Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

D

Danielxm

Member
I think color correction is a major topic and information people sick in order to "color correct" their productions for a certain final output purpose or achieve a certain "look".

I am new to post and had(and still have) many querries about settings on camera and in post. As for other sticks and "must read" topics such as DOF tutorial, I think we could share in one place tips on how to set your camera or do it in post production so that to get what you look for. Such as using the camera color bars, adjusting it with vector scope prior to correction in post, and meaning of all different terms such as "crushing the blacks", levels, curves, what each of them do, exemples, etc.. etc..  This would be helpfull in use toguether with the grabs and video areas where lots of terms are used to informe what different settings were used what was done in post to get it.

Moderator's, would a topic like this be the in cinematography or Postproduction area?

Apart from Barry's excellent guide to the DVX I also searched tutorials and links on color correction and found these excelent  elucidating one's I'd like to share:

Peter gray - DP, has information on settings on a HD panasonic camera, very good information on Master Pedestal, black levels, gamma settings and what they mean:
http://jkor.com/peter/varicampaint.html

About.com - Levels, curves, contrast, hue. Special atention to the basic color correction article. Excellent.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialscolorcor/

Please share your experience! :)
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Hi Daniel

I have'nt mastered this area myself but I tend to do the following

I first start with adjustment of BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST which can be tradtionally or through LEVELS.

When I find the look I like (Which is typically crushed blacks and a fair amount of contrast I move to Color Correction.  I start with the LOW, then the MID and then adjust the HIGHS last (how I was taught to paint).

The last thing I use is the SECONDARY CC; sometimes I'll do an ever sleight DESAT and then move to the COLOR I like.

My .02

p.s. Lately I have been paying special attention to the Videoscopes as I feel it keeps me disciplined. :D
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Wow, this is a great topic. This stuff is kind of intimidating to me.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

TC;
If you want everything green just use floresent lighting!

Tahl
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Color correction is no more difficult than painting. Getting the colors you want is nothing compared to wanting the right colors. that's one of the reasons cinematographers like to call themselves "artists"...
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

[quote author=taubkin link=board=news;num=1101396947;start=0#5 date=11/25/04 at 17:56:44]Color correction is no more difficult than painting. Getting the colors you want is nothing compared to wanting the right colors. that's one of the reasons cinematographers like to call themselves "artists"...[/quote]

I was about to disagree with your statement, but then I considered how ambiguous it is...thus now I agree with it. :P

Color correction is no more difficult then painting, but then one must decide how difficult they think painting is. The truth is that...much like painting, it simply isn't something you pick up in a day or an hour of practice. Like any artistic skill, it is a muscle that must be flexed over many years before you start to get a solid and intuitive understanding of it.

I think that like most things, color correction should be studied as still frames before being applied to motion photography. Too many people skip still photography in their quest to become better cameramen and cinematographers, but if you are able to grow your skill with a single frame you will be able to apply that easily to motion photography. That goes for lighting, focus, composition, DoF and color correction.

The best way to get an understanding of color correction on a fundimental level is (in my humble opinion) to start out in photoshop with still pictures.

I'm in no way exceptional at color correction. There are still many things that baffle me, but I think I have a pretty good fundimental understanding of the process from all the time I spent in the curves window of photoshop. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the "color wheel" filters that every editing software uses, but they differ very little from the "color balance" adjustment in photoshop, so you can certainly learn to use them by playing around in photoshop.

Now if I could figure out how to get the same piece of video to look acceptable on an NTSC television and a PC monitor at the same time...
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

J Barnes is right.  Some of the best director of photography's I know started out shooting stills when they were younger.  When I went to film school.  You had to take at least two still photography classes.  The sad thing when your younger some times you don't pay attention as much as you should (because I didn't want to be a dp).  The guy who I took my classes from has regular shows around the country now so now I wish I would have listen more.  
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Color correction is no more difficult then painting, but then one must decide how difficult they think painting is.
Click to expand...

Operating the computer is around some basic principles, and everything I know I got it from a Photoshop Class I had to take for a Year in filmschool (My still photography was all PB). So I'd agree with j_barnes on the still/photoshop issue (besides, who doesn't want to shoot 35mm film?). But operating is easy. All you need is a trained eye to know when to stop (or someone besides you screaming you are ruining their work and carrer), some knowledge in the principles of color, color contrast, curves, RGB, HSB, YUV, etc... and things will be much easier. But looking at a picture and saying: (French accent) "this needs little more red here and there and un petit cyan..." that requires lots of experience, and if you should need some theory, art studies, from renaissance to contemporary (or like some like to call it, "pretentious instalation art" 8) ).

The photoshop self training is a great way of getting your feet wet, just opening the "trip to the beach" files and messing around with the colors of your nephew's beachball.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Just to complete. A 7 year old can paint, and on every little square there are ton's of people that can operate the paintbrish and draw this pretty landcapes they seel for food, but only the brightest will end up in the louvre".
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

LOL, I mean BW.... This whole 2nd language thing got me confused...
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

I go with Taubkin. Color is one of those things you can probably always improve, but the basics are not difficult at all. Read up on color and get to understand how it works; then you just start doing it and you gradually improve. If you're an FCP user (and even if you're not) there's a good article over at Ken Stone's website. It's about FCP, but the first part of it is just color concepts.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/cc_legal_fcp4.html
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

[quote author=glassblowerscat link=board=news;num=1101396947;start=0#12 date=11/28/04 at 11:38:35]I go with Taubkin. Color is one of those things you can probably always improve, but the basics are not difficult at all. Read up on color and get to understand how it works; then you just start doing it and you gradually improve. If you're an FCP user (and even if you're not) there's a good article over at Ken Stone's website. It's about FCP, but the first part of it is just color concepts.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/cc_legal_fcp4.html[/quote]

And the CC chapter in the FCP manual is awesome! (check it out by going to Help)
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

I did a moderate amount of color correction in compositing for the film Sky Captain, and while there are a million ways of "getting there" all that matters is that you arrive at your desired result with the least amount of image degradation. For example, the order in which you apply your various corrections totally affects the outcome. And yes, you will be applying various corrections if the footage isn't already very close to your final look, there isn't a great one step solution.

I find myself correcting a lot of shots that are lacking in richness, and this is tough because you are trying to pull color from out of nowhere, but it is the most common issue with DV footage. To keep from devolving into specific tools in various editing apps, here's a good example of doing a correction just using photoshop.

I will usually start by increasing the saturation using levels (not hue/saturation) and will use the individual RGB tabs/histograms to tweak each color seperately. In this way you can specifically adjust the presence of each color in your darks, mids and highs, whereas hue/saturation applies to the overall image. So if your footage has a red cast to it you can pull it just out of the highs if that's where it's most noticeable, without losing it in the mids where your actor's flesh tones will likely be affected. Then I focus on increasing brightness if need be, usually with levels again but in full RGB mode, not individual channels. I push the dark and light sliders in to the edges of the outermost slopes, then adjust the midtones. Underneath these sliders are two others that control gamma. If your shot is too dark but not totally crushed blacks you can lower contrast by sliding the leftmost slider in, then use this lowered contrast to set your levels for a more pleasing look. One other point here. Remember that all colors are interconnected, so changing one affects the others in an RGB world. If you find yourself really cranking one particular slider, you are degrading that color channel badly and could probably get the same result by adjusting a different color instead. when in doubt, tweak until you see where the problem lies, and choose the option that requires the least meat-fisted solution possible.
Don't overcompensate, people tend to push their CC too far so that people can "see" what a great color job they did, even though this is the opposite intended effect. The best color job is the unnoticed color job.
So using the above ideas, you can extrapolate that to your app of choice, Vegas has awesome color tools as does Final Cut, After Effects and most other decent editing applications. I stuck to using the above tools in these apps until I understood how those changes affect color before I even touched a primary/secondary color correction tool. It's like training wheels first. The concepts are the same, suck unwanted color from specific color ranges (i.e. the bizzare red highlights in your snow) and enhance it in others (the magenta in their icy cold cheeks), while also getting the best possible balance of tone and contrast in your frame. Ansel Adams liked to balance things out by ensuring there was always something truly black and something truly white in the frame, so that your eye has a reference point to judge the midtones by. This always produces the most pleasing look, and is used commonly in film. If you want to get the miracle film look out of DV, shoot for it by having lights and blacks, but wherever possible do the same in your color correction.
That's my two cents and I could go further, but there's probably much more qualified people here to explain it.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Found some very helpful tips in the Help menu index of Vegas.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

I don't know how many here attempt to do color correction for broadcast material but what I tell folks who don't know how to deliver broadcast material is don't fool around with CC. I spend lots of time consulting for companies that get their tapes rejected for broadcast and the answer is always the same; Editors with a few years of experience who have never delivered for broadcast that think they can spin the wheels any which way just as long as what they make looks good to them on a monitor. Doesn't work that way in the real world. We have standards and they must be maintained. This may not relate to many of you and what you do but wanted to throw it out there.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

So if one wants to do color correction for broadcast, how might that go? Do you have suggestions/resources/do's/don'ts?
 
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