DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Working with color grading and LUT's

Oyibo VFX

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
1,011
Reactions
363
Age
62
Location
Edo State, Nigeria (for the moment)
Hey guys...

I have seen some threads and remarks about the best camera settings for your Mavic. I have gone a little deeper in this stuff and it is actually not that simple but also not rocket science..
Of course you can select "auto" but that is not the best setting. It is OK if you do a test flight and make some footage but if you want to transform "nice footage" to "cinematic quality", it is by far the worst setting to have.
It is, however required to do some "higher level" of color grading and working with LUT's.
For some who use Final Cut Pro X or CC Premiere color grading, this might be easy but for some, it is something totally new.
I just played a little with some footage from site here and the changes are remarkable.

Left is the original footage from the Mavic, right is with a little color grading.
And although it is a little tricky (and I'm far from an expert) it is not hard to upgrade your footage from "flat" to "vibrant".
I think I will put a little Joetjoep tutorial together the next couple of days and show you what can be done even without (expensive) apps. I use e.g. Color Finale and Coremelt but the standard apps in FCPX allow you to do a lot more then you think.
Let me know if you are interested because it is a lot of work (and I don't even have my Mavic here)

Me
Test.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ed1nh0 and Piranha
Using the original DJI LUTs for Mavic with D-Log footage is pretty disappointing...I would love to have some good LUTs for other modes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Oyibo VFX
After my initial tests, I will use the D-Log setting in the drone from now on. After I'm done with the tutorial, the reason will gets (very) clear
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alex S.
FYI, for those who might use FilmConvert with Premiere Pro, I see that they now have a Mavic camera profile to download. I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
 
Free Mavic Pro LUT's are widely available. But when you use your programs (FCPX) correctly, you might even do without. Don't forget... you're always using somebody else their settings. Why not just use your own???
 
  • Like
Reactions: ghedgepath
Have you ever noticed how magenta the Mavic's daylight WB is?
Specially in log, right!

Here's a sneak preview of a LUT I developed for the DJI Mavic log.
It was painstakingly hand made using a Color Checker Passport, Lightroom, DNG Profile Editor, Premiere and Lattice. It wasn't easy but totally worth the effort. I'm getting more realistic colours, less shadow noise and better dynamic range.

17917112_10211549521226673_276353971474849864_o.jpg
 
Have you ever noticed how magenta the Mavic's daylight WB is?
Specially in log, right!

Here's a sneak preview of a LUT I developed for the DJI Mavic log.
It was painstakingly hand made using a Color Checker Passport, Lightroom, DNG Profile Editor, Premiere and Lattice. It wasn't easy but totally worth the effort. I'm getting more realistic colours, less shadow noise and better dynamic range.

17917112_10211549521226673_276353971474849864_o.jpg
Looks pretty **** good.

How does one get hold of it?
 
Have you ever noticed how magenta the Mavic's daylight WB is?
Specially in log, right!

Here's a sneak preview of a LUT I developed for the DJI Mavic log.
It was painstakingly hand made using a Color Checker Passport, Lightroom, DNG Profile Editor, Premiere and Lattice. It wasn't easy but totally worth the effort. I'm getting more realistic colours, less shadow noise and better dynamic range.

17917112_10211549521226673_276353971474849864_o.jpg

Please do share if you make this LUT available to us. I really like the results!
 
I found a glitch in working with LUT's in FCPX after D-Log. I don't know if this is my Mac or the size of the files.
I'm back in Nigeria and as soon as all my luggage is unpacked I will do some testing and research. I might even change my mind. But that I can only confirm if I have the results. And this might take a few days. But it might save people some cash on unnecessary apps
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It probably is just me, but over the years, I have not found LUTs to be that useful. I find that lighting and subject are so different each time I shoot that I can never just apply a LUT, make a small tweak and move on. I usually end up spending as much time tweaking the shot after applying a LUT as it would've taken me to do the color correction from scratch on each image. I have had this experience with LUTs I have purchased as well as LUTs that I have made myself. I just don't find that one size ever fits all.
 
It probably is just me, but over the years, I have not found LUTs to be that useful. I find that lighting and subject are so different each time I shoot that I can never just apply a LUT, make a small tweak and move on. I usually end up spending as much time tweaking the shot after applying a LUT as it would've taken me to do the color correction from scratch on each image. I have had this experience with LUTs I have purchased as well as LUTs that I have made myself. I just don't find that one size ever fits all.
I couldn't agree more. I did shooting in Austria in D-Log and have now serious issues getting to grass to be green and the snow to be white. I have an issue with my Mac and LUT's but after sharing, it still works. But until this is solved and Color Central is compatible with the latest OSX, I just use FCPX colorboard which actually works fine. My RAW footage (in D-Log) is safe and ready for later editing and you wound see the difference in JoeTjoep anyway
 
Hi there, thank you for your interest-
I've set up a website with all the info about these ICARUS MAVIC PRO D-LOG LUTS
If you're interested in a test run, send me an email with a short video file and I'll get back to you with a graded version.

Cheers
I notice that you recommend set to +1,-2,0.
Just curious why you leave saturation to 0.

I've been watching a bunch of videos and tutorials and the settings, the advices and even the tips vary a lot!
I'm new to this subject and really want to learn as much as I can.

Some pros just show their RAW (D-Log) flat footage and with just a LUT... all becomes wonderful and magic. It's not that simple, we all know that.

I'm using Premiere Pro CC btw.
Tried Davinci Resolve (no success running it even generating optmized media) and Filmora (cool but not so familiar).

I'll appreciate any advice.
 
I'm just grading a movie, shot in D-Log with my Mavic. I can't use Color Finale at the moment (waiting for their update) so no LUT. I'm just going back to basics with colorboard and that actually works fine.
As I said before, you're always using someone else their settings. I still like D-Log because of post production. But a little tweaks in your color correction and viola.... saved a few bucks again
 
As I said before, you're always using someone else their settings. I still like D-Log because of post production. But a little tweaks in your color correction and viola.... saved a few bucks again
The funny part of all is that I've been working with Photoshop for almost 22 years. But the knowledge I've been gathering ever since cannot be applied to video footage as well. At least not the way I like.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Oyibo VFX

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,600
Messages
1,554,285
Members
159,607
Latest member
Schmidteh121