The Zen of Flower Watching [Video]

In April this year I set out to test video profile settings on the Panasonic GH5 using Cosmos flowers as the subject.

I started putting together a video of the results, but it got pretty involved and to be honest, and while the tests yielded some really useful insights, finishing and publishing the official result video has dropped down the list a bit.

In the meantime, I assembled a short video using a variety of footage (including some of that test material) all featuring Cosmos flowers. Check out some stills from around the same time.

The yet-to-be-published profile tests

The purpose of the test footage was to get some side by side comparisons of the GH5 Cinelike-D profile while cycling through the various settings within that profile – i.e. contrast, saturation, sharpness & noise reduction.

There’s a lot of discussion around the ideal settings for the Panasonic Cinelike-D profile but clearly it depends on context, purpose, work flow and personal preference.

What I wanted to see in particular was the side by side test shots as these settings were dialled through their ranges and how each combination worked in post – how well each test shot responded to colour correction and grading.

As mentioned above, I may publish those results when I get some time, but for now, a couple of brief observations.

I shot the test footage just before sunrise – pretty nice lighting conditions. The sweet early morning sunlight was streaming through the atmosphere just overhead but the subject was still in ‘shadow’ producing a nice low contrast shot, but actually reasonably well lit.

What amazed me was how well this footage graded compared to some of the footage shot later in the day. Sure, we all know direct sunlight can produce tricky lighting, but the high contrast footage seemed disproportionally less responsive to grading. Golden hour FTW.

The second observation that still needs further exploration was that changes in the noise reduction setting in Cinelike-D didn’t seem to produce any noticeable changes in the shots. Probably something that needs to be tested in variety of lighting conditions – or maybe I’m just not looking hard enough. But, it’s got to be about observable results rather than theory.

In the meantime, I’m mostly shooting with Cinelike-D settings dialled right back – which seems to be working well – but more tinkering on the cards.

Well look at you – you got all the way to the end of the post! That’s rare. Reading may be your superpower. Seriously. If you liked this video there’s more here along with a few images.

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