ACADEMY REAL-WORLDRAW
LEFT Raw files mean you can pull lots of detail out of the shadows and tweak colours with ease
BELOW ProRes Raw files are not a large as 12-bit Raw
the ProRes Raw file almost looks like it’s an HDR shot, even though it’s reproduced on a Rec. 709 monitor. The bright sky has more detail and colour, the shadows have much more detail and the colours are bold without being too oversaturated. It looks far more like the scene did to the naked eye. There is more noise on the Raw shot, which you have to work on to get rid of. But overall there is a big advantage. Going to HQ increases file sizes but the improvement is minimal, though. Standard ProRes Raw is all most will ever need.
“It’s a step up in quality and control fromany of the standard codecs, including ProRes”
by far was shooting at 240fps with no buffering for some incredible slowmotion in ridiculously high quality. We also shot lots of B roll action on Sony A9 and A7R III mirrorless cameras at 120fps. The A9 doesn’t have Log, but has incredible AF for shooting fast action, but the A7R III does. It was pretty easy to match the footage between the cameras, although this was to get to natural colours rather than any graded look. For that, the Raw from the FS5 is easy to grade, but the 8-bit, non-Log A9 footage far less so. To get an accurate comparison of how much extra detail there is, we shot a garden scene that had deep shadows and bright highlights. We used the FS5 in a variety of its formats, starting from the 8-bit internal 1080 codec right through all the standard ProRes codecs to 4K ProRes Raw in standard and HQ. Going from 1080 HD 8-bit up to 10-bit, then to 4K and in ProRes of increasing qualities showed a definite, but relatively small increase in quality at every stage. But when you compare the basic 8-bit 1080 to any of the 10-bit ProRes files, there is definitely a noticeable jump in resolution, detail and dynamic range. But the biggest jump of all is when you go to ProRes Raw. Considering the files are roughly the same size as the biggest ProRes 4444 files, the detail and dynamic range they had truly was a big step ahead. If you compare a standard 4K ProRes frame to one shot in 4K ProRes Raw standard – not even high quality – then
VERDICT
If you have the time to process the files, hard drive space to shoot ProRes Raw and computing power to edit it, then it’s definitely a step up in quality and control from any of the standard codecs, including ProRes. If you own one of the supported cameras, an Atomos product like the Shogun Inferno and use Final Cut Pro X to edit, then Apple ProRes Raw ups the quality of your footage in a very obvious way. If you shoot action and yearn for very fast frame rates, then 240fps with no time limit out of an affordable camera like a Sony FS5 makes Raw shooting an incrediblyworthwhile option. Apple’s ProRes Raw gives file sizes that are big, but just about manageable for a lot of professionals on projects where quality is paramount. If you don’t have one of the supported cameras, don’t like using an external Atomos recorder, don’t have the fastest computer or hard drives, feel faint at the thought of the massive file sizes and storage you need, and value speed over ultimate quality, then ProResRaw is definitely not for you right now.
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PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2020
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