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Filed under: Tips •

Tip: Apply Color Adjustments to RED QuickTimes

As you probably know, when you transfer footage from a RED camera you get QuickTime movies along with the source R3D file, in the same folder. These QuickTimes are symbolic links only with no data of their own (mine show up as 4K in size); they merely provide a means for QuickTime-enabled apps to preview the R3D file at various resolutions. Move them to where they no longer link to the R3D and they are completely useless.

You already know I consider it preferable in most cases to convert rather than natively edit R3D files.Nevertheless, there are many cases where those QuickTimes are super useful, and there is a way to use them to optimize a shot that will be edited as native R3D. Here’s how.

• Open a R3D file in REDAlert (a free download from RED.com that anyone working with R3D files should have on their Mac). Try this link if you want to play along and lack an R3D
• Open the Histogram (Shift + Cmd + H)
• Use slider controls to optimize the shot: fix any clipping by adjusting Exposure or ISO, balance highlights with DRX, match the Kelvin setting to your lighting
• Adjusting any of these creates a .RSX file that contains the settings; it is written right into the same directory - however the QuickTimes still look the same until you take the important last step
• Choose File > Make QuickTimes (Opt + Cmd +A) and the proxies are updated with the new settings

Thereafter, when you open the QuickTime (or use it in an application that supports its usage) the color settings remain until you further update them.

Don’t think there aren’t gotchas with this - as of this writing (REDAlert version 3.60, RED camera build 17, and QuickTime 7.6) none of the settings above or below the sliders will stick - not all-important choice of Color Space and Output LUT/Gamma Source, nor the Curve control below the sliders.

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