• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

I suck at colour grading

MileCreations

MileCreations

I'm crap at it, in some situations I find I'm decent at making it look good but then in others it doesn't work. Strangely I find myself half decent in Photoshop colour grading but I can never translate it well into video.

I've tried Speedgrade briefly several months ago but had issues with streamlining it and figuring out what to do with what... By several months I mean pretty much when it came out, it was a while back actually.

I've also tried following a few tutorials. The main thing that I've gotten out of them was how to colour correct to skin tones with vectorscope(?) and the three way colour corrector. I almost bought presets a few months ago but couldn't bring myself to do it as I know that the presets are literally just curves/colour wheel tuned to a certain amount, something I could easily do myself if I possessed the knowledge.

Any hints or excellent tutorials? I really want to get decent at this area, and wouldn't mind another serious crack at Speedgrade.

By the way I have Adobe CC mostly using Premiere.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Color grader is a profession. It takes years to become good at it. How many hours have you spent color grading? I would advice either learning on the side or fully transitioning to DaVinchi (free Lite version available) if you are serious about it, as it is what pros use. Check out BMCC user,reduser,pvc and etc. there is way too many resources to list them all
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That's perfectly fine :) That's why there's professionals to do it.

Similarly, I can't operate a Steadicam rig, and I'd rather hire a Steadiop to fly an Alexa, than attempt to do it myself, and either breeak something, take way too long to balance or simply not get great results.

Personally, I've never been able to get my head around Speedgrade. I use Resolve. I'd recommend downloading the free version, and reading through the manual. There's some great tips in there, and it will get you started at least on the basics of colour.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
+1 for the free version of resolve. Resolve Lite 10 can now handle video up to 4k, if I remember correctly. That's something that Lite 9 didn't do.

Also Alexis Van Hurkman wrote the manual for resolve. Has a great video training series on how to use the different tools in resolve. Also he wrote an incredible book, the Color Correction Handbook. The book isn't specific to a single color grading program, and is more theory on the when and why you do what you do. I have the first edition, but see he has recently released a 2nd edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Correct...1385649836&sr=1-1&keywords=alexis+van+hurkman
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I love that everyone is saying the same thing!

Filmmaking is a collaboration of many different people with many
skills. Not helpful when you are all alone, I know. I, too, suck at
color grading. I suck at audio. I suck at make up. I can't even
understand what it takes to do costume design. I would make a
terrible PA. I've been a first AD - I was terrible. Frankly I suck a
being a DP even though I do it often. I couldn't compose music
if a gun was at my head.

That's why I love making movies. I love being surrounded by
skilled, talented people who can do things I can't do.

MileCreations said:
something I could easily do myself if I possessed the knowledge.
Click to expand...
I don't think so.

Well, IF you possessed the knowledge and worked hard for several
years it's something you could easily do yourself. It's great that you
are learning color grading. You know know it's a hard learned skill
isn't it? It isn't something one can just pick up after reading a few
tutorials - it's something that takes dedication. Like any skill.

I've never looked into it because I let other people do that on my
movies. But I know there are some tutorials on line. It's going to
take time an effort to get even a little proficient at this skill.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm kind of in the same boat here. I've been doing photoshop photo retouching / color grading for years, but for some reason the skills don't completely translate to grading video. All the same tools and techniques seem to alter video in slightly different ways than I expect them to.

I think the main thing is just to know exactly what look you are going for. Use a reference photo if you have to. Then take it one step at a time to match it. Are all the blacks on your desired look really dark or are they all actually grey. Are the whites vivid or normal or blown out? what is the overall brightness of the image. how saturated is it? is the image colder? add blues. Is the image warmer? add oranges. You just need to be able to "see" each part of the image as a separate variable and understand how it got that way.

If you're going for something VERY stylized or unnatural... you might be better off going with presets. Altering the individual color curves can get very drastic results, infinite possibilities, but it's so hard to predict if you don't know what you're doing. It becomes a trial and error game.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jeff Troiano said:
+1 for the free version of resolve. Resolve Lite 10 can now handle video up to 4k, if I remember correctly. That's something that Lite 9 didn't do.
Click to expand...

9 and 10 can/could both handle 4k ingest, you just can't output in anything higher than 1080 for the Lite version. 10 seems to bring compatibility with .r3d's which is handy.

As a frame of reference, an acquaintance of mine who works as a staff colourist at one of the local major colour lab/suites, spent 4 years observing those above her before she was even able to touch the wheels herself.

I can remember some blog posts from prolific DPs that talk about colour grading DSLR footage, and make it seem 'easy', but the reality is, there's a huge difference in the final result, between even someone that's had Resolve Lite for a couple of years and grades their own work every now and then, and a professional who makes a living out of doing it, and has done so for many years.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Perhaps people are going overboard in the color grading department. Lets break it down to two simple steps.

1) The primary goal is to get all the clips in a sequence to match. Then all the sequences in a scene to match. And so on.

2) Only later, after all the clips in the entire movie matches and you're near final cut, should you consider a certain look for your film. Then do it only at this time.

Newbies ought not to overwhelm themselves at the beginning of post with this imo.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GuerrillaAngel said:
Newbies ought not to overwhelm themselves at the beginning of post with this imo.
Click to expand...

Firstly, Brendan is a newbie to colour grading, not the filmmaking process.


GuerrillaAngel said:
1) The primary goal is to get all the clips in a sequence to match. Then all the sequences in a scene to match. And so on.

2) Only later, after all the clips in the entire movie matches and you're near final cut, should you consider a certain look for your film. Then do it only at this time.
Click to expand...

The second one is what is generally termed as colour grading, the first more generally termed as colour correction. In this case, we're talking about grading. Either way, the 'correction' process traditionally does happen at the very start of the post process - usually in the telecine. Of course, we've moved on (mostly) from the days of film, but the reality is there's still essentially a digital 'telecine' that should take place, which includes transcoding your media into something useable for the offline edit, and in most cases applying a LUT to your footage, which does require some knowledge of colour, grading etc.
Given that more and more cameras are being released that are capable of recording into log colour space (and are, most of the time, used in such a way, unless recording raw - in which case you should still be applying some sort of LUT to your footage), IMO it's imperative that newbies learn the basics of colour, and worry about it right from the start of the post process. What's the point of buying a camera that has an increased dynamic range, if you can't do anything with the footage because you have no idea even how to apply a LUT? You should at least possess the basic knowledge of what log gamma space is, and why your footage looks incredibly grey and washed out, and then you can decide whether or not you apply a LUT (which you should).

Traditionally, in the telecine, the telecine operator would 'clean up' any mis-match of exposure or colours, which could then be fine-tuned in the timing/grade.
These days, it's much more likely for the colourist to tweak and fix exposure and colour in the grade, in addition to applying a 'look' to the footage.
This is usually because they're working with the original files anyway, conformed using an EDL, and so any colour corrections you've made in your NLE or similar are usually only sent as metadata, to give the colourist an idea of what you want. Secondly, the colourist is much more experienced and knowledgable than you and should be the one 'correcting' and grading.
Third, the colourist has the whole film, and the look and feel of the whole film to use to correct and grade each shot. You, as the offline editor (regardless of the fact that your corrections wouldn't end up in the suite anyway), have only the perspective of the current shots, then the current sequence, then the current scene etc. It can also be utterly pointless to 'correct' each shot to match in the offline, especially as you may have shot one scene, or shot darker for a specific effect, and without the perspective of the overall final look of the film, you may be creating extra work unnecessarily for the colourist later on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jax_rox said:
The second one is what is generally termed as colour grading, the first more generally termed as colour correction. In this case, we're talking about grading. Either way, the 'correction' process traditionally does happen at the very start of the post process - usually in the telecine. Of course, we've moved on (mostly) from the days of film, but the reality is there's still essentially a digital 'telecine' that should take place, which includes transcoding your media into something useable for the offline edit, and in most cases applying a LUT to your footage, which does require some knowledge of colour, grading etc.
Given that more and more cameras are being released that are capable of recording into log colour space (and are, most of the time, used in such a way, unless recording raw - in which case you should still be applying some sort of LUT to your footage), IMO it's imperative that newbies learn the basics of colour, and worry about it right from the start of the post process. What's the point of buying a camera that has an increased dynamic range, if you can't do anything with the footage because you have no idea even how to apply a LUT? You should at least possess the basic knowledge of what log gamma space is, and why your footage looks incredibly grey and washed out, and then you can decide whether or not you apply a LUT (which you should).

Traditionally, in the telecine, the telecine operator would 'clean up' any mis-match of exposure or colours, which could then be fine-tuned in the timing/grade.
These days, it's much more likely for the colourist to tweak and fix exposure and colour in the grade, in addition to applying a 'look' to the footage.
This is usually because they're working with the original files anyway, conformed using an EDL, and so any colour corrections you've made in your NLE or similar are usually only sent as metadata, to give the colourist an idea of what you want. Secondly, the colourist is much more experienced and knowledgable than you and should be the one 'correcting' and grading.
Third, the colourist has the whole film, and the look and feel of the whole film to use to correct and grade each shot. You, as the offline editor (regardless of the fact that your corrections wouldn't end up in the suite anyway), have only the perspective of the current shots, then the current sequence, then the current scene etc. It can also be utterly pointless to 'correct' each shot to match in the offline, especially as you may have shot one scene, or shot darker for a specific effect, and without the perspective of the overall final look of the film, you may be creating extra work unnecessarily for the colourist later on.
Click to expand...

Actually, with this being a home for indie filmmakers (usually ultra low budget), you're going overboard with the tech stuff. The most important thing an indie filmmaker needs to worry about is capturing an entertaining story.

In order to do this, the indie filmmaker only needs to make sure the footage is 1) white balanced, 2) in focus, and 3) at the correct exposure setting.

Everything else can be done later in post AFTER a great story is captured.

--------

If one bought the kind of gear that needs to be babysat through the entire pre/prod/post process, they've nobody to blame but themselves.

By keeping it simple, the indie filmmaker can focus on getting basic filmmaking techniques correct -- another thing far more important than the best gear money can buy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm not sure how common or uncommon this is, but on my film there was almost no color matching necessary.

We shot with almost only available light (there was maybe 2 or 3 lighting set ups the entire 21 day shoot). Granted we shot very quickly so the sun didn't have much time to move by the time we were done with a scene. And almost every shot out of my Blackmagic camera looked great and was good enough to edit to. Then once I was close to final cut I started getting creative.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
knightly said:
MC: could you post some of your problem shots?
Click to expand...

There aren't specific individual ones, it's in general. Basically my DSLR footage looks 'decent' but I know with colour grading it could look 'great'. I know from seeing examples that my footage can be graded to it, I just get confused(?) when playing with the colour wheels and curves and feel I lose a sense of creativity when attempting to grade.

(I also know that DSLR footage is not the greatest footage to be grading)

moonshieldmedia said:
I'm not sure how common or uncommon this is, but on my film there was almost no color matching necessary.
.
Click to expand...

Colour matching/correcting isn't too bad, its stylistic colour grading that I am referring to.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top