Shooting Flat for Color Grading with the Canon 5D, 7D & 1D
I’ve recently been digging deeper into color grading and this means shooting footage that will give the most creative freedom in post. One limitation of the HDSLR cameras vs. the Red cameras is that they shoot in a highly compressed file format (really designed for output on the web, not original capture material). As a result, it has a much more shallow range of flexibility in post.
Shooting flat (minimum saturation and contrast) proves the greatest range for color grading in post, and produces a more film-like look. But even minimizing these setting in camera produces a more contrasty, more saturated result then many would like. Using canon’s computer software permits the creation of even flatter profiles, some of these are available from users as downloads, or you can create your own by playing with the curve Canon provides in it’s software.
These two recent posts and a video on the subject examine the issue further:
Color Correcting Canon 7D Footage
“While you will never find as much data and detail in your HDSLR video as you do in that same camera’s raw stills, the H.264 movies created by the Canon 7D, 5D and 1D Mark IV will withstand some massaging in post.” – Stu Maschwitz @ ProLost Blog (a high-end professional and industry innovator)
“…but as the occasional filmmaker & colorist that I am, I need the kind of look directly out of the camera that I could get with a film camera, or the RED One. And the 5D, with tricked out color settings, it would still not give me what I wanted: the videos came out over-saturated, and over-contrasty for my taste.” -Eugenia Loli (a direct and thorough indie filmmaker)
…and from Luka
