S-CINETONE BOOSTER LUTs for faster color-grading

[DougJensen]

I've created two custom LUTs to to quickly help me get better-looking images from my Sony FX6 --  when I do NOT want to shoot with S-LOG3; and I'm making them available free to anyone who wants to use them. My LUTs are called "S-CINETONE BOOSTERS" because they make it faster and easier for anyone (regardless of how inexperienced they are at color grading) to quickly improve their S-CINETONE footage. They are compatible with S-CINETONE footage that has been shot with any Sony camera that has an S-CINETONE shooting mode.  Just to be clear, the LUTs are NOT monitor LUTs for the camera. These LUTs are designed to be applied to S-CINETONE footage in post with Resolve, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and any other NLE that allows you to import custom LUTs. I'm teaching a 5-day Interview Lighting workshop in Maine next month that will give me some sample footage of human faces indoors. I'll post an update video after I've had the chance to use the LUTs on people. Maybe a third LUT will be forthcoming. We'll see.

Download the free LUTs: https://vortexmedia.cimediacloud.com/r/wXoENupq9U68

 

 

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[TomasRodriguez]

Thank you Doug!

[DougJensen]

The first two S-CINETONE BOOSTER LUTs I created work great for B-roll.  And now I have now created two more BOOSTER LUTs that are specifically intended for use on human faces --- i.e., interviews and headshots.   Here's a video that explains it.  There's a download link in YouTube comments section.

 

 

[videosoul]

Thanks for these Doug. “Face 1” looks very good, and I’ll aim to give that a try myself, along with the original “b-roll” ones. A news station in the UK I occasionally work for seem keen to make S-Cinetone the standard choice for ENG crews.

Personally I think this is an odd choice given S-Cinetone is not strict legal levels and is best exposed lower than one typically expects for news. But these LUTs would certainly improve things!

The “Face 2” one looks very desaturated to me though. Looks like skin tones have been lifted into the roll-off zone and so have lost colour information and contrast. Subjective, of course…

[DougJensen]

Thanks for taking a look and for the feedback.  I agree that the results are subjective and may look different on different monitors.  That's kind of why I made two.

If the news station in the UK is shooting with FX6's then I don't blame them for choosing S-CINETONE since the only other viable option is S-LOG3 -- on that camera.  If they are shooting with any other Sony cameras, then I agree that it is an odd choice.

[videosoul]

Well, I suppose the other options could be straight rec709, or a custom LUT burnt in 🤷🏼‍♂️

[DougJensen]

23 hours ago, videosoul said:

Well, I suppose the other options could be straight rec709, or a custom LUT burnt in 🤷🏼‍♂️

Well, that's the kind of thing that sounds good on paper, but usually turns out not so good in practice.  There's no way of creating a better REC709 scene file than S-CINETONE for the FX6 because there are virtually no paint menus to make it with.  Not that I think S-CINETONE is very good.  The lack of paint menus is probably the second biggest shortcoming of the camera. 

As for baking-in an MLUT, I've never seen it done successfully.  I'm not saying it is impossible, but I would have to see some actual real-world video that shows a custom MLUT in practice.  Until then, I'm a skeptic.  🙂

Edited August 24, 2023 by DougJensen

[videosoul]

The downside to baking in LUTs is they will only be 33x33x33 versions. Or possibly only 1x1x1. So banding etc may occur. Other than that, there is no reason it shouldn't work. Especially as you can now use LUTs in Custom mode on the FX6.