VisionColor: a stunning new picture style

Started by KarateBrot, October 13, 2012, 09:22:51 AM

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KarateBrot

I recently bought a picture style for my 550D. It's called "VisionColor" and is modelled after 35mm analog film stock. I did some testing and IMO it's absolutely amazing!

They also made a new picture style called "VisionTech". It's VisionColor but with slightly raised shadows.
VisionLog is still in the beta phase but it's looking promising.

Visit their website and take a look for yourself:
http://visioncolor.wordpress.com/

If you donate a RED EPIC to me you officially are very cool ;)

Steven Griffith

Hey KarateBrot,

super stoked that you're happy with the styles!

For anyone who's interested in VisionColor, please note that it is neither a flat picture style nor does it give you a 35mm film look out of the box. It is basically an enhanced version of the neutral picture style that mimics some of the behavior of film with a custom gamma curve and colorimetry that was created with the Kodak Vision 3 5213 as the main reference.
VisionColor comes with a semi-flat version (VisionTech) and the option to test the current beta of VisionLog (Log-space style)

Read more on our website!
Karatebrot, thanks a ton for spreading the love!

- Steve // VisionColor
Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

Marvin

Quote from: Steven Griffith on October 13, 2012, 11:01:07 PM
Hey KarateBrot,

super stoked that you're happy with the styles!

For anyone who's interested in VisionColor, please note that it is neither a flat picture style nor does it give you a 35mm film look out of the box. It is basically an enhanced version of the neutral picture style that mimics some of the behavior of film with a custom gamma curve and colorimetry that was created with the Kodak Vision 3 5213 as the main reference.
VisionColor comes with a semi-flat version (VisionTech) and the option to test the current beta of VisionLog (Log-space style)

Read more on our website!
Karatebrot, thanks a ton for spreading the love!

- Steve // VisionColor

Thanks for developing this amazing picture style. How do you compare VisionColor and VisionTech? Have you done any comparison with Marvel's Cine?
Film is truth 24 frames per second.

Steven Griffith

Hi Marvin,

VisionColor utilizes the entire tonal range available in the 8-bit coding space, clipping at 0 and 100% luminocity (RGB values of 0,0,0 and 255,255,255) whereas VisionTech performs a slight boost of the blackpoint. (3% or RGB 9,9,9)

Despite popular belief this is not because it gives more latitude (which it doesn't) but to enable the camera to encode color information where in other profiles there would be none. To explain, the internal processing of the picture styles employ the HSL standard which stands for Hue, Saturation and Luminocity. With our picture styles we have seperated the luma range into 20 increments of 5%. It is the lowest 5% that are being boosted in VisionTech so that actual color information (H,S) is preserved where it would otherwise be lost due to luminocity values of 0-2. Shifting the black-point away from 0% luminocity before encoding to 8-bit h.264 enables the camera to suck additional low-light color information out of the sensor. Obviously this electronic boost results in an increase of noise but since our styles are tailored to a specific post-workflow, a little bit of noise should not be a concern and can easily be taken care of by Neat Video.

In short, VisionTech raises the blacks in order to retain low light color information, especially in the red channel to preserve skin tones.
Since the data being shifted towards the lower gamma range falls into the part of the image with the least data being assigned to by the compression, there is little to no poterization introduced in the midtones and highlights which has been our primary concern with all of our styles.

The color contrast of all our picture styles is based on the original colorimetry we programmed for VisionColor but since we utilized different gamma curves for each of our profiles and, as lightness and saturation are co-related, we had to make some adjustments to individual color tones. The main visible difference between VisionTech and VisionColor however is made by in the default in-camera parameters. VisionTech comes with the color tone slider @ 0 whereas VisionColor has it set to -1. You can freely adjust that slider to your liking. (negative values - magenta; positive values - green)

Here are a few examples shot on VisionColor and VisionTech:





Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

dsp_418

Visioncolor looks very intersting. At a first glance it seems it gives some greenish results though, is that correct?

Steven Griffith

Dsp_418,
have you tested it yourself? The videos I posted above have all been color graded in post. The footage shot on VisionColor is meticulously balanced straight out of the camera, which is the whole point of using it. I'm guessing that the greenish bias you're seeing is either the color grade of the videos, your monitor calibration or, if you've tested the styles for yourself, the whitebalance shift of your camera.
VisionColor does not give you any sort of finished, gimmicky look like the cinema picture style for example and has been designed to replace the neutral picture style which has been known to be the best general purpose style for some time now.

Heres another recent example:

What the creator of this awesome trailer has to say about the styles:
"This picture style has completely restored new life into my 7D! I've even stopped using Cinestyle! Mostly because I find the highlights to be handled so much better (...) and the way Visioncolor/Visiontech handles skin is magic.  The dynamics and saturation of the lighting I work under are so extreme I was a little worried but VERY impressed when I saw it pulled back skin so amazingly in post."

I don't mean to hijack this thread for advertising so if it's not cool to share videos and testimonial statements etc feel free to report it to a moderator.  ;)

You also contact me or John directly via the support form on our website and we'll be happy to answer any questions regarding the styles!
Cheers,

Steve

------
www.visioncolor.wordpress.com
Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

dsp_418


okaro


I tried to use visioncolor on the 550D as picturestyle preset but it won´t function in movie-mode, although set in M (photo mode).
any idea why?


KarateBrot

Quote from: okaro on October 22, 2012, 02:59:27 PM
I tried to use visioncolor on the 550D as picturestyle preset but it won´t function in movie-mode, although set in M (photo mode).
any idea why?
Connect it to the computer once again and go into movie mode. Then check for the picture styles with the EOS Utility. If they're not installed, well, obviously install them. That should do it.
If you donate a RED EPIC to me you officially are very cool ;)

okaro

hey there, thanks for the reply.. It won´t let me install new picturestyles in EOS Utility menu in movie-mode,
the "register new picturestyle" settings are in light grey and can not be chosen..
I did the whole installation process like mentioned here
http://visioncolor.wordpress.com/installation-of-the-picture-style/

what do I do wrong?
this only occurs on the 550D..

Andy600

Steven  - A friendly piece of advice :)

As I am sure you are aware, you are actually doing something illegal by 'selling' picture styles made with PSE and based on Canon's own picture styles. I actually 'purchased' your picture styles and those from John Hope (Cineplus) before discovering the legalities. However I don't personally regret either purchase and I would have happily donated something.

I am also a picture style developer and of course I understand the time and effort you put into making them however it's unethical and illegal to ask for money, even as a donation for the actual picture style files without making them freely available at the same time. 

Of course, it's entirely up to you should you wish to ask for donations for any accompanying products but my advice is to read the small print. You could end up in a lot of trouble with Canon.

My advice is to follow Magic Lantern's lead and make your PS's available freely but suggest that users contribute a small donation towards future development. That's what I'll be doing with mine.

Andy
Colorist working with Davinci Resolve, Baselight, Nuke, After Effects & Premier Pro. Occasional Sunday afternoon DOP. Developer of Cinelog-C Colorspace Management and LUTs - www.cinelogdcp.com

1%

John Hope - Anyone see his diarrhea all over some guy testing out his style and finding it just clips highlights? Never giving him money.

Andy600

Quote from: 1% on October 23, 2012, 12:47:10 AM
John Hope - Anyone see his diarrhea all over some guy testing out his style and finding it just clips highlights? Never giving him money.

Yes I saw that. I wasn't too happy myself when I purchased (sorry, donated LOL) his Lightform PS. Cinema PS is nice for some things and I still use it for a stylized look when I want to be lazy, but that whole public argument left me feeling a bit cheated after discovering that selling PS's is illegal.... and he's still selling them.
Colorist working with Davinci Resolve, Baselight, Nuke, After Effects & Premier Pro. Occasional Sunday afternoon DOP. Developer of Cinelog-C Colorspace Management and LUTs - www.cinelogdcp.com

Steven Griffith

Andy600,
thank you for the advice. While the early pre-alpha version of VisionColor (just Vision at the time) has been created in Canon's picture style editor and was based on the Neutral Picture Style, the versions of VisionColor, VisionTech and VisionLog currently available from our website have all been created using professional profiling software similar to how Technicolor and Jorgen Escher (Marvelcine) created their styles. They have only been loaded into the picture style editor to disable subsequent editing. From the brief conversation we had with Giovanni Speranza (John Hope) it seems that his most recent lightform picture styles are also mathmatically programmed rather than designed in the Canon Software but we can't confirm that since he prefers to be quite secretive about his workflow.


Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

Andy600

Thanks for explaining Steven. Can you point me to this pro profiling software? Sounds interesting
Colorist working with Davinci Resolve, Baselight, Nuke, After Effects & Premier Pro. Occasional Sunday afternoon DOP. Developer of Cinelog-C Colorspace Management and LUTs - www.cinelogdcp.com

Steven Griffith

Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

Steven Griffith

In the spirit of Halloween we've released a gritty black and white film stock emulation for your next film noir and horror productions: DeltaVision has gorgeous filmic contrast and gives some pretty interesting results especially when shooting with high ISOs.
It's completely free and you can download it directly via our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/VisionColor-Picture-Style/505906336092705

Happy Halloween!  ;)
Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

calypsob

Quote from: Steven Griffith on October 14, 2012, 02:57:08 PM
Hi Marvin,

VisionColor utilizes the entire tonal range available in the 8-bit coding space, clipping at 0 and 100% luminocity (RGB values of 0,0,0 and 255,255,255) whereas VisionTech performs a slight boost of the blackpoint. (3% or RGB 9,9,9)

Despite popular belief this is not because it gives more latitude (which it doesn't) but to enable the camera to encode color information where in other profiles there would be none. To explain, the internal processing of the picture styles employ the HSL standard which stands for Hue, Saturation and Luminocity. With our picture styles we have seperated the luma range into 20 increments of 5%. It is the lowest 5% that are being boosted in VisionTech so that actual color information (H,S) is preserved where it would otherwise be lost due to luminocity values of 0-2. Shifting the black-point away from 0% luminocity before encoding to 8-bit h.264 enables the camera to suck additional low-light color information out of the sensor. Obviously this electronic boost results in an increase of noise but since our styles are tailored to a specific post-workflow, a little bit of noise should not be a concern and can easily be taken care of by Neat Video.

In short, VisionTech raises the blacks in order to retain low light color information, especially in the red channel to preserve skin tones.
Since the data being shifted towards the lower gamma range falls into the part of the image with the least data being assigned to by the compression, there is little to no poterization introduced in the midtones and highlights which has been our primary concern with all of our styles.

The color contrast of all our picture styles is based on the original colorimetry we programmed for VisionColor but since we utilized different gamma curves for each of our profiles and, as lightness and saturation are co-related, we had to make some adjustments to individual color tones. The main visible difference between VisionTech and VisionColor however is made by in the default in-camera parameters. VisionTech comes with the color tone slider @ 0 whereas VisionColor has it set to -1. You can freely adjust that slider to your liking. (negative values - magenta; positive values - green)



Does vision allow the user to adjust RBG values independently as implied from the image above?
Full spectrum T2i
T3i

nanomad

Quote from: Andy600 on October 23, 2012, 02:50:29 AM
Thanks for explaining Steven. Can you point me to this pro profiling software? Sounds interesting
I'm interested too :)
EOS 1100D | EOS 650 (No, I didn't forget the D) | Ye Olde Canon EF Lenses ('87): 50 f/1.8 - 28 f/2.8 - 70-210 f/4 | EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 | Metz 36 AF-5

Steven Griffith

calypsob,
I'm not sure I get your question. The RGB values of any image captured on any digital camera using any picture style can be adjusted in post production. The RGB values also change right in camera once there's any movement, a change of lighting, exposure or white balance. If you're talking about black levels, you have the option to shoot with VisionColor (0-255), VisionTech (9-255) or VisionLog (16-255).

nanomad, sent you a pm!
Steven Griffith | VisionColor
www.vision-color.com
[email protected]

calypsob

Quote from: Steven Griffith on November 05, 2012, 09:58:10 AM
calypsob,
I'm not sure I get your question. The RGB values of any image captured on any digital camera using any picture style can be adjusted in post production. The RGB values also change right in camera once there's any movement, a change of lighting, exposure or white balance. If you're talking about black levels, you have the option to shoot with VisionColor (0-255), VisionTech (9-255) or VisionLog (16-255).

nanomad, sent you a pm!

Ok I was wondering why each image said RGB(x,x,x) in the lower right corner of each image.  I thought the way these presets worked was to adjust in camera RGB values before shooting.  Now I figure that those 3 images represent a histogram showing the capability of each adjustable black level.  thanks for clarifying. 
Full spectrum T2i
T3i

flyingkiwi

i just purchased this, not impressed at all, wish i could go back in time.

DeafEyeJedi

Check out @Andy600's Cinelog-C and they work well!
5D3.113 | 5D3.123 | EOSM.203 | 7D.203 | 70D.112 | 100D.101 | EOSM2.* | 50D.109

ChrysalisDreaming

Hi okaro,

I realise this is 3 and 1/2 years too late, but I've figured out the solution to your problem. I'm posting it here in case other people have the same issue and are looking for the solution.

You are quite correct, you can only register new picture styles when the camera is set to Manual. You cannot register styles when the camera is set to Video.

To use the picture styles in Video mode, you have to set the Video Picture Styles to the Photo Picture Styles. You do this in the camera itself, NOT in the eos utility.

Let's say you have registered the VisionColor style as "User Def. 1" in the Picture Styles for photos.
These are the steps to set the Video Picture Style "User Def. 1" to use the VisionColor style as well:


  • Put the camera into Video mode
  • Press the Menu button
  • Move to the 3rd tab from the left. This tab shows the settings for Exposure comp., Auto Lighting Optimizer, Custom White Balance and Picture Style.
  • Scroll down so that Picture Style is highlighted and press Set
  • Scroll down so that User Def. 1 is selected and press Info. This will get you into the settings for the User Def. 1 picture style.
  • Make sure that Picture Style at the top of the screen is highlighted and press Set.
  • Now use the up and down buttons above and below the "Set" button to change the setting for Picture Style. You should be able to scroll through all the native Canon styles plus the User Def. 1 photo style, which in this case is VisionColor.
  • Once VisionColor is selected as the Picture Style, press Set, then press the Menu button 3 times to exit out of the menu system.

I'm under the impression that if you can only use the User Def.1 Photo Style in the User Def 1 Video Style. i.e. you can't set User Def.2 Photo style to User Def 1 Video Style or vice versa.

Hope this is of use to someone out there.  :)

crossrad

Thanks for posting this - I have been wondering for over a year why the PS's wouldn't load - I only ever use video!

Tonka NL

Quote from: ChrysalisDreaming on March 13, 2016, 02:12:03 PM
Hi okaro,

I realise this is 3 and 1/2 years too late, but I've figured out the solution to your problem. I'm posting it here in case other people have the same issue and are looking for the solution.

snip

Hope this is of use to someone out there.  :)

Thanks a million! Couldn't have done it without you.