Color Correction Question

DammitJanet

DammitJanet

Well-known member
I've finished the cut of my film, shot in HD on the XHA1, edited in ProRes 422. Now I'm ready to do some color work. I'm not sure whether I should use the color correction tools inside FCP or if I should send to Color and try that on for size. There are some shots where the colors are fine but the levels are a little off. For instance a low light scene where I want to bring up the mids (actors' faces) but separately from the lows (shadows) and highs (lights in the background). Here's a few of the shots I'm talking about.

Any thoughts?

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Thanks!
 
You're going to need to mask the actors faces in either color, after effects, or final cut.. I would use Color or After Effects... as they are better for masking.

basically, mask the faces, apply color to mask, and there you have it!

nice shots :)
 
I'd brighten the whole thing first and see what you are working with, then make up your mind. They are quite dark and you might have some valuable detail hidden in there that you might like. I'd bring up the mids and lows leaving the top end where it is. You can do that with curves and save yourself the arduous work of having to mask every shot.

Then mess with the color balance and try on different colors before you decide if you want to leave it like that. (I like it like that)

Also, make sure you get the pixel size fixed before all of this, so you can see what it will actually end up looking like in the end when it is all put together. It looks like you have it stretched vertically.

Just my 0.02
 
Color is going to give you more options and allow more subtle and selective enhancements than FCP. But, the learning curve can be steep. It's worth the effort, but it depends on how much time you have.
 
The pictures just came out stretched thanks to the photo host. They look fine otherwise. I'll try the curves in final cut first and check it out. I rendered out to H.264 at 720p to show to some friends and the picture brightened up a lot, but not to a negative degree. It was actually pretty nice. I'm going to try a test dvd as well and check it out on some TVs and see how that looks too. Feel free to make any other suggestions. Thanks!
 
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