OCTOPUS RAW Studio is a new Adobe Premiere Pro plugin specifically designed for Apple ProRes RAW and CinemaDNG footage. This plugin enhances Premiere’s RAW capabilities by seamlessly integrating a next-gen unified RAW pipeline.
It is claimed to offer cutting-edge color science and an extensive set of powerful RAW controls, providing filmmakers with unparalleled control over their image.
It is also claimed to offer best-in-class highlight recovery and customisable roll-off for maximum dynamic range retention and film-like tonal reproduction. You can also dial in precise RAW settings such as white balance and ISO with ease. There is also the ability to use analogue and digital textures to synthesise film-grain or match sensor noise profiles.
RAW Parameters
Configurable color science parameters are exposed through the OCTOPUS RAW Studio panel user interface. Each stage of the RAW processing pipeline is represented by a sub-section of the interface: Detail, Exposure, Tone, Color, Transfer and Tools. The Using parameter for each region allows switching between default As Shot camera metadata or Custom clip specific settings.
Detail
Highlight Recovery is our best-in-class proprietary algorithm to maximise usable dynamic range where highlight data is partially clipped (i.e. 1 or 2 channels of the image is clipped).
Texture is an optional processing step which simulates signal-to-noise ratios. Analogue texture simulates a celluloid signal-to-noise ratio using a non-linear luminance and chromaticity table. Digital texture simulates CMOS signal-to-noise using linear modulation.
Exposure
Exposure Index modifies the ISO regardless of the ISO the clip was shot at. This feature is only available where clips contain ISO metadata.
Ev +/- allows for precise relative exposure adjustments.
Tone
Tone controls expose standard sliders for shaping the image across the exposure range: Contrast, Highlights Shadows and Blacks.
Color
White Balance controls allow for precise matching of output white reflectance to the color temperature of scene light sources. This can be set either using standard presets for standard light sources or fully customisable with Temperature and Tint values.
Saturation is a standard saturation algorithm to remove or add color to the image.
Highlight roll-off is our bespoke implementation of filmic roll-off as highlights approach clipping. Our implementation applies a non-linear desaturation curve emulating the desaturation behaviour of celluloid film as it becomes fully transparent. Only applicable for Rec. 709 output.
Shadow roll-off similar to highlight roll-off, applies a non-linear desaturation curve to shadows as they approach black. Shadow roll-off can help mask the digital nature of CMOS noise in shadows.
Transfer
The Transfer sub-section controls the final stage of RAW processing before the image is transferred to the host NLE application.
Gamma & Color Spaces allow you to choose the output gamma and color space of the image before it is passed to the host NLE application. See supported gamma spaces and color spaces.
LUT allows you to apply a look-up table transformation to the image before it is passed to the host NLE application. The LUT option offers built-in LUTs for manufacturer log gamma spaces and custom LUT loading for .cube format LUTs.
Note:
LUTs can only be applied to log gamma spaces and are applied after the gamma and color space transform.
Gamut compression is an optional step to manage colors outside the range of the output color space. Only applicable for Rec. 709 color space output.
SDR Tone Mapping is recommended because the standard Rec. 709 gamma curve limits images to a narrow dynamic range of 6/7 stops. Applying tone mapping preserves greater dynamic range by compressing all exposure values non-linearly into the standard Rec. 709 range. Only applicable for Rec. 709 gamma space output.
White Level & Black Level allow you to remap the darkest and brightest possible pixel values within the 0.0 to 1.0 range.
Tools
Override & Global Override ‘As Shot’ allow you to export sidecar metadata either for a clip or globally for every clip under a folder. Overrides provide a mechanism to alter the default RAW parameters loaded when clips are set to use ‘As Shot’ metadata. For a clip-specific override, use the Override ‘As Shot’ export to create a sidecar with the same name and path as the clip – with the extension: .as-shot
Clip-specific override example:
Clip /Media/A001/MOV_PRORES_RAW_CLIP_01.mov
Sidecar /Media/A001/MOV_PRORES_RAW_CLIP_01.as-shot
For a global override, use the Global override ‘As Shot’ export to create a sidecar in the same folder as the clip – with the filename: global.as-shot
Global override example:
Clip /Media/A001/MOV_PRORES_RAW_CLIP_01.mov
Clip /Media/A001/MOV_PRORES_RAW_CLIP_02.mov
Sidecar /Media/A001/global.as-shot
Global override sidecars will affect all clips in the same folder or subdirectories. In situations where multiple sidecars are in play (i.e. both a global and clip-specific sidecar present) – the metadata will be automatically merged with clip-specific overrides taking precedence.
Note
When creating or modifying sidecar files, affected clips may need to be re-imported in Adobe Premiere Pro for changes to take effect.
Hint
Sidecar files are stored in human readable JSON format which can be manually edited in text editing applications.
Supported color spaces
- Rec. 709
- Rec. 2020
- ARRI Alexa Wide Gamut
- RED Wide Gamut
- Blackmagic Wide Gamut
- Sony S-Gamut3.Cine
- Canon Cinema Gamut
- DJI D-Gamut
- Panasonic V-Gamut
- ACES AP1
Supported transfer & gamma spaces
- Rec. 709
- Rec. 2020 HLG
- sRGB
- ARRI LogC3
- RED Log3G10
- Blackmagic Film Gen. 5
- Sony S-Log3
- Canon C-Log2
- DJI D-Log
- Panasonic V-Log
- Nikon N-Log
- ACEScct
Built-in LUTs
- ARRI LogC3 to Rec. 709
- RED Log3G10 to Rec. 709
- Blackmagic Film Gen. 5 to Rec. 709
- Sony S-Log3 (S-Gamut3.Cine) to Rec. 709
- Canon Log 2 to Rec. 709
- DJI D-Log to Rec. 709
- Panasonic V-Log to Rec. 709
- Nikon N-Log to Rec. 709
- ACEScct (AP1) to Rec. 709
OCTOPUS RAW Studio is a certified Apple ProRes RAW product with support for over 60 cameras.
Pricing
You can try RAW Studio today with a fully functional trial version (export limited to 250 frames).
You can also purchase a license to unlock the full capabilities of a unified RAW workflow. A lifetime license costs $99 USD.
