D-Log footage is so dark?

[cammyjams]

Question for the brain trust:

When I shoot video in D-Log on my Mavic 3 Classic, my footage is way dark and I have to crank the exposure all the way up in my video editor after applying the DJI LUT. Even then it's still not enough often times since I'm shooting at night.

While shooting, my EV is at 0.0 but since all I see is grey crap on the screen it's hard to guess what I'm doing.

Cranking the EV up in camera though had no effect either.

What am I doing wrong? For that matter why am I even shooting in D-Log ion the first place? Thanks.

 

[JavaJack]

Question for the brain trust:

When I shoot video in D-Log on my Mavic 3 Classic, my footage is way dark and I have to crank the exposure all the way up in my video editor after applying the DJI LUT. Even then it's still not enough often times since I'm shooting at night.

While shooting, my EV is at 0.0 but since all I see is grey crap on the screen it's hard to guess what I'm doing.

Cranking the EV up in camera though had no effect either.

What am I doing wrong? For that matter why am I even shooting in D-Log ion the first place? Thanks.

 

[JavaJack]

You must be doing something wrong because D-Log is a beautiful thing. Besides flying drones, I am a colorist and have finished 30 feature films in my career so I can clearly say, shoot D-Log and not Rec 709. The color gamut (color world visible to the human eye) an and dynamic range is much larger in D-Log. Rec 709 has a very limited color gamut. I’m not sure what you mean by seeing grey crap when you shoot Log. Are you setting the monitor to compensate for shooting in Log so you are seeing the image converted to how it will look in post? For levels I turn on the the histogram but really rely on the over exposure warning on the RC Pro controller. This keeps valuable highlight detail from clipping. What editor are you using and what is your set-up? The LUTs are made to work in Rec709 color space. Personally I work in DaVinci Wide Gamut in DaVinci Resolve, because this retains all the color and depth of the recorded image and then it can be output in Rec 709 or in HDR. It have used Mavic footage for Dolby Vision HDR outputs and it looks amazing. It sounds like your editor may not be set up in the right color space and gamma, but you didn’t mention what you are using, specifically. Two weeks ago I was shooting with my Inspire 2 for a movie, pre-sunrise light and my Inspire malfunctioned. I always carry my Mavic 3 Cine as a back-up and pulled it out and continued shooting. In my editor suite the Mavic looked as good or better than its $20,000 big brother.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

A simple question that shouldn't have to be asked, but I have seen this simple mistake before. Do you by any chance had an ND filter on when recording as you mentioned you are shooting at night?

 

[cammyjams]

A simple question that shouldn't have to be asked, but I have seen this simple mistake before. Do you by any chance had an ND filter on when recording as you mentioned you are shooting at night?

No ND filter on the bird but I can totally see that happening and the 'grey crap' I'm seeing is on my RC Controller, in the air, while shooting. I'm using CapCut to edit after battling Davinci for months and finally giving up, I just never got it. In CapCut I'm using the DJI Lut for the Mavic 3 Classic. I'll head out before dawn tomorrow and take some notes this time: Auto Vs Pro, EV's etc. Stills? I know somewhat. Video? Not so much. I'll crack this nut, thanks guys.

 

[JavaJack]

Although you say you fought with DaVinci, what about taking some footage into Resolve just to compare and see if you get the same dark results? By default Resolve will create a Rec 709 project unless you choose to color manage, which I assume you wouldn’t. In the media room apply the Dlog LUT to the footage itself by right clicking on the footage and navigate to LUTs/DJI Dlog. Put this footage onto a timeline and look at it. When I shoot at night I use 800 iso, wide open on the lens, of course, but get very good results. Have you tried shooting a RAW still of the same scene you are shooting in DLog to compare if they look similar. I could also look at your footage if you wanted to send me a short shot.

 

[cammyjams]

Although you say you fought with DaVinci, what about taking some footage into Resolve just to compare and see if you get the same dark results? By default Resolve will create a Rec 709 project unless you choose to color manage, which I assume you wouldn’t. In the media room apply the Dlog LUT to the footage itself by right clicking on the footage and navigate to LUTs/DJI Dlog. Put this footage onto a timeline and look at it. When I shoot at night I use 800 iso, wide open on the lens, of course, but get very good results. Have you tried shooting a RAW still of the same scene you are shooting in DLog to compare if they look similar. I could also look at your footage if you wanted to send me a short shot.

Yes the stills shot in RAW are just fine, I"m going to slow down next week and will gladly take you up on your offer. Thanks!

 

[Xitor]

You must be doing something wrong because D-Log is a beautiful thing. Besides flying drones, I am a colorist and have finished 30 feature films in my career so I can clearly say, shoot D-Log and not Rec 709. The color gamut (color world visible to the human eye) an and dynamic range is much larger in D-Log. Rec 709 has a very limited color gamut. I’m not sure what you mean by seeing grey crap when you shoot Log. Are you setting the monitor to compensate for shooting in Log so you are seeing the image converted to how it will look in post? For levels I turn on the the histogram but really rely on the over exposure warning on the RC Pro controller. This keeps valuable highlight detail from clipping. What editor are you using and what is your set-up? The LUTs are made to work in Rec709 color space. Personally I work in DaVinci Wide Gamut in DaVinci Resolve, because this retains all the color and depth of the recorded image and then it can be output in Rec 709 or in HDR. It have used Mavic footage for Dolby Vision HDR outputs and it looks amazing. It sounds like your editor may not be set up in the right color space and gamma, but you didn’t mention what you are using, specifically. Two weeks ago I was shooting with my Inspire 2 for a movie, pre-sunrise light and my Inspire malfunctioned. I always carry my Mavic 3 Cine as a back-up and pulled it out and continued shooting. In my editor suite the Mavic looked as good or better than its $20,000 big brother.

Do you have any video you created / recommend on setting proper color settings in project, clips etc? I'm still just dropping clips on my timeline and applying the DJI Air 3 LUT, but since I'm shooting in RAW sounds like I'm missing something.