Color Grading Problems with the R1MX

[Carson McKinnon]

Hey everyone,

I've been filming with the Red One MX for almost a year now but I'm trying to create a steady color grading flow. I've been using FCPX as my main editor. I read into using the IPP2 color science as a starting base so I converted my footage to (REDWideGamutRGB) and (Log 3G10). I then download the RED sample Creative LUTs and applied them yet the footage still looks incredibly flat. It doesn't come out looking like how I expected. I know LUTs aren't an automatic fix all but not a single LUT is looking to be in the ballpark which makes me think I must've messed something up along the way.

Are there internal settings on the RED I have to have when recording? I would imagine with it being RAW, I should be able to change most things related to the coloring in post.
Does anyone have any tips on how they do their color grading workflow in this day and age using the Red One MX?

Attached are some photos of everything as it currently is with the footage. I have a clean copy of the footage, a screenshot of the settings, and then how it looks with the RED premade Creative LUTs. If anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong or how to fix this or the best way to go about my RED editing workflow using Red One MX footage, it would be much appreciated!

This photo shows each of my sets of settings, what the footage looks like, and should help give an idea of where am at and what's going on.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oOa...ew?usp=sharing

[Mike P.]

Pretty sure the RED Creative LUTs do *not* include Tone Mapping/Highlight Roll-off, so you're going to have to select them to get the desired look. In FCPX, I think that means adding another LUT *after* the creative LUT (and likely having to re-adjusting the raw settings of the underlying footage). The IPP2 conversion LUTs are also on RED.com and I think there are 16 of them for all the various Tone/Roll-off combos.

But yes, IPP2 is substantially better than RC4/RG4; it has better colour handling in the extremes and better highlight retention too (which is comparatively weaker on REDs, so every little bit helps). That said, for faster turnaround RC4/RG4 can still get you to an okay rec709 image quickly.