Hi everybody! I’m PhotoJoseph. I’m a Lumix ambassador and I’m thrilled to get to introduce you to the new Panasonic LUMIX S1H and Atomos Ninja V's ProRes RAW capability.

[00:00:11.00] We're going to start by looking at how to set up the camera and the recorder to record in ProRes RAW, we'll talk a little bit about exposing for ProRes RAW and then we're going to take some files into Final Cut Pro X and take a look at editing them for both SDR and HDR delivery. Let's start with the camera…

[00:00:26.10] The first thing we need to do is go into the cameras menu and under the “Video” menu and then “Image Format”, you'll see a new option “HDMI RAW Data Output”. We'll go ahead and select that and switch that to “On” and it warns you that the camera is unable to record internally while outputting RAW.

[00:00:42.07] We'll go ahead and choose “Yes” and then right away, the Atomos Ninja V has detected the RAW signal and it is offering to switch over to ProRes RAW. It says “HDMI RAW Signal Detected. ProRes RAW codec is required”.

[00:00:54.10] We'll go ahead and tap “OK” and now the devices are both set up and ready to go. But there's a few other things that we want to look at first before we start shooting. Back in the SH1 menu, if we go up to “Record Quality”, we can look at all the different options that we have to record.

[00:01:07.14] Let's start at the bottom… you have Super 35 crop at a 4:3 aspect ratio for Anamorphic output, that's a 3536x2656 at 23.98 and then you also have the same settings for 29.97. Up from there, you have a 4128x2176 or a 17:9 aspect ratio at 23.98 and this is also at a Super 35 crop and you get the same thing at 29.97 and at 59.94.

[00:01:34.19] Finally you get up into the full frame options; full frame in 16x9 at 5888x3312, that's the 5.9K resolution at 23.98 or at 29.97.

[00:01:48.01] Next up is the Time Code options. You may not have to change anything in here but there's one thing that I do want to point out; if you have HDMI time code output set to “OFF”, then you won't be able to trigger recording on the Ninja from the camera itself. If right now for example, with that off I press Record on the camera, I’ll get a diaLog that recording is disabled in the camera. However, I can still start recording in the Ninja itself by simply tapping the Record button on there, that will still start recording.

[00:02:13.24] But we want to be able to do that from the camera; so, go back into the “Time Code” menu and set HDMI Time Code Output to “On”.

[00:02:22.10] Now, if I press “Record” on the camera, it's going to trigger it on the Ninja and we can see the camera knows that it's recording, and of course I can stop recording there as well.

[00:02:30.11] Now let's look at some options on the Ninja itself; under the Input menu, we can see that the 5.9K 29.97 RAW source is detected and under the Trigger mode, we see that it's set to HDMI. That again is what allows us to trigger recording on the Ninja from the camera itself.

[00:02:45.09] You'll also notice that the camera output options can't be changed; they're all locked in for the Panasonic RAW feed and that is of course what's required. Under the Record menu, you'll see how much space is remaining, how much time you have left to record and you'll see the codec that it's recording to; currently ProRes Raw.

[00:03:00.13] If I try to change this at this point, say to ProRes 422, it will tell me that it can't actually do that. It'll let me change it but then it wouldn't actually let me record. So, at this point it's giving you a warning but I don't want to do that and I’ll just tap OK to go back to RAW recording.

[00:03:14.08] Also at the top, you have your monitor settings. It's currently set to PQ or Perceptual Quantization. This is the translation format that is going to make it look on screen like an HDR image. This is a 1000 Nit screen, so you are able to see your image in all of its HDR glory while you're shooting it, as long as you have it set to PQ.

[00:03:33.20] You can also choose to view the Native RAW signal or even look at it in Rec 709 if you wanted to see what it would look like for SDR delivery, but we'll go ahead and set it back to PQ. The last thing I want to show you down here are the different monitoring options you have, like Focus Peaking, False Color and so on.

[00:03:49.11] There's one in particular that is going to be very useful for shooting RAW and that of course is the Waveform monitor. I find the waveform to be absolutely invaluable when shooting RAW because this allows me to ensure that my exposure is always within range no matter what, and of course that's no different than shooting any other type of format but when you're shooting RAW, it's perhaps a little bit more important.

[00:04:08.10] When you're shooting RAW, the conventional wisdom seems to be to shoot about two stops overexposed, and while that's certainly possible, it's not necessarily required. The general wisdom of that seems to be because shadow detail is of course where the noise likes to hide and if you want to get rid of the noise in the shadows, and you shoot overexposed because RAW has so much latitude and you can pull back so much data. 

[00:04:30.20] By shooting over exposed, you're really protecting the highlights and you're not losing anything in the shadows. But by the time you bring the exposure down, it's going to look great and you'll have less noise in the shadows. So that's all very good.

[00:04:40.09] However, if you want to get the maximum dynamic range out of your sensor, then you actually want to shoot at a straight normal exposure, which means for example exposing off of an 18% gray card. It really comes down to what you're shooting and of course, you're going to want to do your own test to determine how best to expose your shots.

[00:04:55.16] Now, before we jump into the computer, there's one more thing of course that you'll need and that is a card to record to. I’ve got the Angelbird AtomX SSD card in here. You can't see it because it's so small it's behind the Ninja but the AtomX is a great card for this combination.

[00:05:09.04] All right, let's take a look in the computer. I’ve already got my library set up and this library is set up as a Wide Gamut HDR library. This is critically important to working in HDR. And in fact, it's important just for working with RAW in general.

[00:05:23.02] While technically you can work with RAW footage in a Standard Gamut library, you will be limited to the amount of recovery that you can do. Even if you're delivering in SDR, it's in your best interest to create a Wide Gamut Library in Final Cut Pro to work with your RAW footage.

[00:05:37.20] So, the way that you do that is by simply going to that Modify menu for the Library properties and making sure that you're set to Wide Gamut HDR. That's not something that you can change when you create the library, so you have to create it and then go into the properties and change it later.

[00:05:50.17] Once you've created a library and you create a new project, you can choose whether that project is going to be Standard Rec 709 or Rec 2020, in our case PQ. Now, I’ve already created a couple of projects, so let's take a look at some clips on the timeline. 

[00:06:04.26] This one here is Rec 2020 and on this timeline, I’ve got three different shots. It's the same scene but the first one is two stops overexposed, the second one is three stops over and the last one is four stops over. And you can see the brightness of the image and of course the Waveform monitor itself.

[00:06:18.29] Now, it's really important to point out that we are not looking at an HDR screen right here, this is just a standard MacBook Pro monitor. This is not HDR, and even if it was, what you're looking at is not going to be in HDR anyway.

[00:06:29.29] So, what you see on screen is not representative of the actual delivery. To do that, to be able to see true HDR in editing, you need to have an external HDR monitor, and you can actually use the Ninja V, it's a little small for grading but it will work. You can absolutely do that. 

[00:06:44.25] However, you do need an interface between the computer and the Ninja, something from a company like Blackmagic or AJA will give you that capability, but that is something that you're going to need if you want to monitor while grading for HDR.

[00:06:56.25] If you don't have that capability, you can still edit and grade an HDR and just pay really close attention to your waveform monitor and then render it out and move it over to a device like a HDR TV or to an iPhone X and look at it in HDR there.

[00:07:10.12] Let's just take a look at what we've got on screen. One of the settings you'll want to enable and it will probably be enabled by default is under the View menu, this option here “Show HDR as Tone Mapped”, and that basically means that Final Cut is going to try its hardest to make this image look good on screen.

[00:07:25.18] If I disable that, you can see that everything looks really blown out and other than looking at the Waveform monitor, we really have no idea what we're getting. But at least by setting it to tone mapped, we are getting a general representation of what we're going to see on here.

[00:07:38.09] Now as I said, this shot is two stops overexposed and you can see in the Waveform monitor, which by the way is now measuring in Nits, from zero to ten thousand Nits, that everything is easily within range.

[00:07:48.06] Now, for the most part when you're editing for HDR, you're targeting a 1000 Nit max, that's just pretty standard these days but of course, standards will change as TVs and so on evolve but currently the most common practice is to edit for a 1000 Nit target.

[00:08:02.06] Again, this image even though two stops overexposed is entirely in range, but I could go in here and stretch the highlights up even more if I wanted to, sacrificing a little bit of the data on the side there, pull the shadows down and really expand the range of this image.

[00:08:16.09] But if I go then to the next shot, let's grab this one that is three stops over, I can do the same thing. I’ll leave my highlights where they are and just pull the shadows down and then we'll go to the next shot that is three stops overexposed and I’ll take the entire thing and bring the exposure down a bit, and pull the shadow detail down as well and very quickly, you can see that even at four stops overexposed, we are totally able to bring that shot into range. It really is remarkable what you can do with this ProRes RAW footage. 

[00:08:45.18] Now, let's take a look at adding a normal clip, a shot of a flower to this and see how that edits. This image here was shot by simply looking at the Waveform monitor and the image on the Ninja. I did not use a gray card to get a balanced exposure, I just shot to what looks good. And now that I’m looking at it on the timeline in here, I can see that it is fully within range. It's under a thousand Nits at the top and while we are getting a little bit of clipping in the blue channel over here, it turns out that that's actually just saturation.

[00:09:14.06] If I take my saturation down a little bit, we'll see that we can recover that detail easily. Now, this brings up a very good point; the image that we're looking at right now is normal color. We're not looking at a Log image and we're not looking at a RAW image, and you might be wondering, well hold on, we shot RAW, why don't we see it that way on the timeline? 

[00:09:30.07] That's because when you import footage into Final Cut Pro X, it automatically does two things; it adds a conversion and it adds a LUT and we can disable either of those. Let's take a look at what happens if we do. 

[00:09:40.12] Understanding exactly what's happening here is critical to getting the most from your S1H RAW footage. In the Inspector, with the metadata view set to General or higher, we're going to see the RAW to Log conversion and the camera LUT applied. 

[00:09:53.06] The RAW to Log conversion is Panasonic V-Log and we want to leave that there. The default camera LUT is also called Panasonic V-Log which is a Log to 709 conversion. But to get the absolute most from your S1H RAW footage, you need to install a custom LUT here.

[00:10:07.23] First, I’ll just turn this LUT off. With that off, the media now looks like standard V-Log footage. Incidentally, if you turn off the RAW to Log conversion as well, the media actually looks quite similar to how it started — but it's not the same, so don't do that.

[00:10:20.27] Again, the footage now looks like V-Log but there's an additional step to convert it to true V-Log/V-Gamut. You'll need to download the new V-Log RAW Gamut to V-Log/V-Gamut for S1H LUT. Go to the URL on your screen, also in the description below and download the LUT from there.

[00:10:37.02] To use this LUT, the correct workflow is to replace the Panasonic V-Log LUT with this new RAW Gamut to V-Gamut LUT. To do that, click the “Camera LUT” drop down and the first time you do this, select “Add Custom Camera LUT” and select the LUT you just downloaded.

[00:10:51.17] Be sure to leave this optional output color space as Rec 709. Yes, even though you're working in 2020 color space. Once you've done that, the new LUT will always be in this list. The difference is subtle but it's an important change that brings this to full V-Gamut.

[00:11:05.02] Now you're looking at an optimized S1H V-Log/V-Gamut clip ready to grade or to have a creative LUT applied. If you want to see this shot in Rec 709 or with any custom look applied, you would add that as a Custom LUT Effect from the Final Cut Pro Effects browser and choose “V-Log to V709 for V35”.

[00:11:22.06] That's the official Rec 709 for VariCam LUT which you can download from the URL on your screen, also linked in the description below. However, in a regular workflow, this could get tedious, requiring adding the custom LUT effect to each and every shot on the timeline.

[00:11:36.17] So, there's a better workflow than doing this one at a time. To follow this, let me show you something in Final Cut that's very important to understand; Effects from the Effects browser are applied only to the edited clip you add the effect to. Here I have multiple edits on the timeline from the same shot named Nature T_015.

[00:11:53.02] If I add a custom LUT to this edit of that clip, the same effect is not applied to this edit. However, a LUT change made in the Info Inspector is global; meaning it shows up in the browser and in the timeline no matter where you make the change.

[00:12:06.04] See how I changed it in the Info Inspector and the change shows up on all the clips from the shot Nature T_015 on the timeline? Likewise, if I change a setting on a clip in the browser, that's reflected in the timeline as well.

[00:12:17.13] With this in mind, and since you probably don't want to edit while looking at Log footage, the most efficient approach is to go ahead and edit first without making any changes. Leave the clips with the default Panasonic V-Log camera LUT applied which is a basic Rec 709 conversion.

[00:12:31.02] Or if you have a custom LUT you've built that you want to grade to, select all of your clips at once in the browser and choose that LUT. This is just temporary, for the edit. Go ahead and edit your project, then once your edit is ready for final grading, go back to the browser, select all of these clips and change the LUT in the Inspector to the new RAW Gamut to V-Gamut LUT.

[00:12:49.08] Now, you can grade shot by shot from Log or apply your own LUT to all of the clips using a custom LUT effect. Just be sure to add that RAW to V-Gamut LUT to get the most from your RAW footage.

[00:12:59.17] Next let's take a look at a Rec 709 project; I have the same three shots added to the timeline here and we can see that the overexposure is looking much more dramatic in here. But I can still recover this! Let's just go with the middle one, the three stop over, go up to the Color Correction settings and pull the exposure down.

[00:13:16.28] Even though I’m in SDR, I’m still working with that RAW clip and I’m going to be able to recover all of that data. So, that's a great reason to shoot RAW. Even if you have no intention of doing an HDR delivery, delivering an SDR starting with these RAW files gives you an incredible amount of latitude to work with.

[00:13:33.18] Next I’m going to add that same flower shot to this timeline, and we're going to see something a little bit different happen. When I add this on here, Final Cut Pro pops up a dialog warning me that I’m adding an HDR clip to an SDR project.

[00:13:44.27] Now, the naming is a little bit funny in there because this isn't an HDR clip, it's a RAW clip that has the potential to be HDR or it could be SDR. But in this case, it's just interpreting it as HDR and it's warning me that the image could be dramatically overexposed and then I’m going to need to fix it by either adding some color correction or adding Final Cut's own HDR tool to it.

[00:14:04.15] So, if I do that, let's take a look at what happens; here's the clip on the timeline and it looks like my LUT is still turned off, so let's go ahead and put that back on to Panasonic V-Log. We can see here that the shot is dramatically overexposed. Once again, this was not overexposed in camera, it was simply shot to what looked good on the waveform monitor and on the screen, but now that I’ve dropped it onto an SDR project, it is overexposed.

[00:14:26.15] I can do this correction entirely manually by going in here and adjusting the exposure to bring it down into range or I can add the HDR tools. To add that, go to the “Effects” tab, under the “Color Selection” you'll find one called “HDR Tools”.

[00:14:41.05] Drag and drop this on and it automatically brings it within range. And as you can see from the waveform monitor, it looks remarkably similar to the one we saw in HDR even down to the saturated clipping in the blue channel. And if we look at the Effects tab, we can see that what it's done is an HDR direct 709 conversion.

[00:14:57.04] So, there you have it. There's the basics of shooting and editing ProRes RAW using the Panasonic Lumix S1H and the Atomos Ninja V. It really is a whole new world. It's an incredible capability to be able to shoot RAW in such a small and affordable package and I can't wait to see what you guys do with it.