Dailies Grading

This article covers features which are only available in Silverstack Lab.

Silverstack Lab provides an advanced node based color grading engine.

 

Color Processing: Set the Look Source

Each clip has a “Look Source” that defines the color processing (see General Info tab, right bar).

Available look source options are:

  • None: No color processing applied, clip shows no look.
  • File: Clips from certain cameras contain look metadata (e.g. ARRI Alexa clips) that can be applied directly from file metadata.
  • Preset: Select a LUT transform from the available LUT presets integrated in Silverstack Lab.
  • User defined LUT: Load a custom LUT to be applied to the clip.
  • —————————–
  • Custom Look: Create a custom look with node based grade controls.

Basic Color Control in Silverstack

Create a Custom Look: Grading Modes

Multiple grading modes are available when a the look source is set to custom look. Each grading mode is targeted at a different color pipeline.

There are basically three different groups of grading modes:

  • ASC-CDL + 3D LUT modes (typical color pipelines for a broad range of cameras and projects)
  • ACES modes (for use in projects that choose the ACES pipeline),
  • Freestyle modes (without any limitations in color pipeline, but reduced compatibility).

 

Grading Nodes

The grade controls for the currently selected grading mode are grouped in “nodes”. A node can for example contain controls for a ASC-CDL transform, or for loading a 3D LUT preset.

Nodes are applied to the clip from top to bottom, the top node is applied first, and the following nodes subsequently.

If the grade node is reset or freshly added, it doesn’t affect the image as it is set to neutral by default. Change the controls of a node to give the node effect to the image. Each control or group of controls in grade nodes has a button with a little arrow that resets the controls.

You can enable and disable single nodes by using the checkbox on the left of each node. Disabled nodes are greyed out.

Nodes can have names. Click on the small pen symbol that appears when you move the mouse over the column on the left of each node. You can use names to better identify nodes with different roles (e.g., “pre LUT” and “post LUT”). Node names are also used when applying node presets from the look library for identifying nodes to be updated.

Silverstack Lab supports the use of hardware grading panels to work on looks.

 

Work with Looks

The current settings for grading modes and nodes form the technical configuration for what is referred to as a look of a clip.

There are different possibilities of working with looks in Silverstack Lab:

 

Matching Looks from LiveGrade

Pomfort LiveGrade allows to export looks that have been created during the shooting of a scene for the use in Silverstack Lab.

Those looks can be matched (added/linked) to their according clips in Silverstack Lab automatically, for example by timecode.

Like this the looks created live can be brought together with the actual camera clips when creating dailies.

 

Look Library

The look library tab in the right bar allows to manage looks. Looks can be saved, updated, applied, exported and organized in a folder structure.

You can easily copy and paste looks to multiple clips with shortcuts and using the clips list view.

 

Video Scopes

The video scopes panel offers histogram, waveform, and vectorscope inspection tools with individual settings. The video scopes show the analysis of the current image of a slot with the current grade nodes applied.

The histogram and vectorscope also include a curve overlay that display the result curve of the combined transforms of all active grade nodes of a clip.

You can show and hide the video scopes from the main menu and from the toolbar. You can open the video scopes in a separate window by clicking on the “Toggle Windowed / Docked View” button in the bar above the video scopes.

 

Compare and Inspect Clips

Grid View / Wipe View

Silverstack Lab provides a grid view and a wipe view for displaying multiple clips at once on the playback view.

The grid view can show up to 12 clips in an optimized way next to each other to for example compare the look of an image across all clips of a scene.

The wipe view helps you to compare two clips side-by-side and wipe a splitter between them. You can select the orientation of the clips for a horizontal or vertical

Both, grid and wipe view, are also available via HD-SDI output to be displayed on a broadcast monitor.

Inspect Clips

The visual controls help to inspect clips, offering focus and clipping assist, exposure tool, false color, and frame line options.

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Further Reading

Video Tutorial

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Building your skills?

This article is part of a series on the essentials of working with Silverstack Lab. Keep learning:
  1. Playback (Quality Check)
  2. Camera Reports
  3. Jobs
  4. Clip Library
  5. Offload and Backup
  6. Export to Dailies Systems
  7. Transcoding
  8. Dailies Grading
  9. Audio Sync
  10. The Silverstack Lab Main Screen
  11. Custom RAW Development