I recently shot a small project on Blackmagic’s excellent 6K compact camera and will be sharing the results soon. While editing, I noticed a slight blue shift/tint in the footage (probably caused by the internal ND filter) and created a LUT to fix this.
The built-in ND filter is a lifesaver and probably my favorite feature this camera has to offer. However, as with most NDs, they not only affect the exposure of the image, but also the color balance.
After applying the standard 6K Pocket LUT (film to extended video) in Davinci Resolve, I first noticed a blue tint appearing on the footage. I also tried using Gen 5 Film to extend the video LUT, and while it created a better color palette, the color shift was still there.
Thankfully, correcting tonality when grading is very easy due to the range and flexibility of 6K Pocket footage.
Rather than manually correcting every shot in the timeline, I created a new LUT to correct the ND tonal issues and help me get to the neutral starting position faster.
The LUT is based on the current Gen 5 Film to Video BMD LUT, but I made additional adjustments to remove color casts. I also increased the saturation a bit, made some subtle adjustments to the contrast, and lowered the highlights and shadows a bit.
LUTs are not designed to stylize your imagery at all, just to neutralize your footage and prepare it for creative grade. You can read more about the order of operations for color grading here.
Below is a sample shot before/after applying the LUT –
log
GEN 5 negative to expanded video LUT
film color clay
While the LUT is designed for use with footage shot with the built-in ND filter, you might also like how it can be applied to footage shot without an ND filter. Feel free to experiment with it and apply it to your pipeline any way you see fit.
Pocket 6K footage is great for use when color grading (even with ProRes), so you should be able to easily make secondary corrections once this LUT is applied.
Click to download the new 6K Pocket “Blue-Tint Fix” LUT for free.
Hope you all like it!
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