Gamma/Saturation difference between two import methods?

[ifffs_user]

Hello,

I just began working on a project with 7d camera originals and noticed that the clips imported via File I/O "Import Media" button are darker and therefore slightly over saturated, vs, if i were to import the very same clip via drag and dropping from gateway/volumes into a clip library (using the dual view mode in the clip library).

I tried this on a bunch of clips (using both hard and soft import) with the same results (difference in gamma, if it is gamma). I even went back to an older project, re-imported a couple of canon 5d clips via gateway and compared them to the same clips i had imported a while back (while working on that particular project) via regular import method and sure enough the older clips are darker.

Pretty annoying as i remember that the 5d footage had come in very dark as we had shot toward the evening and i had just assumed that thats how it was captured. I had to boost the gain, gamma quite a bit in cc and had to deNoise it to make it work. If i had brought in that same footage via gateway, it would have looked much better.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Grant.Kay]

Hi,

I am unsure what the issue might be because I don't use the legacy import method.

In very rare cases would I use the legacy method. Everything should be imported in through the Gateway which is the most up to date in Autodesk Smoke.

Regards
Grant

[BKM]

As Grant said the Media i/o import image is the older legacy workflow and Gateway is the way to work . That being said, I still use the legacy import for many things like Audio and single still images, just because of how our network is structured.

There is a GAMMA option in the legacy import where you can adjust the incoming file between 1.8 or 2.2. My guess is that if you activated it, and based on the quirks of quicktime and gamma with h.264, this would solve the issue.

The gateway being newer in code, more than likely properly addresses the quirky QT gamma issues and makes the proper adjustments.

[ifffs_user]

Thanks Grant and Brian.

Brian, I tried re-importing with various Gamma options and the closest in match to the gateway imported clips was the 1.8 to 2.2 option, but still not the same values as via gateway (Importing via 1.8 to 2.2 option resulted in the saturation being a bit high along with high contrast.)

Its good to know that gateway is the most up to date option. But sometimes the legacy import option is a quick way and good way to bring stuff in (with other options like resize etc,). And its not a reassuring feeling to know that you could bring in footage the wrong way by using regular media import option.

A few months ago i worked on a personal project that i spent quite a bit of time color correcting and getting that right look etc, along with other time consuming treatment (DeNoise and stuff). The footage was shot in low light and it looked a little too dark, i couldnt tell and thought thats how it was. The project was 80 to 90 percent done. And now i have to go back and redo and re-match all that stuff knowing that i had quite a bit more latitude in the orig footage than the one i had imported and had to struggle with and that i could have gotten better results by redoing the work with gateway-imported footage.

If the regular media import option is slowly being abandoned and is not up to date that is totally cool. But if its still there in the interface and its good for everything else and not up to date for just one format (a format thats used quite a bit these days) then there should be some sort of indication somewhere pointing that fact out IMHO. Maybe its there in the Read Me and i have simply overlooked it.

Thanks.

[BKM]

Legacy import was before h.264 was an importable option. I have used Legacy import with older more stable codecs like Animation and PNG and uncompressed with no issues.

[CB_Vancity]

There is no option for YUV Headroom in the legacy import module, but this option is on by default in the gateway quicktime settings.
Could this be the problem?

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Creative_Finishing/enu/2012/Help/02_Smoke_--_Flame_Premium_Timeline/015...

Cheers,
_Chris