Canon Cinema RAW Light Workflow

Cinema RAW Light Workflow by Visual Harmony

Here’s a Cinema RAW Light workflow I discovered over the weekend. This approach uses Davinci Resolve but you could use a similar process in other NLEs. In terms of practicality and for our needs, this is superior to using the Canon CRD software.

I shot about an hour of RAW footage for a client last week. Even though our main editing workstation is very powerful, it chokes on RAW clips when editing natively in an NLE once you start keyframing and adding effects. So, I needed to widdle them down to something more manageable that can be edited without hiccups. Also, I think it defeats the purpose of shooting in RAW if you are going to transcode before adjusting RAW settings.

Here’s the approach I came up with:

  1. Open RAW clip in Davinci Resolve
  2. Trim clip to only the good stuff. This will need to be done at some point during the project, so you might as well do it now. Trim off everything that won’t be usable in your final edit. Feel free to leave handles if you aren’t sure of the best place to cut. This will save a lot of time because it makes no sense to render/transcode extra footage that will never be used.
  3. Adjust RAW settings
  4. Adjust exposure (if needed)
  5. Remove noise (if present)
  6. Stabilize (if needed)
  7. Crop (if desired)
  8. Render clip to DNxHR HQX 10-bit (or other format if preferred for your situation). The settings I used are: Format: Quicktime, Codec: DNxHR, Type: DNxHR HQX 10-bit. The new file will be rendered with the adjusted RAW settings baked-in, and it will be far less likely to cause frame-stutter in an NLE when editing and adding effects.
  9. Repeat steps 1-8 for each RAW clip you have.

Now, instead of sending my editing partner a bunch of unadjusted RAW clips (doing so would not spark joy), I can now send her manageable .MOV files that have already been pre-trimmed, are exposed properly, and are ready to drop on the timeline and color grade.

Optionally, you can delete the RAW files afterwards since you already have the good stuff rendered at the size and format you need it to be in. I’ll still keep the RAW clips until the project has been delivered, but I will certainly be deleting them and only storing the 4:2:2 clips after final approval.

I hope this is helpful for fellow Canon shooters. Some of you may already be doing it this way, but it’s new to me. This workflow is easy and takes all the pressure out of shooting RAW for me. And since we spend the bulk of our project time in the editing room, this will save a ton of time on each of our projects going forward without having to sacrifice RAW capabilities.

Defining Your Digital Marketing Strategy

One of the keys to a successful digital marketing campaign is to have a well-defined strategy. At Visual Harmony, we work with our clients to develop and implement a custom digital marketing strategy that will help them reach the top of the search results for their desired keyword phrases.

Search Engine Optimization Overview

First, we review their website and prepare a comprehensive report of the current state of their search profile. Next, we identify key competitors and assess what is and isn’t working for them. Continue reading “Defining Your Digital Marketing Strategy”

Visual Harmony is Now Offering Video Production Services and is No Longer Developing Apps!

We are very excited to announce that we are now offering video production services! We have acquired a cinema camera and have partnered with another local videographer to bring Ocala the quality video production services it needs. Our first productions are underway and we will be ready to book new commercial video productions beginning in July. More information and examples of our work will be added to the website as they are ready.

Also, after much consideration, we are no longer offering app development or app maintenance services. We wanted apps to be a staple part of our business. We really did. However, more often than not, they were more trouble than they were worth. I’ve lost track of how many times we discussed an app with prospective clients and had them walk away from sticker shock due to the extensive amount of time that goes in to planning, developing, launching and maintaining an app. We developed some great apps over the years but the required ongoing maintenance is too costly for most clients in this area. So, rather than continue to support an area of business that hasn’t been fruitful, I am eliminating this service offering so that we can put 100% of our energy into continuing to build the best websites in the area and to make room for our new video production services!

Recently Completed Web Projects

We’ve been really busy at Visual Harmony over the past several months. We built and launched new websites for the ELC of Marion County, Ocala Oral Surgery, Owen Construction, Managed Care Consultants, LTC Systems and J. Lowe’s Guide Service and each of these projects is now on display in our projects area.

Stay tuned, we have some amazing projects in the works that will be added to the projects section after they launch.

Celebrating 10 Years of Web Development

We are very happy to be celebrating 10 years of providing quality web development services!

It seems like it was only yesterday when Visual Harmony was founded to serve the web development needs of the Central Florida community.  It’s hard to believe that was all the way back in 2007!

Many thanks to all of the wonderful people and businesses we have been fortunate to work with over the years.  Here’s to the next 10!