FilmLight has announced some details of its upcoming Baselight 5.0 software, including a departure from color-grading norms. Citing a desire to adopt controls that "accurately mimic the way the eye appreciates color," the new Baselight's flagship feature, Base Grade, will emphasize new grading controls — exposure, temperature and balance — over the workhorse lift, gamma and gain adjustments that are usually front and center.

The company said the new control set will have a more natural feel, enabling smoother and more consistent image adjustments, though there was no indication that the lift/gamma/gain controls will disappear entirely. 

"Colorists today need a good understanding of color science to make the most out of the technology," said FilmLight CEO Wolfgang Lempp in a prepared statement. "With Baselight 5.0, we have developed the most sophisticated yet intuitive grading tool."

Also new in Baselight 5.0 is a focus on HDR support, with the introduction of Color Space Families that specify the color environments required by different deliverable formats and Gamut Optization for adjusting color to prevent clipping and other artifacts when certain colors can't be reproduced on a given display device. 

Other features include a perspective operator for screen replacement and reprojection, perspective tracking, a dedicated keyer for blue- and green-screen, a painting tool, a relighting tool, and support for Flame Matchbox shaders.

Finally, remote-grading support has been boosted with new collaboration features for Baselight workstations in different locations, allowing remote users to follow a grading session live and request control of the system to make changes.

Baselight 5.0 will be a new software release for BLG-enabled FilmLight products, including the Daylight platform, Baselight for Avid and Baselight for Nuke.