Film like color correction

It's good that you're staying on top of this and learning it as you go so don't worry about it. I like what you've done so far, looks good to me. I too eye ball it all, I don't know how to play with all of the other tools. Also, I use FCP not Premier so I wouldn't know what to tell ya on some of your questions.
 
I wanna try at it.......
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this is my attempt.

before
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after
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i use final cut pro. i use the 3 way colour correction and that's it. i think the most important thing with colour correction is subtly and analyzing the scene. with this one frame the guy is quite pale and wearing a white shirt and has blond hair. so you should make these look more blue than red. red would make everything look yellow. it's a general rule with video to crush the blacks a little bit.

that's about it.
 
zerobytes said:
If I'm bumping this too much needlessly please let me know. I am super excited about the progress tho. Here is what I've been able to come up with:
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I'm not sure I would even both trying to color correct this image. The overexposure is too extreme. I'm not sure even a pro could get this looking right. You need good footage to start out with, and then you can make the fine adjustments, but you can't save an image with overexposure on the subject's face.

There are usually two phases to color correction. The first is the "correction" where you fix any problems. Set accurate black and white points. Get the exposure and contrast right. Correct any major color casts. Correct any minor color problems that only effect one or more of shadows, midtones, and highlights. You may have to do this on every shot, to get each one to match the last one.

OK, now you have technically accurate shots. Now you can "grade" entire sequences in one pass, setting a unique look to the sequence (or the whole film). You make a lot of the same corrections as in the first step, but intentionally straying a bit from "perfect accuracy" and into the creative realm.
 
Excellent information Joshua. Thanks for the breakdown. I'm curious how you determine what is correct black and white points. So far I'm getting that the best thing to do is eyeball what looks accurate to me. Is there any criteria that I should base my shot corrections on? The explanation of the difference between correction and grading (though semantics) helps a lot. Thanks for the info Joshua.

zb
 
You should find your white points and black points with the eyedropper tool in levels or curves adjustments. If you white balanced your camera then your white probably doesn't need to be touched. I would start with a levels adjustment and the histogram for reference and bring the blacks tighter-crushed-less latitude of black.
Have you used the levels adjustment in your editing program yet?
 
what program are you using?
never mind, I read Premiere. I don't have access to Premiere cause it's activated on my office computer. Levels will adjust black and white and the histogram is easy to read but you should study up on it if you haven't yet.
 
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zerobytes said:
I'm curious how you determine what is correct black and white points.
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There is an eyedropper, but I actually recommend against using it. If you eyedrop a sample that is not perfectly black, you can crush too much black and lose details. Same goes with white.

The only way to know for sure is to get into the hard numbers. You can use a Levels adjustment to see a Histogram. You'll be able to see if your blacks reach all the way to digital black, and if your whites reach all the ways to digital white, and you can adjust accordingly. In this sense, you can look at the histogram and make the adjustment without even having to look at the image.

Even with black and white set properly, the midtones may be too bright or too dark. I recommend the Curve tool for this, as it's a smoother transition than using the Gamma slider in the Levels tool. In Curves, you can set a midpoint dot and move it up or down to bright, darken a shot. There is a lot more you can do with this as well.

Unfortunately, a lot of the tools in Premiere are difficult to use, and don't provide good detailed information, such as the RGB values of a sample point. Personally, I use the same tools, but I use them in After Effects, which gives you more information.

If you want to post a full frame grab of your choice, I'll take a swipe at color correcting it.

So far I'm getting that the best thing to do is eyeball what looks accurate to me. Is there any criteria that I should base my shot corrections on?
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Hard numbers. If there is any question if gray is gray, you sample it and see if the RGB values are 128,128,128. That's gray.

You also need a calibrated monitor to judge. Even if you eyeball it and get it right for whatever monitor you are using, if you aren't calibrated, then it'll look different to a lot of other people.
 
Hey ZB, thanks for your comments in the other thread. To be honest, I did all the costume and "makeup"(pretty much the blood only) work myself. That's the first time I've ever made or used fake blood, and frankly we had so much fun spreading it around that we got out of hand.

the blood is chocolate syrup thinned with water at about 3 bottles of syrup to one quart or water. I think it worked pretty well, I've seen seen a good bit of real blood in my life and it matched pretty close.

My total budget for the film was 36 dollars, I bought a couple of white shirts and black ties for the interrogators, the syrup, and chitlins for a scene in which one of them gets gutted.

For lighting i had 2 of those clamp-on walmart work lights with a 250 bulb in each clamped to each end of a flourescent light fixture on the ceiling, about 20 bucks invested in lights total.

Once again thanks for the advice and critique, I'll put it up in a few weeks when I'm finished with the audio!
 
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TonyClifton said:
I'm sorry, but "one bottle of syrup" is how many litres or gals?
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good question, let me check.....


I used just the standard size chocolate syrup bottle, which is apparently 18.5 oz of syrup.
 
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