Problems with workflow Photoshop RAW -> Premiere CC

[Puuronen]

Hi everyone! First post here. And yes, I tried to search for this but couldn't find anything.

1. Premiere CC won't let me import DNG-files. They are 8-bit-files.
- I used Magic Lantern Raw Video Converter to conver MLV. to DNG.
- I edited those .dng-files in Photoshop raw editor
- I saved them as dng-files
So why is that? I also tried Cinemadng-plugin - no luck with that

2. Premiere CC won't let me interpret footage.
3. And the import as Image sequence is greyed out. My files are named like they should be and I only chose the first file.

Anyways, I was looking forward to get my hands on raw-video but the start is at least very hard and full of problems. Thanks for the help!

[dmilligan]

You need to use a different converter. The converter you're using does not output CDNGs (CinemaDNG). Premiere can only correctly read specific flavors of DNG files (known as CinemaDNG). There are several other converters that do output CDNGs that are compatible with Premiere:

MLVFS
MLRawViewer
The CinemaDNG Discussion (raw2cdng)

You cannot edit raw files with Photoshop (ACR) and then open them in Premiere. ACR is "non-destructive". That means that instead of the image data being modified, the values of the sliders you changed and whatnot is simply stored as metadata. Only ACR is capable of actually applying these. Premiere does not use ACR, therefore any changes you make will not be reflected when you open the files in Premiere. When you "save" the DNG you aren't really doing anything except modifying metadata. This metadata modification actually makes the files impossible to open correctly in Premiere, since Premiere is expecting only specific flavors of CDNG (which means very specific metadata is in the file, and it follows a very specific structure, ACR will screw up this metadata and structure).

If you really want to use ACR, you need to use After Effects (which does use ACR for reading DNGs), or export to TIFF, JPEG or some other non-raw format from Photoshop. I would advise against this though. ACR is very slow, and certain 'image-adaptive' sliders can cause flicker. ACR was really only ever intended to be used for stills. Video is a very different beast. Premiere can actually playback CDNGs in realtime if you have a decent GPU, and the CC tools and scopes in Premiere are much better for editing video than ACR, though they are not as intuitive and easy.

[Puuronen]

Thanks!

[Puuronen]

Okay here's some update.

1. I used ML View sharp (MLV Browse) to export my .MLV-files to .DNG + .WAV. Problem is, it won't export the .WAV-files.
It does export the .dng's with no problem but the .wav-file would make it so much easier to sync the sound in edit (I use external recorder, Tascam, for quality sound).

2. I import the .dng's to AE. Could someone tell me what's the best choice to use when exporting those .dng to edit in Premiere? h264. or AVI or something else?

Thank you very much!

[Kharak]

Do a search for "workflow" on the forum

There are countless of detailed explanations for all the questions you've asked.

A tip from me would be to go the proxy way.

[DFM]

Could someone tell me what's the best choice to use when exporting those .dng to edit in Premiere? h264. or AVI or something else?

If you have CC fully updated, then you have the Cineform codecs installed - they give one of the best performance/quality combinations on Windows machines. Alternatives are DNxHD (codecs are free from AVID) or ProRes on OS X. If you're not offloading files to an external studio it's a matter of personal choice which you use. There are very slight quality differences but if you're sending the final video to the Web or HDTV, it's not something your audience will notice. Disk space is often the deciding factor.