Grading HLG footage ???

petecarney wrote on 12/13/2017, 10:36 AM

Anyone had any luck using HLG footage to gain some dynamic range for standard sdr output? I've been doing some testing with GH5 4K 10bit 422 HLG profile, but I'm not having any luck getting proper color and levels.

The GH5 uses BT.709 for natural profile and rec2020 for the HLG profile according to the exif data on the different clips. Curious if anyone has ever edited the two different beasts in the same timeline and if that's even possible?

Suggestions on what settings you might have had success with would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Pete

Comments

fr0sty wrote on 12/13/2017, 7:36 PM

HLG isn't going to grade as well as VLOG 10 bit would. You'd do better starting with that. Even better if you use the 400mbps all intra-frame codec.

Wolfgang S. wrote on 12/14/2017, 4:58 AM

If you use v-log l of the GH5, then you could grade the footage using the ACES 1.0 workflow. However, ACES 1.0 takes a lot of calculation power since it is availabel in the 32bit Floating Point mode only.

FrOsty is right - it is not recommended to grade HLG, even if that is possible. So if you wish to grade HLG to rec709, a Major aspect would be to transform the Color sparce rec2020 to rec709. You could try that with a LUT that I have tried to develop some time ago (but that is not well tested yet):

I see that it is not possible to attach here the file really.

RogerS wrote on 12/14/2017, 11:50 AM

See the Leeming LUT one Facebook group. Paul Leeming created a color correction LUT for it and it seems people there are grading HLG with success. I don't have a GH5 so can't test it. https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeemingLUTOne/

OldSmoke wrote on 12/14/2017, 4:59 PM

Has someone tested if Catalyst Browse can convert HLG Rec2020 to Rec709? It does seem to do it but I am not certain if it's properly done.

petecarney wrote on 12/15/2017, 8:21 AM

Thanks for the notes guys. Trying to sort out how to do this on my own in Vegas rather than relying on LUTS.

OldSmoke wrote on 12/20/2017, 2:42 PM

Pete, have you tried Sony's Catalyst Browse? It seems to do a good job converting my FDR-AX700 HLG clips to Rec709. The only difference is that the FDR-AX700 shoots HLG in 8bit only.

petecarney wrote on 12/20/2017, 3:23 PM

Thanks OldSmoke, I think I have downloaded Catalyst Browse on my other computer, but haven't played with it at all. I'll give it a go

Cheers, Pete

OldSmoke wrote on 12/20/2017, 3:28 PM

Thanks OldSmoke, I think I have downloaded Catalyst Browse on my other computer, but haven't played with it at all. I'll give it a go

Cheers, Pete

Make sure to update to the latest version, 2017.3 as this is the one that includes Rec2020/HLG support.