Color Correction help

[Kevin Lee]

I conducted an interview outside. I had the subject in shade but lit. Unfortunately only had 3200K lighting on him. So he appears a bit orange compared to the background. Does anyone have advise on an easy fix other than rotoscoping? The guy was in a hurry, so I couldn't grab the proper lights to make changes. Would CC color neutralizer help?

 

[Kevin Lee]

I did a curves adjustment, color neutralizer and change color effects to come up with this, only the background is a bit blue. Any thoughts?

 

[Robbie Comeau]

Try bringing down the blues in the midtone/shadows?

 

[Ryan-Guy]

If your software has it, you can try keying his skin, blurring or feathering the edges of the key, and shift it towards blue.

The skins are pretty orange, and theres nothing in there that should compete with the bad skin in the background, so you should get a pretty good key.

 

[Bruce Watson]

I conducted an interview outside. I had the subject in shade but lit. Unfortunately only had 3200K lighting on him. So he appears a bit orange compared to the background. Does anyone have advise on an easy fix other than rotoscoping? The guy was in a hurry, so I couldn't grab the proper lights to make changes. Would CC color neutralizer help?

Easy enough. Your background is OK, so all you need is a secondary color correction on the guy's skin tones, and maybe another one on his shirt. You can do this with the three way color corrector in PPro, or the one in AE if you want.

 

[KINOKS]

A bit late to the party but there is really a simple solution to this kind of problems.
Just use the Hue/Saturation effect and desaturate the reds. That's it! Lift the lightness and the saturation actually, don't just drop the saturation.

If ever you have problems with to contrasty or to saturated skin tons, just desaturate the reds and you're golden.

 

[KINOKS]

 

[bgodoy]

Kinoks, the shot is looks great, definitely a substantial improvement. The only thing I see that might have been a bit overdone is the spot exposure over the subject's face (seems a tad too bright). I would love to see what it would look like animated since we all know a simple screenshot can't do the entire shot justice.

You would probably have to track the subject's face because otherwise the exposure might not 'sit' well throughout the whole shot. Overall, as I said it's looking great but I just wanted to offer a little more advice in terms of improving the grade.
-B

 

[KINOKS]

The only thing I see that might have been a bit overdone is the spot exposure over the subject's face (seems a tad too bright).

-B

Yep, I agree. I did this in 1 minute... I also desaturate the blues and got rid of the cyans in the background.

Actually the face looked o.k. until I darkened the background. Anyway, this is a though shot to grade, as the overall exposure varies a lot.
The subjects face is somewhere between 10 and 45 IRE. But the BG is all between 50 and 100 IRE. Also the face has some weird pink discolourations that would be hard to correct.

As for the animation, it wouldn't be hard, as it's only a small mask...

Here's a rather flat grade, ready for some color grading:

 

[bgodoy]

Nicely done Kinoks. This is a good start for a final grade.

I'm not sure what format this was originally shot in, however, I can see how the dramatic variation in values could be harder to correct. I agree the skin tones have somewhat of a pink hue around the cheeks and upper forehead, although, it's not anything too major. That's why instead of fighting the pink tones in the cheeks, I played around for about 15 and decided to blend everything in (rather than waste too much time chasing my tail).

This is probably close to how my final would look. To be honest, the biggest thing for me personally wasn't even the color grading. I think that the amount of noise within the image would be my biggest pet peave. The good news is that it's all salvageable without too much too effort. Let me know what you think, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

-B

 

[KINOKS]

Yes, there is some noise, but it's not noise per'se - it's compression. That's what makes the picture look bad.
On the other hand the whole scene really isn't nicely set up. It's really a messy shot. There is to much clutter in the BG.
The greens and the blues are competing with the subjects face for attention. The only way to save the shot is by desaturating and
lowering the overall brightness of BG. Also the shirt should be desaturated as well if you ask me. And that tree in the BG is really killing it.
There really is only so much that you can do to make a badly composed shot look good.

As for your final grade, to me it looks to saturated. Skin tones are definitely to orange. Combined with the blue shirt it's just tacky
But that's art direction.

My finall grade would probably look something like this:

 

[bgodoy]

I completely agree the composition of the shot could have been thought out a bit more. It's pretty evident that the subject is competing with the background but I still feel that simply desaturating and lowering the brightness doesn't have to be the only solution to remedy the shot. In my opinion, I see it like this. Don't let the shot dictate your grade, let your grade complement your shot. Afterall, color correction is one thing but color grading is another beast entirely.

In regards to the composition, eventhough it may seem there is no clear definition as to what the focal point should be, it doesn't eliminate the fact that they are doing some things right. For staters, they are obviously following the rule of thirds, (which helps however slightly) and they also have a nice rim light separating the subject from the background. In addition and as far as I can tell, the only thing with movement in the whole shot is of course the subject. So despite the pitfalls, the focal point is clearly still the subject.

As you said, the composition could use some work, nevertheless, there is no reason why adding a bit of color should be completely off the table. Hopefully we can agree to disagree.

-B

 

[David Parsons]

Could you rotobrush the subject and throw the background out of focus?

 

[KINOKS]

In my opinion, I see it like this. Don't let the shot dictate your grade, let your grade complement your shot. Afterall, color correction is one thing but color grading is another beast entirely.


-B

Sure I agree. But sometimes the job is to save the shot not just to complement it. In this case I would argue for the latter. Yes, desaturation and darkening aren't the only things to be done But they should be at the focal point, at least in this case. That's my opinion at least.
Regarding the rim light. I brought it up, it was really only faintly noticeable in the original shot. I actually added blues to the highlights to make the rim light more prominent.

As you said, the composition could use some work, nevertheless, there is no reason why adding a bit of colour should be completely off the table. Hopefully we can agree to disagree.

-B

We really are in agreement, not in a disagreement. The only thing we don't agree on is the amount of overall colour, which really is a thing of personal taste. But looking at it
from a purely technical perspective the colours are to strong and they are calling to much attention to them self. So that's why they should be desaturate in this case. But if you would be doing a grade for CSI Miami then I guess things would be done more or less in your way. Except for the skin tones, even CSI Miami doesn't have orange skin tones

 

[KINOKS]

Could you rotobrush the subject and throw the background out of focus?

Achieving a little more shalower DOF would make things a lot better. But doing this to a still or to video is a completely different story. So I'll reframe from doing it to this still, as it's not a realistic solution.

 

[bgodoy]

I think you hit the nail on the nose; at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. However, given that this is an interview I would assume that the intention of the this piece is for the viewer to connect with the person being interviewed. With that said, I think this shot would benefit greatly from a bit more color, especially warmer tones not cool ones. I agree that from time to time saving an image takes priority but color correction is only the first step in the process. Grading an image is meant to create a specific vibe or mood to help the viewer relate to what the speaker is saying.

Just my take on it but don't take my word for it, here is an excerpt from an article from Shane Hurlbut's blog that I think you'd appreciate (if you haven't read it already).

"COLOR CORRECTION is the process where every clip is manually tweaked to get a good exposure and balance of light. Each clip is adjusted to match color temperature to a predefined choice for each scene. This tedious and mechanical process is essential and in its own way, an art form. The use of SCOPES (Waveform, Vectroscope, Parade) is critical to this step and luckily most NLE’s and Grading software have them built-in. Without them you are literally flying blind and solely trusting your eyes, which have to adjust to room light ambience, fatigue, funky monitors and other factors constantly. Trust the SCOPES and let them guide you into accurate and creative decision making.
COLOR GRADING is the creative process where decisions are made to further enhance or establish a new visual tone to the project through software including: introducing new color themes, re-lighting within a frame, films stock emulations, color gradients and a slew of other choices. Being that this is purely creative, there is no wrong or right…only what the DP, director and colorist feel is appropriate for the story. It can be subtle and invisible or over-the-top and uber-stylized. Therein lies the challenge…The challenge of choices. The tools available are so numerous, powerful and often free (Davinci Resolve Lite!) that you have no excuse not to explore these options further before you embark on the Grading journey."

Here is a link the whole article.

Again, like you said, it really all comes down to the individual preference of the people involved. Good luck with your future grades.

-B

 

[KINOKS]

With that said, I think this shot would benefit greatly from a bit more color, especially warmer tones not cool ones...Grading an image is meant to create a specific vibe or mood to help the viewer relate to what the speaker is saying.


-B

That's a good point yes. I agree. But maybe we want a more cold approach, because the story needs it...
Anyway what I'm trying to say is that it really is a moot point, we cant discuss it because just like the exert you posted from Shane: "...only what DP, director and colorist feel is appropriate for the story" -> we don't know what is appropriate for the story and there are no absolutes here so we really can't discuss it in this manner

Again, like you said, it really all comes down to the individual preference of the people involved.

Yep. It's all for making the story better and more expressive.

Good luck with your future grades.

And to you to!

Boy did we stray from the OP's starting topic I think we just invented hot water

 

[Jordan Scott Price]

The image is just oversaturated and too dark.

If you're in After Effects, look up SA Color Finesse in the effects pane. Use the simple interface. Scroll down to HSL. Boost the Highlights brightness and then adjust the Mids accordingly. Since this is an HSL adjustment, the saturation may take care of itself. If his skin is still too saturated, desaturate the Mids and Shadows a bit.

Then you can make slight color tweaks with the wheels or RGB - I find the curves to be far too aggressive. Also, I recommend adding a new Color Finesse effect before you start adjusting individual colors, so your first effect is just lightness and saturation, and your subsequent effects can be targeted to just RGB or color tweaking. That way, you can toggle them on/off individually to see what adjustments you've made, like retouching an image in Photoshop.


Fashionably late to the party...