What are Primers
Primers are image mastering tools, designed for acquisition and post production, achieving top performance in motion imaging.
Decades of industry cross-domain experience, years of r&d since early 2016, custom designed methodology, extensive camera analysis, workflow analysis, multi stage custom processing and high scrutiny QC all assure excellence in digital imaging.
Each digital camera material inherits multiple imperfections once it hits the screen, mostly due to multiple stages of processing inducing various deviations of the original capture. Data processing chain is the main culprit of unappealing look of digital. Data gets degraded after the capture.
This Issue remains with industry standard colour management.
Primers avoid image degradation and image denaturalisation issues of digital pipeline with a single processing step custom tailored high-precision non linear processing. Primers are unique, camera-specific transforms achieving scene-independent, visually referent high quality image formation.
Primers come in 3LUT form and can be used across the production domain.
Primers complete the digital pipeline by:
1) Adding a third reference and objective anchor point in the middle of the pipeline
2) Adequately bridging domains, input, middle and output
3) Non-linear visually referent base image formation
4) Unifying different cameras
5) Minimising issues of digital colour processing
6) Avoiding guesswork and DIY image engineering
7) Enabling top quality, platform independent, intuitive and productive workflow
Image qualities
- Superior colour performance: accuracy, stability, harmony, separation, consistency
- Superior image definition
- Superior image depth and dimensionality
- Superior utilisation of available dynamic range
- Superior highlight and shadow handling (“rolloff”)
- Fully natural image rendering, no “digital” feel of colours
- Normalised across the range
- Harmonised tonal distribution
- Minimised noise and stabilised image texture, no need for NR with proper workflow
Omnichroma pipeline
Pipeline keys
- Pipeline has been defined on scientific analysis of multiple data properties and image qualities in various combinations of signal chain and processing and removes speculation, wishful thinking, tastes and opinions.
- Chart shows simplified path from external world through post domain back to external world, focusing on post production image mastering workflow in the middle.
- Upper rows show relation of scene, camera, Primer, display and image. Primer is a data optimisation cross-domain bridge, taking into account multiple levels of correlation symbolised by stripes.
- From left to right is signal chain.
- 5 main processing stages consist of camera processing, balancing, Primer base image data formation, creative image data shaping and display device processing.
- 3 processing stages – Camera, Primer and Display require special engineering outside of post production domain.
- Within stages II, III, and IV are 5 processing steps of image mastering in post production, 4 of which are user shaping.
- Order of application starts with Primer in the middle of the pipeline, then goes in reverse in signal chain. Brightness compensation preceding the Primer in signal chain. Once the image is brought to desired brightness levels proper visual feedback allows fine tuning colour balance which has to precede global amplification. First three steps define base image formation and predetermine the quality of creative work.
- Creative toning goes only after base image formation is complete, after balancing and Primer, because image data has been adequately mapped and prepped and further processing is done on optimised state of data
- NR / grain texture alteration goes after creative look is fully defined, because all preceding processing will affect noise and texture properties. Also – waste of processing power for RT playback otherwise.
- Coding and data mapping: any remapping to intermediate working “space” goes AFTER Primer’s full range normalisation, creative work must be done on fully stabilised and normalised data made possible by Omnichroma colour processing
- Notice no “DRT” in the chart, Primer transform is beyond this concept (see upper levels of relation and equivalence)
- New concepts : DATA STATES
- Quantisation data state is machine stimuli and data capture dependent, also called “scene referred”
- Phenomenon data state is real light colour manifestation equivalent
- New concept : DATA STATE TRANSFORM (DST)
- Notice that both working and display “colour spaces” can be used after Primer within the same state (NOT display limited)
- Default Primer output is 709 gamut with proper full range non-linear mapping. Once Primer transforms data from one state to another, it is possible to scale back to “larger” intermediate working space via CST for creative shaping to keep data processing margins pre-compression to display
Pipeline simplified: steps
- Apply camera model adequate Primer in the middle of the chain
- Step reverse in signal chain – Seeing developed image through the Primer adjust brightness to compensate exposure if needed preceding the Primer in the chain
- Step reverse in signal chain – Seeing desired brightness finesse colour balance, preceding brightness in the chain
- Creative toning processes – After balancing + Primer referent image data formation, toning will yield superior results
- Texture related processes – NR, adding grain after all other processing
Note 2 – In case of differing NR between cameras, for multi camera workflow practicality step 4 colour toning and step 5 texture modification steps can change places
Note 3 – Balancing and brightness pre-Primer on the same node will yield the same effect technically but suggested signal chain and workflow is more practical with more insight and control
Accomplished
- Custom multi-stage & multi-level camera analysis testbed & workflow
- Custom image data mapping design, visually referent and technically superior
- Custom processing workflow for utmost transform quality and practically no data degradation
- Colour unification of different cameras
- Improved workflow speed, intuitiveness, practicality and productivity
- Implementation and usability – embodied as 3DLUTs so usable across the production domain
- Utmost image quality – beyond camera maker transforms and industry standard colour management
Usage scenarios
Primers are embodied into standard 3DLUT .cube form so they can be used across scenarios, whether in cameras, monitors and recorders or software tools.
- Before the shoot > to check the results on test material and consider camera and light setup
- On the shoot > to get objective feel of the final result and expose most precisely according to visual feedback
- On set after the shoot > for top quality and practical dailies creation
- In post-production > for top quality colour correction basis
Primers Standard Edition are designed for compact cameras making the most of 8 bit material.
Primers EQX are designed for 10bit+ material and typically log material and target the utmost.
Benefits
1) Superior imaging performance
2) Natural image aesthetics
3) More practical and reliable shooting
4) Accurate on-set monitoring, spot-on exposure
5) Same transformations for monitoring & post, reduced workflow variables & risks, what you see is what you get. Exactly.
6) High quality and faster set dailies
7) High quality post production
8) Maximum utilization of sensor gamut & DR (Log origin & Primers EQX for 10 bit+ cameras)
9) Unified colour performance across cameras and brands with dramatically easier camera matching
10) Technical simplification and unification of workflow with more time and focus left for creative work
About the project
Primers project was started at the end of 2015 by a few industry professionals, pursuing technical and aesthetic improvements in imaging for own production and post production requirements. The ongoing challenges in digital imaging, with quality, consistency and difference issues, many of which were highly problematic for shoots and post, motivated the venture into the unknown.
Combining the experience in broadcast, cinema, camera tech, DIT, multiple production and post production fields, with the experience in other domains, project was focused on research in digital imaging and development of tools & routes to get the best possible imagery out of digital cameras.
Removing the limitation of “baked in” video profiles, wider adoption of log & wide gamut recording (& RAW) with widespread support of 3DLUT transformation tools allowed the technical basis for data for the process we called “image data optimisation”. We departed on immense research and development project bridging optical and digital domain,, theory and practice, subjective and objective.
We custom designed our own a) camera analysis workflow, b) image processing pipeline, and c) naturally-equvalent data mapping. During the course of 9 years, in passionate and relentless pursuit of imaging excellence all three parts were improved multiple times which meant updating each Primers sets to new generations.
Expanding the understanding of data properties and their relation to imagery, we improved multiple image parameters to higher and higher levels of quality, many of which we defined ourselves during this research.
Today we achieve utmost quality, superior to camera maker transforms and industry standard colour management, enabling every Primers user to achieve outstanding imaging results with ease.