Magic Bullet Looks

Lumiere

Lumiere

Well-known member
What is your way of CC on MB looks? Do you choose a preset and then edit it?As an example you can touch to contrast on many different ways..When i make a color sometimes its too much sometimes not enough..How to balance for a nice and natural cc..

BTW,its amazing software:)

thanks in advance
 
I am of the opinion it is not the best CC software for "nice and natural" but it can get the job done. It is a "looks" software.

Whatever...I usually start from scratch and sometimes I modify a preset look.

Tip: Ensure you have your levels set up first.
 
If I want to just tweak an image a little I start with a blank slate and add the curves and 3-way color corrector to get started.

For more extreme looks, sometimes I will either start with a preset and then tweak the hell out of it by making it fit the look I want or making it look more subtle by reducing the values or shutting off certain filters. Ninety percent of the time I start from scratch with a blank slate and throw a ton of filters on to expert with different things. The nice thing is that you can save your own looks for use later.

Shooter is right though, for very subtle and basic stuff you don't really need Magic Bullet Looks. I also usually color correct in FCP with the levels and 3-way color corrector, then when all my shots are matched up and consistent, then I go in and do the color grade in Magic Bullet.

It is a fun way to color grade though. I really like it. Also: don't forget that you can use it as a standalone app for still image tweaking as well.
 
I just got colorista yesterday. Man I have been living under a rock. Great program.

I still use looks suite all the time but I always tweak the presets.
 
People say colorista for just basic correction and looks is like a secondary , is this thrue,or you can do both on both softwares..
 
Synthetic Aperture 'Color Finesse' is worth looking at if you want something close to Pro telecine CC/Grading in a PC.

This offers Primary and Secondary grading/cc. The magic is always in "secondary"
 
Lumiere said:
People say colorista for just basic correction and looks is like a secondary , is this thrue,or you can do both on both softwares..
Click to expand...

For secondary I just apply colorista again. But basically you can do both with both programs I believe. I'm not too good at CC but I'm learning.
 
Grading "secondary" requires the abilty in the software to select (pick) specific range of color areas in an image and grade them independently of the entire image. eg skin tone only.
 
Shooter said:
Grading "secondary" requires the abilty in the software to select (pick) specific range of color areas in an image and grade them independently of the entire image. eg skin tone only.
Click to expand...


You can do this in fcp with lumance mattes and blending modes. Looks also has vingette functionality which is fairly useful.

Color is by far a more powerful application though and you have it if you have final cut.
 
I usually go in and choose a preset w/MB then go back in FCP and tweak it with the color corrector.

Is that the proper way of approaching color grading? I wonder why or why not?

I have a hard time tweaking the image in MB. Is there a better way to go about this?

Thanks guys.
 
jkc123 said:
I usually go in and choose a preset w/MB then go back in FCP and tweak it with the color corrector.

Is that the proper way of approaching color grading? I wonder why or why not?

I have a hard time tweaking the image in MB. Is there a better way to go about this?

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

No, not normally. Color "grading" should be when you conform all footage to seamesly intercut with the other shots. Correcting underexposure/overexposure, color balance between shots, highlights, noise reduction, apply certain masks/difusers, etc. Color correction should be the next phase. Software like Magic Bullet Looks work better if you have an image with everything conformed to a certain "standard". This is the way I work, and the way most post houses do their CC/Grading: first conform in the best quality possible, example Conform and do basic grading in Da Vinci 2k, then more Heavy Color Correction.

In other words, Grade and get your footage to be the best possible in bost Signal to noise, color balance, exposure and even some basic motion correction. With this Master. apply your desired looks.
 
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