Nikon: Color grading without blocking?

[Tracey Lee]

I asked this on another thread but thought I would start this one because it's something I really want to work out.

Can anyone share their grading workflow in Final Cut with me? I can't seem to do very much color grading even when using prores files without it causing major blocking in the video and showing the compression artifacts.

 

[3space]

best bet is to shoot it close to final look as possible. But try to keep the middle of the exposure as bright as possible without blowing the highlights. In other words light with lots of middle fill. In color correction if you increase gain or gamma you'll bring the noise out. But if in the correction process you darken the overall image then the noise will be lower as well. Also use layers of solid colors that you multiply on top of your source instead of over correcting your source...

bottom line you have very little room to move the image up.... but clipped highs really look bad so your best bet is to use control when you shoot.

 

[Tim Joy]

3space is right. Don't underexpose and plan on bringing anything up.

It's the reason I started shooting with a high saturation on the D90. It's easy to desaturate a little, but hard to add color back in.

On thing that helps a LOT is to add grain to the image. It smooths out the banding and blocking and makes it look similar to super16 film.