Extracting camera info from Meta data

i have received a bunch of footage from a client that wants me to edit and color grade it. At this point I am not sure if I can even color grade it because I would like to use a LUT that will first give me a baseline for the particular camera. The best ic an tell is there are 2 different cameras used in the shoot but I am not seeing that info in the meta data. I am using the EXTENDED setting while viewing the meta in the inspector but there is nothing about the camera model. Am I missing something or is the data simply not there? Is there an alternate way to obtain this info?


Many thanks,

Houston

Posted on Dec 23, 2018 11:23 AM

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Posted on Dec 23, 2018 11:59 AM

Never rely on LUTs like that. They're made for LOG footage, but some folks make LUTs for specific non-LOG footage, and it's not reliable. Different lenses, different ISO, shutter angle, it will all make on LUT not valid for other shots on the same camera. A very well known colorist once called LUTs on non-LOG footage (he even hates them on LOG footage) the Lazy User Technique of color grading. And I agree.


If you have clips from a specific camera, all shot in the same location, from the same angle, with the same lighting, color the first one, copy, Paste Attributes to the others. Or use something like Coremelt's Chromatic or Denver Riddle's Cinema Grade plugins that support grading by groups.


As for metadata, most video cameras don't record it in standard ways, everyone has their own way of storing it, so to speak. You won't see many cameras outside of the iPhones that store that data in a way FCPX can access it in a standard format. You may find some third party app that gives you this information somewhere, I don't know.


But again, a LUT isn't going to do you tons of good, IMHO. I grade for broadcast daily, I've tried all the LUTs out there, I hate them all, because you STILL have to grade even if you use them. I can get better, cleaner results grading from scratch, watching my scopes and Viewer just fine, very quickly, very easily.


I'm sure others have differing opinions. Because LUTs are subjective.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 23, 2018 11:59 AM in response to htown

Never rely on LUTs like that. They're made for LOG footage, but some folks make LUTs for specific non-LOG footage, and it's not reliable. Different lenses, different ISO, shutter angle, it will all make on LUT not valid for other shots on the same camera. A very well known colorist once called LUTs on non-LOG footage (he even hates them on LOG footage) the Lazy User Technique of color grading. And I agree.


If you have clips from a specific camera, all shot in the same location, from the same angle, with the same lighting, color the first one, copy, Paste Attributes to the others. Or use something like Coremelt's Chromatic or Denver Riddle's Cinema Grade plugins that support grading by groups.


As for metadata, most video cameras don't record it in standard ways, everyone has their own way of storing it, so to speak. You won't see many cameras outside of the iPhones that store that data in a way FCPX can access it in a standard format. You may find some third party app that gives you this information somewhere, I don't know.


But again, a LUT isn't going to do you tons of good, IMHO. I grade for broadcast daily, I've tried all the LUTs out there, I hate them all, because you STILL have to grade even if you use them. I can get better, cleaner results grading from scratch, watching my scopes and Viewer just fine, very quickly, very easily.


I'm sure others have differing opinions. Because LUTs are subjective.

Dec 23, 2018 4:06 PM in response to BenB

Bern thank you so much for this very helpful info. I am coming from the photography world and I am used to having more control over my images but the video world is quite different when it comes to that. I guess this is why there are cameras that shoot RAW images as video footage, for more control. But perhaps I am way off on that. Still, I am quite certain that I can get the control that is needed, I just need to learn more about what I am doing and how to go about doing it.


Many thanks,

Houston

Dec 23, 2018 6:00 PM in response to htown

Video is a somewhat different color/luma space than photography. Avoid RAW unless you really need it for a feature film, very over rated. Has it's purpose, but it's not meant for every shoot. Color Grading Central (dot com) has some great training for coloring video. So does Ripple Training. Highly recommended.

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Extracting camera info from Meta data

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