I know someone is going to kill me for asking this but...

samrvogel

samrvogel

Active member
I have just discovered/implemented picture styles for my T2i. Gotta say I'm really excited for the countless possibilities having something like Superflat will give me. Now, that said, it will only really matter if I color correct right. At school, I used FCP and the 3 way CC on that, which I'm pretty good at. However, at home, on my windows w/ Premiere Pro CS5, I can't figure out their crap CC for my life. I'm pretty new to Premiere/AE so I don't really know their true potential yet I suppose. But I guess this is (these are) my question(s):

-What's the best method to CC well? For a beginner? For more Advanced?
-I've seen a lot of good things regarding Magic Bullet Looks, but there's no way I'm throwing down that kind of money for CC right now.
-If any, are there other good/somewhat simple CC programs? I wouldn't mind one thats a little more complex, if it was more a kin to the FCP color correct, or had good instruction/tutorials.

I'm sure this is the 50000th time this has been asked, but: I DID SEARCH THE FORUMS BEFORE POSTING THIS. Thanks.
 
MBL is the best affordable option for working with premier or after effects. as far as free, I'd check out videocopilot's tuts on cc in after effects. that might get you started in the right direction, you can even download presets for free. videocopilot.net is a respected source for free after effects tuts, and can get you going with the program if your new to adobe. he's got a lot up there, and they're all worth wacthing. also creative cow has some free tuts for ae and pp(as well as many other programs). hope this helps,cheers
 
^ A second vote for videocopilot. It's where it's at. Also, experiment with cc, throw yourself out there and get feedback.
 
You have perfectly capable CC tools in Premiere. It's already been suggested that you look for tutorials on that, which is good advice.

Also, it should be noted that there is a huge difference between color correction and color grading. Color correction aims to get colors as accurate as possible to what was actually in front of the camera, and relies on vector scope and waveform monitor to keep flesh tones on the flesh line. Grading, on the other hand, is for giving a certain "look" to an image through color casts and vignettes and play with saturation and contrast. Grading does not correct for color reproduction. Magic Bullet Looks is for grading.
 
Check out Lynda.com for tutorials on the Premier color correcting. A $25 one month subscription should get you going.

Also, checkout Colorista II for great color correction / grading tools.
 
CS5 After Effects has Color Finesse included. It's a really powerful CC tool with waveform monitors and every tool imaginable. In addition, AE can import Premiere timelines so you don't have to render between apps. The 64 bit upgrade was well worth it.

+1 for videocopilot
 
Before shooting anything serious, I would take a good look at the results you are getting out of super flat. On paper it seems like the perfect solution for having the most flexibility in post, but I find it really just makes footage look terrible, washed out, and with grey skin-tones that you cannot "correct" back. The codecs these cameras record to don't store a ton of information for you to play around in post with. I would strongly suggest you get as close as you can to the look you want in camera (make your own presets to jive with your shooting style) and make only minor changes in post. I find the results are much better this way.

It will also make you think more about lighting and filtration on set, and I would argue make you a stronger shooter.
 
I've seen people do amazing things from just using After Effects.. Take Kendy's videos for an example. He uses a T2i on superflat settings and uses after effects for his color grading.

Big fan of his style of editing and shooting.

"Thank you Tracey ! I only used basic curves tool in After Effects in 2 different layers. A first effect layer with yellow shadow and a second layer with blue shadow. The final result is a mix of these two layers with different opacities."
 
Superflat sucks. Adds noise and kills skin tones to the point of no return. Do a search, there's a ton of threads on this.

Simply turning down contrast and sharpness on a picture style such as Standard or Neutral is a very good "flat" setting.

I do load the "superflat" style on my 7d every once in a while when I am shooting documentary footage where I know it will be so dark that I need to dig into the shadows, but I use it with caution as a last resort. For films I do not use it at all.
 
William_Robinette said:
Before shooting anything serious, I would take a good look at the results you are getting out of super flat. On paper it seems like the perfect solution for having the most flexibility in post, but I find it really just makes footage look terrible, washed out, and with grey skin-tones that you cannot "correct" back.
Click to expand...

I agree. People think superflat will make their footage suddenly look like film.
Perhaps appropriate for a goth or vampire film.
I shoot neutral 0-0-0-0 which is also very flat but still have something to work with in post.
 
draven4 said:
Superflat sucks. Adds noise and kills skin tones to the point of no return. Do a search, there's a ton of threads on this.

Simply turning down contrast and sharpness on a picture style such as Standard or Neutral is a very good "flat" setting.

I do load the "superflat" style on my 7d every once in a while when I am shooting documentary footage where I know it will be so dark that I need to dig into the shadows, but I use it with caution as a last resort. For films I do not use it at all.
Click to expand...

Superflat is actually great if you're planning to do some serious color grading in MBL afterwards. For heavy contrast and dream-like colors, Superflat acutally holds up very well and may be the best choice. At that point, color correction almost doesn't matter (except for legal levels). It's one of those things that needs to be used intentionally and sparingly. know what it does for your images, and know what you'll be doing in post.
 
thanks for all the input... I'll take all of it into consideration and mess around with settings on standard/neutral and using superflat while CC'ing with after effects and see what I get... Thanks again everyone.
 
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