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RAW Workflow for Inspire 2 - X5S Windows/Premiere CC 2017

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Hi IP faithful,

New I2 bundle (X5S, DNG, ProRes) on order (oh yeah!) and messing around with DJI's sample DNG files while I wait. Has it been a whole day?...

Any thoughts (links) on a RAW workflow for this new kit?
The X5S DNG sample opens fine using Media Browser>Import in Premiere. It is very dark but looks great after a massive curves adjustment in Lumetri and a few other tweaks. Not bad but it seems like something is off there. Same file looks much better at defaults in ACR in After Effects/Photoshop but i would rather avoid a middle step if possible. The X5R DNG sample also imports in Premiere without issue. That one, however, would not be an easy fix.

Also, what is the mode for getting files off of the new SSD's? The DJI site says no software needed but then has a caveat *coming soon. Any knowledge to share on that?

I am very open to hearing what you guys know about this.
Thanks!
 
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Raw files most of the time require an extra step. Use a real raw editor like Davinci resolve, it's free. You can also edit in there but requires a good computer.


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Hi,
Thanks John.

It seems like an all Premiere Raw Workflow may be possible (with or without proxies). Anyone playing with that? Any thoughts on offloading the SSD's?
 
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I would recommend a Premiere Pro ingest/proxy workflow. Ingest is separate from import, and configuring it for proxies is a bit tricky. But once you have it figured out, it works great.

When you ingest the raw footage, Premiere will create proxy files with highly-compressed versions of the footage. When you edit, you use this footage, which is easy for a decent computer to handle. If you want to see the raw footage, you can click on a toggle button that switches you between the raw and proxy footage. But when you export, Premiere always uses the original raw footage, and you get the best possible quality.
 
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Hi Murph,

Nice. I ingested the sample DNG as a proxy (looks like Media Encoder manages that - cool!). I matched the DNG's 1.7777 aspect ratio with the ingest preset for GoPro 720. I found the toggle option and that all looks good. My one concern is that in both DNG and Proxy in Premiere the DJI sample clip is very dark. Here is the clip in Premiere and at the default settings in ACR in AE.

Any thoughts on what is going on there?

11305-24bd17c61855a13ce747a38e1d7ea11e.jpg
11304-f0d05c6a29e8989363d8d1f6427070ff.jpg
 
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I would recommend a Premiere Pro ingest/proxy workflow. Ingest is separate from import, and configuring it for proxies is a bit tricky. But once you have it figured out, it works great.

When you ingest the raw footage, Premiere will create proxy files with highly-compressed versions of the footage. When you edit, you use this footage, which is easy for a decent computer to handle. If you want to see the raw footage, you can click on a toggle button that switches you between the raw and proxy footage. But when you export, Premiere always uses the original raw footage, and you get the best possible quality.
+1


I switched to premiere pro and this is the easiest proxy workflow I've used.
 
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I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this here as it talks about my own presets that I am offering. But I'm not posting a competing link here and many of you might find this as useful as I do and it could solve most of the problems we have with the Inspire 2. I created After Effects presets and DaVinci LUT files that can be used to convert Raw and D-Log footage to something much more usable and closer to an Arri Alexa Log C look.

If it is inappropriate (even though it is so useful ;) please delete my post, but don't flag me! Thanks
If it is not deleted I would appreciate your feedback and own ideas. I am also open to extending the presets I mentioned even further.

 
Thanks for making this video! You mentioned that it was not possible to directly edit DNG files in Premiere. It is possible on Windows. Is that a MacOS limitation?
 
Thanks for making this video! You mentioned that it was not possible to directly edit DNG files in Premiere. It is possible on Windows. Is that a MacOS limitation?
Thanks @Feet Up,
It is possible to import cdng files on a Mac too, but when those files come from the Inspire 2, the result is very unpleasing. Everything that was white becomes magenta, the blacks are crushed and colors are bad. That is not the case with Blackmagic Camera footage for example. How is it on Windows?
 
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Hi,
I am just using the DJI sample files to figure out a workflow while i wait for my SSD's to arrive :) so for now so I am limited. The older X5 sample DNG opens with he magenta issue that you mentioned. The new X5S clip opens without that issue but very dark. With only the adjustment below I get a usable start and everything works fine from there. I am unsure if this is file specific or a working anomaly. Your other workflow suggestions were greatly appreciated!

Screenshot 2017-01-27 07.16.48.png
 
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I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this here as it talks about my own presets that I am offering. But I'm not posting a competing link here and many of you might find this as useful as I do and it could solve most of the problems we have with the Inspire 2. I created After Effects presets and DaVinci LUT files that can be used to convert Raw and D-Log footage to something much more usable and closer to an Arri Alexa Log C look.

If it is inappropriate (even though it is so useful ;) please delete my post, but don't flag me! Thanks
If it is not deleted I would appreciate your feedback and own ideas. I am also open to extending the presets I mentioned even further.

Nice video, I really enjoy your video series and the information you provide.
 
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Reactions: Feet Up
Hi,
I am just using the DJI sample files to figure out a workflow while i wait for my SSD's to arrive :) so for now so I am limited. The older X5 sample DNG opens with he magenta issue that you mentioned. The new X5S clip opens without that issue but very dark. With only the adjustment below I get a usable start and everything works fine from there. I am unsure if this is file specific or a working anomaly. Your other workflow suggestions were greatly appreciated!

View attachment 11873

With the X5R we are using a program called Slimraw, which fixes the very dark import in Premiere and also does raw compression and shrinks the dng files. I tried it with this sample and it is fixed in when I import in Premiere. BTW, this sample is apparently from the X5R camera, not the X5S. At least the metadata inside says so, when inspected with exiftool. And its resolution is 4k which seems to confirm this.
I am also looking for X5S samples to evaluate the image myself, no luck yet.
 
Thanks @Feet Up,
It is possible to import cdng files on a Mac too, but when those files come from the Inspire 2, the result is very unpleasing. Everything that was white becomes magenta, the blacks are crushed and colors are bad. That is not the case with Blackmagic Camera footage for example. How is it on Windows?

This is interesting. Do you have any sample raw frames you could share?
 
With the X5R we are using a program called Slimraw, which fixes the very dark import in Premiere and also does raw compression and shrinks the dng files. I tried it with this sample and it is fixed in when I import in Premiere. BTW, this sample is apparently from the X5R camera, not the X5S. At least the metadata inside says so, when inspected with exiftool. And its resolution is 4k which seems to confirm this.
I am also looking for X5S samples to evaluate the image myself, no luck yet.

Hey guys. Not sure if you're referring to this, but isn't there a dng sequence from the I2 available on the DJI website?
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/inspire_2/DJI_INSPIRE_2_DNG.zip
 
Thanks for posting that. You made may day. Your file looks fantastic. What lens was this? Would you mind sharing your in camera white balance procedure?

PS: Premiere in Windows is showing that odd Magenta issue as well.
 

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