Work up any Presets lately?

[Patrick King]

The Blue Barn Preset Manager has been out for a while now (and I'm still thankful Steve created it and gave it to CHris to give away here at DVinfo).

So have any of you worked up any Presets lately? Care to share? There has to be more Presets than the 6 or 8 Chris posted months ago. The whole point was to share!

I promise I won't shoot a major motion picture and make gads of money using your 'family secret' Preset...unless I acknowledge you with a 20 point title credit (do you want that as a lead in credit or at the end of the film?).

Calling all Presets!

[Josh Dahlberg]

Don't want to hijack your thread Patrick, but rather to get it rolling, here's something I'm working on. I'm trying to configure my camera to obtain the best images for post-software to work with.

That is, rather than create a look in camera, I want my presets adjusted to gain as much detail as possible, and leave my NLE and Magic Bullet to colour correct and jazz things up. And yes, I am going for that elusive film look.

Presently I'm using the standard settings, with these adjustments:

gamma: Cine
matrix: Cine
knee: Low
black: Stretch
sharpness: Minimum
coring: A couple of notches up

Any comments? Specifically, does anyone have any recommendations about whether I should make any changes to Colour Gain or Phase, and the Setup level and Master Ped, given my aims?

Thanks a lot, josh

[Jesse Redman]

I found the following threads:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/search.php?searchid=398849

I'm curious to know if anyone thinks that different NLE's might require different settings or if the best setting in one will be the best setting for all.

I'm using Vegas 6 and would like to know if anyone has a "best" setting they use for Vegas?

Patrick, thanks for starting this thread.

- Jesse Redman

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Josh Dahlberg

Don't want to hijack your thread Patrick, but rather to get it rolling, here's something I'm working on. I'm trying to configure my camera to obtain the best images for post-software to work with.

That is, rather than create a look in camera, I want my presets adjusted to gain as much detail as possible, and leave my NLE and Magic Bullet to colour correct and jazz things up. And yes, I am going for that elusive film look.

Presently I'm using the standard settings, with these adjustments:

gamma: Cine
matrix: Cine
knee: Low
black: Stretch
sharpness: Minimum
coring: A couple of notches up

Any comments? Specifically, does anyone have any recommendations about whether I should make any changes to Colour Gain or Phase, and the Setup level and Master Ped, given my aims?

Thanks a lot, josh

OK Josh,

I took your set-up and converted it to a Preset in the Blue Barn Pictures Preset Manager. I then opened the .bbp file just created and copied this text out of it:

[Presets]
Preset Name = ColorGrd
Gamma = 1
Knee = 2
Black = 0
NR = 0
VDetail = 0
Color Matrix = 1
Color Gain = 0
Color Phase = 0
Red = 0
Green = 0
Blue = 0
SetupLevel = 0
Sharpness = -6
Coring = 2
MasterPed = 0
Description = Set-up to keep acquired image neutral to produce the best stock for post-production color grading.

If you will copy those lines out of this post and paste them into a blank Textpad, Notepad, or Wordpad document, then title the document "ColorGrd.bbp", you will be able to load it directly into your cam to acquire imagery ready for your Post-Production magic. Now we all have Josh's "ColorGrd.bbp" to use and tweak. Thanks Josh!

Jesse, as far as what settings might be best for a particular NLE, I don't know what the differences might be. I do know that the imagery from my XL-2 looks great in Vegas, and I've had to apply some pretty wacky presets to produce anything but a stunning image. I keep Ash's "Saturated.bbp", Richard's "Routine.bbp" and the "Documentary.bbp" in my XL-2's three presets unless I've loaded something else for a special purpose.

[Javier Urena]

Patrick,

I believe Josh's settings are still a work in progress. I don't think he meant to represent them as the ideal settings for post-production tweaking. He's seeking advice on the issue, so maybe it's a little misleading/premature to convert his settings into a preset.

Having said that, I used the same settings when I used the XL2, but I did so becuase I wanted a low-contrast look. When we tried to crush the blacks in post, some of the shots which were properly exposed ended up too dark. This was especially true when we ran them through magic bullet presets.

Also, I don't see how coring has an effect on color correction.

[Patrick King]

Javier,

It OK! Presets are cheap. If he tweaks them and likes the new settings better, it'll take all of 30 seconds to update the Preset.

And that Coring question, we'll I've read and re-read the description of Coring and have several times watched the DVeStore video about "Watch the XL2 Feature Tour Video!", and like you have yet to see more than a little difference in an image with Coring set all the way up or all the way down.

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Javier Urena

I believe Josh's settings are still a work in progress... when we tried to crush the blacks in post, some of the shots which were properly exposed ended up too dark. This was especially true when we ran them through magic bullet presets.

Also, I don't see how coring has an effect on color correction.

Yes Javier, that's right, I'm just seeking advice. Interesting issue you raise re: crushing blacks in post. Hmmm... I was hoping to get as much info on tape as possible (ie: low con), then play around later... but your comment puts an interesting spin on things.

The coring had nothing to do with colour correction... just trying to gain a clean image.

I'm most interested in the relationship between master pedestal and setup level - ie: whether it's generally best to alter either of these before commencing a film shoot.

It took me a few days to get back to this thread as I moved from New Zealand to Korea in the weekend. My brother in law who lives over here has loaned me his Z1... gotta say I love the VF and wish my XL2 had one just like it. It's also nice being in an NTSC country, Korea (NZ is Pal), and being able to decide which flavour to shoot in.

Anyways... thanks for the thread Patrick

[Brian J. Harris]

Originally Posted by Patrick King

The Blue Barn Preset Manager has been out for a while now (and I'm still thankful Steve created it and gave it to CHris to give away here at DVinfo).

So have any of you worked up any Presets lately? Care to share? There has to be more Presets than the 6 or 8 Chris posted months ago. The whole point was to share!

I promise I won't shoot a major motion picture and make gads of money using your 'family secret' Preset...unless I acknowledge you with a 20 point title credit (do you want that as a lead in credit or at the end of the film?).

Calling all Presets!

Hey Patrick,
Here's a preset I've been tinkering with for a couple of months.

XL2 preset
Gamma: Cine
Knee: Low
Black: Press
Color Matrix: Cine
Color Gain: +2
Color Phase: +2
Red Gain: +1
Green Gain: 0
Blue Gain: +3
V Detail: Low
Sharpness: -4
Coring: 0
Setup Level: 0
Master Ped: -3
NR: Off

Here's a page in another post discussing a link to clips shot with my preset, no presets, and one configured by Javier.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....2&postcount=17

[Javier Urena]

edit: posted in wrong thread.