This is important because the light source master wheel and RGB controls cannot be
automatically changed between scanned clips in a log and capture workflow. This means that the
current light source settings will be used for all clips you scan until you manually change those
settings again, even for clips that you've logged from different parts of a film roll. This means
that the log and capture style of working is only advisable in situations where it makes sense to
log multiple clips that share the same light source master wheel and RGB control adjustments.
Otherwise, it's recommended you make lighting adjustments on a clip by clip basis, as you scan
each clip, in situations where you need maximum image quality for finishing. Keep in mind that
the goal for these adjustments is to maximize image data from the scan, not to create the final
look of the clips, which you'll accomplish later in the grading phase of work using the controls of
the 'color' page.
To adjust the light source settings, find a typical image for the section of roll or for the first series
of shots you're going to scan, and adjust the light source while viewing the built in video scopes.
Adjust the light source master wheel to set the intensity of the light source used to illuminate
the film, raising or lowering the level of the R, G, and B channels all at once. For a typical
camera negative, this lets you adjust the black point of the film image. In a negative print, the
darkest part of the image corresponds to the highlights of the film image. Set the light source
master wheel to sit just above the typical Dmin value of 95, as measured on the histogram of
the video scopes, which guarantees that the highlights won't be clipped by the Cineon LOG
conversion that DaVinci uses to debayer the CRI image for grading. For positive film, simply
adjust light source so that no part of the highlights or shadows of the signal is being clipped.
TIP
You can turn on 'show reference levels' in the waveform, RGB parade,
or histogram scopes, and set the 'low' value to indicate the digital Dmin value of 95.
Once that's accomplished, adjust the RGB controls to rebalance all three color channels by
varying amounts to alter the color temperature of the light source used to illuminate the film,
to produce the most useful, or neutral, color balance in the scanned result.
Scanning One or More Sections of Film
After you've adjusted the light source, it's a good idea to stay organized as you scan each clip
by entering all relevant metadata into the metadata editor as you go. The 'capture info' group
of metadata fields contains information for defining the file name prefix, roll, reel number, clip
number, program name, flags, and whether a particular take is good. If you populate these
fields before scanning a clip, that metadata will be written into the clip.
At the bottom of the 'capture info' panel, you will see four buttons for film scanning.
With all of this accomplished, you can scan the film in one of four ways:
Capture Now:
Use the capture now button to capture long sections of a reel all at
once. Clicking 'capture now' begins scanning near the current frame, ending whenever
you click 'stop capture'.
TIP
If 'Enable 2 Pass HDR Scan' is selected, click 'Capture HDR' after the
capture has begun to let DaVinci Resolve know you've reached the end of
your desired clip so it can now proceed to capture the high exposure pass.
If you scan the entire reel without clicking 'Capture HDR', the scanner
automatically proceeds with the high intensity scan from where you started
it until the end of the reel.
Capturing from Cintel using DaVinci Resolve
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