Stark Contrast!

jgastelb

jgastelb

Well-known member
Hello,
Well, I have been color correcting every footage I can get my hands on now for months. I have to say that as I look back at some of my previous work I'm starting to realize a lot of the image looks to be too bright and dark killing all of the mids. It's probably a newbie symptom or something like that. I do like lots of contrast but I think I may be overdoing the "crushing the blacks" thing too much.
I was wondering if other people are noticing the same thing about their color correcting skills too. I know that some scenes or features will call for this kind of imagery and it works but I also know that if it's overly used then it may be just too drastic all of the time. Sometimes I crush the blacks with the curves and then I realize now the image is just too darn dark so I bring up the right top curve up a little bit but now the stuff in between gets kinda washed out. What do people using Vegas usually do to achieve that perfect balance??? Sorry that I've made this so long...
Jgastelb
 
I've been having the same problem lately, so I tried just using the color corrector tool and I just try using the "offset" and "gain" sliders until I find a happy medium.

I'll post some screen shots if you want.
 
tjohara99 said:
I've been having the same problem lately, so I tried just using the color corrector tool and I just try using the "offset" and "gain" sliders until I find a happy medium.

I'll post some screen shots if you want.
Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. It's almost like I want everything to look so cinematic and then when I see the result a few days later again I'm like: "What was I thinking?"
Yeah - I would love to see some of your grabs and I'll post some of mine to later.
Jgastelb
 
If you want to learn how to color correct really well, then get a copy of VASST Absolute Training for Vegas+DVD, Vol. 4 Color Correction in Sony Vegas. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial cuz’ I work at VASST so I may be biased but, Glenn Chan and Douglas Spotted Eagle do an outstanding job of explaining and showing you how to color correct on this training DVD. Trust me, I was in the same boat as you until I watched this DVD. I read every color correction tutorial I could find on the web but there are some things you just have to see to really understand.

There are two good free tutorials by Glenn Chan on the VASST site:

Correcting Exposure in Sony Vegas (Part One)

Correcting Levels in Sony Vegas (Part Two)

These should give you an idea of what’s on the training DVD. (Heck, these alone may improve your videos considerably!) I have learned a lot from working with the other members of the VASST team but this one training DVD has really brought my videos to the next level in terms of color correction.

~jr
 
Johnny Roy,
Thank you for the articles. They were very helpful. I think one of my issues is working entirely on the computer monitor. I will probably get a small tv from walmart or something like that later on to adjust the colors better.
Jgastelb
 
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