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Today, I'll show you the best workflow for DSLR footage.
First, you need a DSLR camera like my canon 550d and a standard canon lens.
I also use After Effects CS5 for all the nessessary steps in post production.
For all the plugins I use please read the description.
The best way to capture your footage is to use flat footage.
While capturing it looks flat, but this will allow you much more colors and contrast
in post production. I use the Cinestyle from Technicolor, but
there are others you'll find in the internet.
I also recommend to use Magic Lantern. It is a custom firmware for the Canon 550d giving
you much more functions. For my workflow, you
don't need magic lantern, but if you don't know it,
give it a try, it's awesome.
Ok, lets get some footage to work with. Nice!
In after effects....
by holding ALT click on the 8 bpc Button to choose the 32 bpc workspace.
Well, whats the diffrence now? Simply put, you can now work with more colors.
Drag your footage in you new composition.
First, we get rid of the DSLR digital grain. Select your footage layer, go to Effect and
choose Neat Video. Then open the options of Neat Video.
You can use the auto profile tool, it will work in most cases.
The grain depends mostly on the ISO, the Light in your scene and of course
on the specifications of your sensor. I always shoot on an ISO between 80 and 160. This is
the best recommended ISO level in context.
As you can see, the auto profile works pretty well. I recommend you to create your own profiles,
name it like ISO and brightnesslevel of your scene and
save it.
Now we type LUT in it and add the "LUT Buddy" to our composition.
We open up the options. And click on import LUT. We open up the S-curve for Cinestyle,
that comes with the Technicolor Cinestyle Package.
Then we choose a bitdeph of 32 Bit, click on convert, and Done.
You see the effect returned and added even more colors and contrast.
Add a new Adjustment Layer. For a better understanding you can also rename
your Layers. Find "Color Finesse" and drag it over your
composition. Then click on full interface.
AT the HSL, Control, Master, you can control your main settings.
There we can adjust the RGB grain. We can also increase the Saturation and Vibrance.
I also like to add a litte more contrast.
You can also change the Hue offsets of your footage.
Feel free to find your best match.
If you are done, klick on ok.
As you can see, the colors are much stronger than previously.
I also like to add a letterbox. Therefore I
click on Layer, New, Adjustment layer and search for the "Letterboxer" effect, that
comes with the magic bullet frames plugin. Now we simply choose the anamorphic preset,
and we are finaly done with our footage.
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