First published CC + grading desert clip grabs (simple sample)

soarprod said:
Pretty good emanuel - the second one is better, but (this is my opinion) - too much green in both.
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Yup, you're right. That's why I prefer yours.

soarprod said:
Remember, calibration is the key - my monitor is calibrated for Photoshop and I have a calibrated production monitor. For all I know, it may look right on your setup.
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But maybe, you're all right 'cause I thought the same and it will be a real concern when we will not (just) play.

BTW, concerning the appropriate use of color, I tried to get the great color eye of the actor in order to adequate his smile (following the dramatic moment for reasons of dramaturgy). For instance, that's why perhaps Rich Lee had choose other frame to grading. A different drama setting, indeed! Look the eyes expression, perfect with that color but not with ours.

Regarding OLBoy (your avatar reminds me Robert Smith - The Cure :thumbsup:), the green is (more) there, I'd say less synthetic, less HD, less CineAlta setting, but also, not necessary cinematic, however more filmic.
 
harlan, to me you're winning! Are you a colorist? If you are, I'd like hire you for my next production(ss!). I'm not joking...give me your profile (by private message if you pleased). Thanks.

<PS> It's also a question of eye, not so tech issues. But of course, this knowledge is important, too! I'd like to know how you achieve that. That's the way I like it!...well, I'd say the appropriate setting for that occasion; that one that the dramatic moment asks. Of course, from the narrative details that we have; the image itself and not from a script that we don't have. I can tell you that I, as teacher where I have my classes, I encourage - all the apprentices that we are - to these approaches. Like that ones I'm trying to do here. In order TO THINK the image, the cinema, whatever...that it is not only technology. Thank God!
 
harlan said:
The only problem with the Magic Bullet looks is that they're instantly recognizable as Magic Bullet looks. Try grading by hand prior to tossing an MB look on the image, or delve into the settings of the MB plugin.

Sorry if that sounded rude... I don't mean it that way, I'm just saying that you'll accomplish more by grading an image using your own personal "style" rather than a preset from a plugin.

other than that... looks nice, but it just looks like Magic Bullet. :)
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Question is, would you have still thought the images looked like Magic Bullet presets if you were not told that in the very beginning?
 
absolutely. my first impression of the images, before I'd read the thread, was that there was some Magic Bullet going on.

Now, there's nothing wrong with Magic Bullet at all. It's a great tool. The problem is the way it's used, and it being overused (especially the built-in looks). Although some look at it like it was, Magic Bullet really isn't a color correcting tool. It's designed to impart specific looks on your video (in addition to deinterlacing, etc..).

In order to best use Magic Bullet, you should use it in addition to standard CC tools and methods. Don't rely on it exclusively, and don't overuse it. There's an art to CC and Grading which involves so much more than dropping a plug-in on your timeline. A good colorist is just as much an artist as a director or an editor is, he knows all of the technical aspects which make up an image and how to manipulate them.

A variety of the Looks included with Magic Bullet are based on trying to simulate the look a colorist achieved through proper CC & Grading on a film. Now, why would they want to simulate those looks? Because they're memorable and instantly recoginzable as an artistic achievement in the manipulation of an image.

The reason I'm saying not to rely so much on Magic Bullet is because I'd much rather see Magic Bullet add looks based on the brilliant grading job YOU did on YOUR picture.

Again, I think Magic Bullet is great. It definitely has it's place in my toolbox. I don't know, use it all the time if you like, just make the image yours, you know. It's like fashion, you can be the cooolest person on the planet wearing nothing but a wife-beater and boxer shorts, if you "OWN" the look. Does that make sense? It's kind of hard to explain what I mean.
 
I haven't had a chance yet to CC some more of that HVX footage, but I will say that the HVX footage holds up incredibly well in post.

Even though the footage we're playing with has been recompressed beyond the initial DVCPRO-HD compression, it still has a remarkable level of flexibility.
 
Just have to try some more:cheesy:

hvx200_6.jpg


hvx200_7.jpg


hvx200_8.jpg
 
Wow, these pics are getting better and better.

Rich, what did you do to achieve that look? It's very music videoish and I love that. Please break it down.

And does anybody know this guy in the pic we're all cc'ing? He's becoming an internet celebrity as his mug seems to be on many people's computers at the moment. :thumbsup:
 
harlan said:
It's like fashion, you can be the cooolest person on the planet wearing nothing but a wife-beater and boxer shorts, if you "OWN" the look. Does that make sense? It's kind of hard to explain what I mean.
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Harlan, that's a great analogy and makes perfect sense to me. I'm real stupid at color grading--I have no idea what I'm doing. I just downloaded the free Magic Bullet library from Adobe and bought the $49 preset library. I like it! But I know what you mean.
 
ProjX v2.0 said:
Rich, what did you do to achieve that look? It's very music videoish and I love that. Please break it down.
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i used synthetic aperature color finesse for after effects...its a CC plugin. its awesome...

did some hue offset...adjust shadows, midtones, and highlights. messed with levels...and screwed with luma range.

i tend to like things contrasty and desaturated with a hue thats shifted warm or cool.

uh...trying to do a screen grab of the program but its being a little bastad...will upload later if i can get it to work....
 
Hi there,

John don't you please wan't to give us an idea on how you got to your final version CC on page one of this thread? (eg. not blowing out the newspaper, etc...)

Thanks,
Derrick
 
My only real crit on that one xenophon is the lost eye color. Sort of kills the image IMO. Otherwise it's a good 'basic' look :)
 
There is no color in the eye in this light. It's not there and it shouldn't naturally be there so it is not lost. The guy is looking down, there are no reflections on the eye and it comes down as a dark tone that naturally is unsaturated. Grey that is. Even if you saturate both green and blue to the max, the letter on the paper and the leaves outside will both clip and there will still be no color in the eye:)

This eye color does not really exist. It is formed by light and transparency of the eye. Black and brown eyes are different but those also lose their saturation in low light like all things in nature.

There are moments in which the guy looks up, then the eyes get reflections and light and saturate. If you CC to get saturation in the eye down position (which is impossible anyway) you have completely destroyed every single other position in the shot and have created problems in matching color with other shots of the same actor in the same scene. Starting with pure grey and going for perl color will also start to put saturation in dark areas, like the wall on the right and fluorecent colors in other parts of the scene which will also look unnatural in an MTV way.

Here is a detail from this frame and from one of the following frames pre and after a saturation increase and then, after reducing saturation in reds. Can you see blue color in the left coloumn?



Color correction is not as simple as it looks:)
 
harlan said:
The only problem with the Magic Bullet looks is that they're instantly recognizable as Magic Bullet looks. Try grading by hand prior to tossing an MB look on the image, or delve into the settings of the MB plugin.

Sorry if that sounded rude... I don't mean it that way, I'm just saying that you'll accomplish more by grading an image using your own personal "style" rather than a preset from a plugin.

other than that... looks nice, but it just looks like Magic Bullet. :)


.
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I'm sorry if "I" sound rude, but that's a bunch of BS. Nobody in an audience will stop and point" Oh no, they used MB to color correct it. It's so recognizable"
Besides, I don't know if you are aware of that, but MB pre-settings was inspired by the most used looks in Hollywood. Neo look is from the Matrix and many other that used that look after,. People will not say your film used MB if you use Neo. They will say it looks like the Matrix.
 
Mediacre said:
I'm sorry if "I" sound rude, but that's a bunch of BS. Nobody in an audience will stop and point" Oh no, they used MB to color correct it. It's so recognizable"
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Nor did I say they would. As an industry peer I would immediately recoginze the work as MB. An audience will instead say "oh, that looked like the matrix". Either way you look at it, your work is being 'recognized' as someone elses. Personally, I'd rather create innovative work instantly recognizable on its own, rather than imitative work recognizable as the "movie that looked like that other movie".

Mediacre said:
Besides, I don't know if you are aware of that, but MB pre-settings was inspired by the most used looks in Hollywood. Neo look is from the Matrix and many other that used that look after,. People will not say your film used MB if you use Neo. They will say it looks like the Matrix.
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Ummm... you must not have actually read my post, as you basically just said everything that I dedicated an entire paragraph to. In fact, here's a repost:

harlan said:
A variety of the Looks included with Magic Bullet are based on trying to simulate the look a colorist achieved through proper CC & Grading on a film. Now, why would they want to simulate those looks? Because they're memorable and instantly recoginzable as an artistic achievement in the manipulation of an image.

The reason I'm saying not to rely so much on Magic Bullet is because I'd much rather see Magic Bullet add looks based on the brilliant grading job YOU did on YOUR picture.
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I guess we're from two different points of view, but I'd much rather be the guy "creating" the look rather than "immitating" a look. That's why MB adds those looks based on films, because some colorist innovated and created something unique. If you'd rather imitate, then by all means, go ahead. I'm certainly not going to try to stop you; but I'll try to talk you into being more innovative by not relying on a specific plugin. I have nothing against MB, as I've said numerous times in this thread already, but if you're going to use it, at least USE it and make something unique and your own.

Now... go piss up someone elses rope, as I'm just trying to be insightful. :engel017:


PS - before anyone takes that the wrong way; as in 99.99999% of my posts I'm being somewhat tongue in cheek (hence the little angel). :)


ciao,
 
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