use picture styles to increase the dynamic range of the Canon 7D / 5DMkII.
Custom picture styles are an amazing feature that almost compensate for the lack of a raw codec for video capture on the Canon DSLRS. The default picture styles on the camera are geard towards producing nice results out of the box but are not very good if you intend to do color correction and grading in postprocessing. This tutorial shows how to use custom picture styles that produce very flat, high dynamic range footage (similar to real film cameras).
The actual picture styles have been made by other people, and here are some references:
Super Flat, Genesis Panalog and Velvia:
cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3401
Marvel's Cine Style:
marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/canon-7d-picture-style-with-cine-gamma-s-curve-free-download/
If you have problems downloading them, you can get them from here in one package (crnkovic.org/video/picture_styles.zip). I do however recommend that you get them from the original sources and read the forum posts/blog posts associated with them.
The final example footage was shot handheld (Zacuto rapid fire + zfinder) at Skogskyrkogården cemetery in Stockholm. I scouted the place for a possible future shoot and the footage I shot was never meant for release - it did however come handy in this tutorial as it was all shot using the super flat picture style.
Custom picture styles are an amazing feature that almost compensate for the lack of a raw codec for video capture on the Canon DSLRS. The default picture styles on the camera are geard towards producing nice results out of the box but are not very good if you intend to do color correction and grading in postprocessing. This tutorial shows how to use custom picture styles that produce very flat, high dynamic range footage (similar to real film cameras).
The actual picture styles have been made by other people, and here are some references:
Super Flat, Genesis Panalog and Velvia:
cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3401
Marvel's Cine Style:
marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/canon-7d-picture-style-with-cine-gamma-s-curve-free-download/
If you have problems downloading them, you can get them from here in one package (crnkovic.org/video/picture_styles.zip). I do however recommend that you get them from the original sources and read the forum posts/blog posts associated with them.
The final example footage was shot handheld (Zacuto rapid fire + zfinder) at Skogskyrkogården cemetery in Stockholm. I scouted the place for a possible future shoot and the footage I shot was never meant for release - it did however come handy in this tutorial as it was all shot using the super flat picture style.
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Also, I'm jealous you got your hands on a Z-Finder before they got sold out, how do you like it so far?
The Z-Finder's great - I just got it a few days ago. It really makes handheld shooting much easier. You can almost focus properly with it when using a fast lens - the limitation being the low resolution of the 7D LCD. A lot of the benefit is simply ergonomic - the shape of the camera becomes much more suitable for shooting video.
Also, very nice grading there at the end.
Eric
And very well done ! :o)
The picture styles are however a fairly good stop-gap measure. It's not nearly as elegant or easy to work with as raw but in most cases it gets the work done.
I have idea use the HDMI output of the 7D directly to my HD I/O AJA converter and output a MUCH better codec image (almost uncompress HD 10bits ... ) did you think it can work ?
i am from the Film world .... and don t test yet any 7D , i am belgian Dp living in Ecuador .... first 7D i the country will be mine .
Bests, Olivier .
There is also the issue of aliasing that the 7D has and the red is free of. The downsampling from 18 MP to 2 MP isn't exactly brilliant. Most people won't notice it unless you point it out but it can be problematic in sharp focus wide shots.
THANKS!
I also recommend the following article for any 5D/7D user.
marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/canon-7d-noise-and-iso-test/
On another note, what did you use to grade the footage at the end???
Thanks! Great info!
I'd like to ask how you are converting the 7D .mov files for editing on PC? I've been searching all day for a solution...
Thanks for your time!!
On a weaker machine, Canopus or Cineform are the best choices, the latter being cheaper (Cineform Neoscene will set you back about €100 if I remember correctly). Canopus produces slightly larger files - both Cineform and Canopus take up about two times the space of the h264 mov files.
I did notice the increase in the file sizes though...
Thanks again for responding!
Actually there is perhaps a scenario where flat profiles would be useful for you and that's when the scene is partially under and overexposed. In the backlit examples in the video the aperture, shutter speed and ISO were identical and as you could see the default canon style produced a completely unusable picture.
As for an example, look at steadicems video below.
scene 1:35 ->>>
crushed shadows ( appled a s-curve in vegas)
I'm currently using superflat, marvel's cine and a variation on the faithful profile. From what I've (unscientifically) tested I would say that custom flat profiles have about the same amount of noise as the Canon ones. You typically get much less noise after post as with the Canon profiles the underexposed regions are just black with noise. As noise has the highest information content (impossible to compress properly) it is eating most of the bandwidth of the video. Hence having black + noise or having actual details + noise shouldn't make too much difference. So even if the bitrate is constant you'll get overall more interesting parts of the data than with a non-flat one.
Currently I'm using superflat for landscapes and in low light situations while I use Marvel's Cine profile for close-ups where I have some control over the light.
Have you worked on any more profiles since the panalog?
For example, the first thing I did when shooting video is
0 Sharpness
-4 Contrast
0 Saturation
0 Colour Tone
I've found this gives me a nice flat image for grading. Are you saying that the PSE software comes with further controls to achieve an image with a higher dynamic range than using those menu options in camera?
p.s - I'm not interested in uploading specific 'looks' to the camera, just want to get the most out of it.
marvel or superflat?
The problem with marvel could be the sharpness which is not at 0, so there could be some alising. superflat seems a bit to grey in the highlights?
Thanks
As for sharpness and aliasing - that should not make any difference. Aliasing occurs when the image is resized from the full 18 MP to HD resolution (~2 MP). The picture styles are applied after the image is resized so any aliasing will be there regardless of what settings you use.
Also have a look at Stu Maschwitz article " Flatten Your 5D "
prolost.com/blog/2009/8/3/flatten-your-5d.html
Cheers
YR
In essence I agree with you though that controlled lighting is always preferable. When you have full control over the exposure, you don't need to extend the dynamic range.
Anyway, the tutorial is nice.
I am in PAL land & found myself shooting between 2000 & 4000 ISO @ 50 shutter & wide open 1.4-2.8.
When pumping up the mids in post, it is incredible how much detail is in there (albeit noisy), but not awful noise, kinda like grainy film. I love this camera.
In the last red centre podcast they've speculated about the possibility of getting the RAWvideo from the 7D via usb cable as the usb is fast enough to transfer the hugh amount of data. Do you think this could be possible?
I've read that the 5D firmware hacker got a 7D... lets keep our fingers crossed.
thx again for the video.
Please check out these guys:
syndicate.se/Default.aspx?Id=299
It would be too amazing to have real 4:4:4
LOL
Very funny & Very informative.
Thanks!
-Scott Lynch
Plus that was some excellent handheld in the cemetery ;-) must be in part due to the Z-Finder and Rapid Fire!