Can you use Photoshop to color correct video?

[Fellini's Moon]

Big salute to dvx users - this is my first post.

Can you use the standard edition of Photoshop ( not the extended) for color correction of video?

I'd love to do some noise reduction (cleaning it up), color correction, especially color temperature/tint.

Am I asking too much? Should I have this written to Santa Claus instead posted it on dvxuser.com?

If there is a way to do that in Photoshop, how can it be done?

I'd be very appreciative and attentive to links to tutorials or the title of a book that shows me how to do it.

Thanks!

PS: I'm currently using iMovie HD (but when I get rich and fat I'll get Final Cut Studio)

[Tom Marshall]

You can do that. You would have to export an image sequence from your NLE and then open each image in Photoshop to correct. You can also set up an action if you find the settings you like. You're better off just correcting in your NLE. Not sure if iMovie has color correction or not though - I don't use a Mac.

You don't have to get Final Cut Studio. Get the light version (not sure what it's called, but I know they have some sort of "light" version, sort of like Photoshop Elements) if you can't afford the full version.

[Fellini's Moon]

Thanks, Tommy.

Importing each image separately sounds like a murderous task.

I have not yet tried Photoshop actions.

Yes, I'm thinking about getting Final Cut Express.

[Fellini's Moon]

Actually, can you give me a link that would tell me how to import a sequence into Photoshop?

Given what power you have with Photoshop, it could be real fun to do it.

I just have to learn that section about Photoshop actions.

[Jared Meyer]

This isn't terribly helpful, but I ran across this article and thought it was worth mentioning that apparently even certain pros might choose to cc in Photoshop. It's a pretty hardcore shoot- 3d using the SI 2K cameras for a Bjork music video. They're pretty complimentary of PS as a color corrector for video.

The interview is at StudioDaily:
http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/casestudies/8811.html

The bit about PS for color correction is at the very bottom.


And what about color correction?
IS: We haven’t gotten there yet. In the past what we’ve done is used a batching technique in Photoshop because that program we are more comfortable with and haven’t really found comparable tools. Specifically the selective color control in Photoshop has a really intuitive feel for us that we haven’t found in even the high-end color correctors. So we’ve always run our project on a shot-by-shot batch basis through Photoshop using he automator. We’re not sure whether we will use that on this project but if we can’t find anything that gives us that control we will.

[Fellini's Moon]

Thanks for that very interesting article.

I guess there's a bit of detective work to be made to get the how-to knowledge.

Even though the headline of this section is "using Photoshop in video is nothing new", one is tempted to add "but it doesn't look like many people are actually doing it".

I have once run into a book about "Photoshop for video", but Amazon doesn't carry it.

[Tom Marshall]

Hehe... yeah, Photoshop's got a bit of a learning curve...

Probably the easiest way on a Mac (that is, if you can't export an image sequence from iMovie, which you probably can't) is to open the movie that you create from iMovie in Quicktime and then export from there as an image sequence. I'm not sure if you have to use the "Pro" version of Quicktime or not. If that doesn't work, there is probably a freeware program that will do it for you. All the free programs I know to do something like that are PC only...

[Fellini's Moon]

I just wonder if you need Photoshop extended to import video.

(?)

I have searched the web, and have posted questions, and could not find a single person who has actually imported video into Photoshop.

[Tom Marshall]

No, you don't need the Extended version. You could even do what you want with an ancient version of Photoshop. It's not difficult. It's just a matter of figuring out how to export an image sequence with iMovie.

[milksac]

I just wonder if you need Photoshop extended to import video.
As Tommy said there are ways to import image sequences into the basic verion of PS. But if you're specifically wanting to handle video in PS then the extended version is a better choice. It handles video in layers similar to After Effects. Here's a comparison chart for PS & PS extended: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/compare/

More often than not color correction is handled within the NLE. What about Final Cut Express?

[kai]

Or you could export the filmstrip format (adobe products can do this). Then when you open it in PS, you'll have a document with every frame in it laid out in a grid. Do your color grading over the whole document and save it back out as a filmstrip. Open that filmstrip back up in your NLE, and walla.

[Matt Grunau]

You don't need any extended version or any of that nonsense. All you need is to look up how to create an Action, and then do a Batch Process. You will need to do what Tommy said and export as a giant image sequence, but you put those in one folder, create another for the altered results, and Batch Process to the "New" empty folder.

I do it all the time. You will have to step away from your computer for a few hours, but make a sandwich, drink a beer, or do whatever until Photoshop finishes.

The key things here are, learning to create Actions, and learning Batch Processing. Both are simple, and easily explained in the Help section, not to mention online.


EDIT:

Or do as Kai suggested, though .flm format can be tricky.

[Fellini's Moon]

No, you don't need the Extended version. You could even do what you want with an ancient version of Photoshop. It's not difficult. It's just a matter of figuring out how to export an image sequence with iMovie.

How do you do it?

Can you give me a link to a tutorial, or some hints on how to try it?

[Fellini's Moon]

You don't need any extended version or any of that nonsense. All you need is to look up how to create an Action, and then do a Batch Process. You will need to do what Tommy said and export as a giant image sequence, but you put those in one folder, create another for the altered results, and Batch Process to the "New" empty folder.

I do it all the time. You will have to step away from your computer for a few hours, but make a sandwich, drink a beer, or do whatever until Photoshop finishes.

The key things here are, learning to create Actions, and learning Batch Processing. Both are simple, and easily explained in the Help section, not to mention online.


EDIT:

Or do as Kai suggested, though .flm format can be tricky.

I'm new to Photoshop, and haven't gotten to Actions.

I understand that you can import a whole image sequence into Photoshop.

At this moment, I can't really figure out how to mark those frames that I want to export from iMovie HD into Photoshop, and then import it into Photoshop.

I would appreciate it if you would find the time to give me the steps how to do it, and I will include this in my Photoshop learning process.

Thanks.

[Fellini's Moon]

Or you could export the filmstrip format (adobe products can do this). Then when you open it in PS, you'll have a document with every frame in it laid out in a grid. Do your color grading over the whole document and save it back out as a filmstrip. Open that filmstrip back up in your NLE, and walla.

Could you enlarge on that filmstrip format?

And give me some resources to learn about this?

If you think back to your own early Photoshop days, can you remember that feeling of a wanting to breathe, but there's no oxygen? Well, that's the feeling I have at this moment.


PS: I love that video of the race horse on your website! Is that a video, that you transformed in Photoshop, or is it an animation? (with all those movements, that must have been some work).

[Matt Grunau]

I'm new to Photoshop, and haven't gotten to Actions.

I understand that you can import a whole image sequence into Photoshop.

At this moment, I can't really figure out how to mark those frames that I want to export from iMovie HD into Photoshop, and then import it into Photoshop.

I would appreciate it if you would find the time to give me the steps how to do it, and I will include this in my Photoshop learning process.

Thanks.

You can find your Actions in the under View>Actions. What an action does is record a bunch of changes or tweaks you make to an image. Look up Photoshop Actions on Google, you will get the idea. By default, there are a bunch of built in actions, from everything like making a wooden frame around your image, to making metallic textures, to really altering text.

If you DON'T know about actions, learn them.

Lastly, you are not importing a bunch of files into Photoshop by batch processing, you are simply telling photoshop to look in a specific folder (and if you have outputted an image sequence they will be numbered) and the during the batch processing part, Photoshop will open only one file, do the adjustments you have told it to from the Action you have chosen to be the Action for the batch process, save it to the new folder and move along.

It really is simple stuff. Check out Creative Cow or just look in the help directory. You will find all the info you need.

[kai]

Could you enlarge on that filmstrip format?

And give me some resources to learn about this?

If you think back to your own early Photoshop days, can you remember that feeling of a wanting to breathe, but there's no oxygen? Well, that's the feeling I have at this moment.

PS: I love that video of the race horse on your website! Is that a video, that you transformed in Photoshop, or is it an animation? (with all those movements, that must have been some work).

Here's a quick link on flm format that at least shows the workflow. This is for roto, but the same principles for file handling apply.
http://ppro.wikia.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Rotoscoping

Thanks for the comment on the horse clip, that was a rotoscoped horse shot, with 3D and 2D surroundings (C4D & AE)

[Tom Marshall]

How do you do it?

Can you give me a link to a tutorial, or some hints on how to try it?

Are you looking for a tutorial on how to export an image sequence or how to use that sequence in Photoshop?

[dirren]

very briefly;

1. Export your video sequence as images, like say tiff's. Pay attention to color export settings from your video editing program and match up with colorspace in PS (photoshop).

2. Import ONE of the images in PS and play around with the correction tools til you like what you see. Testing your correction on 500+ images is not fun. An idea might be to split up sequences in scenes that might require slightly different color correction so you won't end up with 500+ nice corrs and 500+ not so nice corrections - if correcting from the same one action that is.

3. Create an action that does the exact changes you want to include from your above test. Create the action simply by opening the actions pallet and hit record, do the changes you like (any) and the hit stop button. Remember to include the "save as"-step or PS won't save all images, just change them. When "saving as" during the creation of an action, pay no attention to what you save your image as; the filenames will be saved with the extension you specify in the "batch" window later.

4. Under file/automate/batch set the action you just created in the "play" top window, choose the folder with your exported images in the "source" dropdown. Do not open all your images in PS and then batch - PS can only open a limited amount of windows (images) at the same time. Under destination choose "save and close" and check the "override action 'save as' command" (you already have "save as" included in the action). You can play around with renaming the files under "file naming". Hit "ok".

5. PS will now open each image, be it tiff, jpg or what not, and run through the action for all images one at a time and save them as a last step. In the right folder or another you've set for it.

6. Import to your fav video editing program as image sequence.

Read up on actions, batching and the mighty Curves tool.

:)

Matt

[dory_breaux]

Thats what After Effects is for. Its pretty much Photoshop for video, atleast thats how I'd describe it.

[marques]

I find i have more control in photoshop than in ae. but i hate the extra time it takes to do it photoshop. any thoughts.

[Phil Brown]

Youcan do it in CS3 Extended, and render without image sequences. Just convert your video layer(s) to smart objects first.


Phil

[givemefood]

Can i do the same using Sony Vegas? Can i export TIFFs/Films for color correction in Photoshop?

[joelaready]

You can. Just go Tools/Scripting/Image Sequence and export as jpg or tiff. Vegas has no Film file option that I am aware of...

[Matt Grunau]

Thats what After Effects is for. Its pretty much Photoshop for video, atleast thats how I'd describe it.

I'de tend to agree, but Photoshop does have a hell of a lot more image control than after effects. The Surface Blur alone kicks butt.

[sfoster]

You can actually send a .mov file to photoshop via image ready. Just open the .mov file in image ready and click on the feather and it will send the file over where each frame is a layer. You can then adjust each frame individually, or you can apply a filter to all the frames. Then click the feather again to send it back to image ready, then export-original document then select the file type. .flv is the default I think. POOF it's a .mov file again, or whatever you selected!

[josh townsend]

You can import video and even 3d .obj layers to CS3. It even has a time line. You don't have to do it frame by frame. I did it with a scene I had for the hell of it. Added a photoshop effect to make it look drawn them composited it with the original video at a low opacity to give it a little color.

Photoshop cs3 imports all kind of video. Here's the video I did in photoshop just messing around. It was a quicktime I imported not even an image sequence.


http://www.vimeo.com/1027502


www.gainesvilleripper.com

[joelaready]

Wow. That's a cool effect. But how did you import a video without doing it frame by frame? Do you have a special version of photoshop? How do you access a timeline in PS?

[mcgeedigital]

Wow. That's a cool effect. But how did you import a video without doing it frame by frame? Do you have a special version of photoshop? How do you access a timeline in PS?

CS3 Extended can import video.

[joelaready]

I just tried it, and it's pretty cool. I never knew there was a timeline option. This is going to save me a lot of time. :2vrolijk_08:
But for some reason everything that I do is only applying to the first frame of the image, and not to the rest of the clip. What am I doing wrong?

[Matt Grunau]

Someone wrote that you can import video into photoshop, do all the work you want to it there, and then export from photoshop as video as well.

If've been trying to do that, but I can't get it to alter anything but the first frame. I am using an action, so I don't know if that is the problem. Has anyone had any look gettiing tweaeked video out of photoshop?


Can someone please describe the process? Theres a handy little tutorial out there, but is does not cover the use of actions nor does it cover exporting.


Any help?

[Adam J McKay]

ya you can, I just found this out yesterday. You can import video clips, colour correct etc, and export it video all in photoshop.

I'll try and find the link to the video.

[Shooter]

Works but is limited.

[nadalpiantini]

so, the final render that you get from photoshop after you color correct is in a top quality? or you loose some? im doing some CC in PS and im not sure if im getting the best of it.

[Gabriel Bordas]

I done a short test for a interview, CC in photoshop.
Some issues was: total time procesing, pre-production CC files, organic texture, a image with minimal video/codec/optic artefacts, the posibile loss in MTF, subjective perceptivines, rendering time, posibilites for a given scene, selective CC, artificial DoF, 16bit vs 8bit CC in Color, HDR technique, film noise, dinamic range and sub-expozure, stressing procesing.

The main advantage for me it´s because y can dream to work like a photographer on a 16 bit platform on my home MAC. Ofcorse there are some important limitacion.
Here are some links: interview http://www.vimeo.com/2346325
frame grabs from a video source: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1095409#post1095409
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=103271&highlight=gabriel+bordas

Workflow:
Start - select the static shots with no moving camera or zoom.
1. FCP - 1 frame export from every scene after final editing. All the frames must have all the technical details from the slate and DoP notes. This frames are used to search a look becoming ¨masters¨.
2. Organize - every scene must treated like celuloid sheets. Generate a directory structure for Master TIFF, for every scene a directory with their on sub-directory for actions, curves e.t.c.
i dond recomend to export all the frames of a movie to 1 directory. It becoming very hard to re-organize later and the rendering it very slow. Best to do 1 diretory for every scene no more then 3000 TIFF frames.
3. Start the Action fuction and do the 16 bit conversion
4. Up-rez to 2K and eliminate as much possible the video artefacts and dow-rez to original size or stay in 2K.
5. Use the best plugins to eliminate the noise and optical artefacts. Vizualize all the time the blue chanel. Very important, in this stage, the results are much beter if you work in 2K ore more. MTF isues are minor.
6. Work on a organic texture if you like, like film grain. Dont recomend that if your plan it a film tranfer or streaming.
7. Manage the latitude with the HDR fuction, curves, levels, shadow/hilight expozure e.t.c.
8. Start to select the vital elements of the frame to do the selective CC.
9. for the rest, work like in a photo lab
10. After the CC test that all the Action are ok an play them on separate file.

Aditional notes
The photoshop it best to work on critical shots, rotoscopie, matte maiting, hicontrast, textures and to prepare the master TIFF for a later CC Davinci and to elimnitate as much as posibile the video/codec/optic artefact or simple to work with the HDR function .....
In AE it best to do selective CC on moved scenes.
The redering time its lost on the noise reduction stage.


All the best
Gabriel Bordas

[Gabriel Bordas]

http://vimeo.com/gabrielbordas
A short news test.

[Matt Grunau]

Looks great. Thanks for the links and info Gabriel. I like the CC'd conferance footage very much, though some of the blurring and effects on the other short look very impressive as well.

[eco_bach]

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/photoshop-for-video/secondary-color-correction-with-curves/

[gshort]

Doing most adjustments in Photoshop is actually relatively simple since the CS suite was released. If you open a clip in Photoshop, add an adjustment layer and you can make your adjustments there. Use the export command (instead of save/save as) and render out.

[story2rewrite]

Don't forget to make smart object. If you do that it will apply to all the video and frames.

[Gord.T]

If your working in a linear color space you may have to make some adjustments to your preferences. Sure, it's fine as a tool as anything creative is. It's far from being the cats ass as far as video editing goes though. But sure, you can use anything including photoshopping video.