Importing Sony Footage: FCPX Assumes Full or Video Range? #263
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First of all, you can, and probably should, turn off the auto-applied LUT for log footage. With FCP, any LUT applied in the inspector will put the footage into the timeline's color space (often Rec. 709). This can result in clipping of the original footage and thereby limiting the effect of any color work done. It's usually better to apply a LUT via the Custom LUT effect and place that last in the list of effects applied to a given clip in a timeline. That way, the color processing can take full advantage of the larger color space often provided with log footage. It's (LUT applied last) like using Scene referred processing versus display referred processing in Resolve, which can preserve more color info during grading. This issue is exacerbated when footage was recorded at less than the ideal exposure (and other settings in the camera) specified by a given LUT. You can use something like MediaInfo or Invisor to check the levels range prior to import into FCP. Or, you can check the Sony specs. to see what the recorded range should be. Workflow testing is always a good idea. If you're just concerned with the MP4 footage not having a LUT auto-applied, see the above paragraph. It should be noted that a technical/transform LUT is designed for a specific exposure (and other settings). So, applying one of the LUTs provided by Apple may not be the best fit, depending on the camera settings during filming. FCP isn't particularly transparent about these things, nor does the user have as much control as one does in Resolve, for example. I hope this makes sense and helps... |
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I've been looking everywhere to try and find an answer for this question. I'm hoping the experts here might be able to advise.
Working with footage from various cameras, some are much more simple than others. Canon and DJI footage, for example, is simple. It's recorded in video range, viewed in video range, exported in video range.
Sony S-Log3 footage, though, is not so simple. It's recorded in full range.
MXF Sony S-Log3 footage is recognized by FCPX, and assumed full range, and an S-Log3 input conversion LUT is automatically applied. But MP4 Sony S-Log3, FCPX doesn't recognize that as S-Log3 footage.
Without the ability to tell FCPX whether files are full or video range (like Resolve), how do we properly handle full range video?
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