2.55 and 2.20 crop mark workflow

Started by robinhood, September 03, 2018, 09:03:14 PM

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robinhood

Hello


I'm going to shoot stills and video in both 16x9 modes and simply frame with custom crop marks in camera to get 2.55 and 2.20
2.55 is the original cinemascope aspect ratio as seen in Rebel without a Cause and other 1950s films and recently in La La Land.
2.20 is the aspect ratio of Panavision Super 70 as seen in Lawrence of Arabia and 2001 Space Odyssey

For the life of me I cannot figure out a way to properly edit my own custom crop mark BMP files myself and have them turn out in a working order... Whenever I edit an existing one to either of these two ideal crop margins-- I save the file, add it into the ML SD card folder, it successfully is loaded and becomes selectable in the camera options, but the edited file shows up simply blank ~no black letterbox bars at all.... a normal untouched liveview... effectively adding no crop marks at all.

May someone please be a quick help by creating a 2.55:1 and 2.20:1 custom crop mark file available for download?? I've looked everywhere and simply can't find a single option for either of these two aspect ratios.



Adding one of these two letterbox masks in Avid for both cases are easy and will be no problem at all for the video files. 2.20 is already an available crop right in camera for video, which is amazing but for some silly reason 2.55 doesn't exist and would be so great if ever made possible.

To post process the stills I've created a BMP and PNG to the exact pixel resolution size of the Canon 5Diii's uncropped 16x9 size stills.

So I want to overlay this 2.55 letterbox I've created on top of the stills. I do not want to crop the original 1.78 photos into 2.55  -- I want to put a permanent 2.55 mask over the 1.78 uncropped photos... I can't find a tutorial online how to do this... Which app should I use to overlay a BMP file? My files have a transparent middle for the image area and solid black bars on top and bottom for the mask 2.55 mask. Any tutorial videos or directions will be a great help. I presume PS or Lightroom? Any app that can simply have a present option so I can batch modify 10s-100s at once very swiflty is ideal. I don't want to tinker with all these pics one by one since I'll have already framed with the cropmarks in camera when I'm framing the shots

With that-- I'll be good to go...

Walter Schulz

Cropmarks for Canon DSLR running ML are not designed to be written to footage. They are visible on LCD only.

One option: Make yourself familiar with "actions" in PS.

robinhood

correct (which is sad-- can we add this down the line sometime soon ML??) -- which is why I need to discover an efficient app and function to overwrite the mask onto the stills in post and also to find custom crop marks to get me better framed up in that aspect ratio in camera.
I don't have PS... it appears Preview the Photos apps don't have an overlay function for starters-- just straight crop outs... but has anyone noticed the ugly gray display color for the negative space of the images when going into full screen in Photos -- so lame it's not black.




dfort

On the Avid use the Anamorphic Mask tool. You should be able to dial in any aspect ratio you want.



For stills you can batch process with ImagaMagick. There's a free "aspect" script that makes it easy to do exactly what you are describing.



As far as adding this feature in ML, this is easily done in post production so there isn't much incentive to do it in camera. In addition, you have the option of tweaking the vertical position of the image within the mask if it is done in post.


Danne

Might be cool in Mlv App to add aspect ratios mascs...

robinhood

Yup, Avid will be very easy.

ImagaMagick looks rather clunky and tedious to get up and running with having to input all that coding... sort of confusing. But you're spot on-- a 'Padding' function is what i'm looking for. So any other app that has the ability to set custom preloaded padding masks for easy alternations to entire folders or batches of selected stills will be great.

Also, any word or discovery of the custom crop marks?? one clean and another with the rule of thirds gridlines for both 2.55 and 2.20 will be perfect. Also, the design doesn't need to have a label design stating 2.55 or 2.20 atop the mask  (sort of distracting)

We're getting close!

dfort

Once you setup an ImageMagick script it is much easier to batch process than with a GUI app.

You can make your own crop marks by following this guide:
http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Cropmarks

Some users shared their custom crop marks, the original post has a broken link but there are some others on the second page of that discussion.
https://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=13638.0

robinhood

Here are the two crop marks I have edited but for some reason, they show up blank when selected in camera (the black padding is invisible)

I don't understand what the problem is...

So if someone could help fix these, then Save As, and add the rule of thirds grid lines, I'll be set to go with the two versions.





Walter Schulz

You used Canon/ML style color palette?

robinhood

I simply edited 2.67 one that was already made to spec and functioned properly -- edited in Paintbrush and Saved As.... but perhaps simply opening it up in this app automatically changed the .bmp files color specs or something-- or perhaps saving the new edits changed the proper needed setting since this default project settings of this app are different?

I have no idea how to input Canon/ML style color palettes in general or if this app evens can apply such settings. I don't have PS or Lightroom

Walter Schulz

Read reply #6 and the instructions linked there.
PS is available for trial. And there is GIMP.

robinhood



robinhood

I've successfully made crop marks for
2.00
2.20
2.55
2.76

see the last post
https://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=13638.25

Now I just need to figure out how to overlay grid lines to each ratio for a rule of thirds version to each.
Any links or points (the name of that function in PS) would be very helpful
With that, I will be done and good to go for the in-camera setups I desire for helping out with framing


robinhood

I still have yet to figure out the post processing of the pics now.

I have a letterbox PNG with a transparent center (for the still photo taken) and don't know how to apply this matte/mask/padding/picture frame/whatever you want to call into atop of all the pics at once.... and this ImageMagick looks antiquated and very not all that user friendly in regards to downloading and getting it up and running

suggestions??

Danne

What's the size of your image content when letterbox is applied to it? Use that information and scale your images with ffmpeg for instance.
Antiquated or not. Opinions without testing properly means nothing.

robinhood

Here's an example

The uncropped 16x9 pics from the 5diii are 5760x3240
I created the 2.55:1 letterbox mask into the same dimensions as a PNG and BMP - though Idk if the center is properly transparent or not with the colorspace so that the image behind it will show up.
So the third pic is already cropped to that dimension -- though I don't want to make a permanent crop beforehand and fit it in. I rather move/shift the original pic up and down behind the letterbox pic and then lop off the top or bottom which goes out of the proportions-- but maybe (hopefully I wouldn't even need to do this if I can set up the project settings to the exact same 5760x3240 size to start with....

I then want to merge them somehow-- so I don't think using some third party deveopment app which requires typing in code will grant this function and/or setup the project in this manner of raster size