General Tutorials on grading Superflat in 'Color'?

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dominichicks

Active member
Hi everyone... I'm looking for a tutorial or some guidance on how to use Color to grade superflat images. I've found tutorials that pertain to Magic Bullet and Vegas, but nothing for Color - and the interface is so baffling I might as well be trying to sail a U-Boat!

I know Brandon Mozza (shooter of well known 7D video 'Vancouver'), described his grading process as: 'increased the highlights; particularly the blues. Added a yellow tint. Lowered the mid-tones a bit and increased the contrast a bunch. And then added a vignette.'... So that's basically what I need to learn. Anybody have any links or sage like advice?
 
That description is basically a summary of applying a primary and a secondary correction in Color, which are two steps that comprise a large part of the program. If you want to learn your way around Color, I would suggest either the Apple Pro Training Book, "Color Correction in Final Cut Studio:"

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pro-Tra...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269547480&sr=8-4

or Steve Hullfish's book "Color Correction for Video (Second Edition):"

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Correct...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269547341&sr=8-1

Steve Hullfish has also posted some free tutorials on his blog on Pro Video Coalition.

Kevin
 
Ouch, not cheap...
No written online tutorials at all? It's hard to find much online since the word 'color' doesn't exactly narrow things down.
 
dominichicks said:
Ouch, not cheap...
No written online tutorials at all? It's hard to find much online since the word 'color' doesn't exactly narrow things down.
Click to expand...

Nope it's not- but you get what you pay for. I'm an Apple Certified Trainer- so you would normally pay up to $1K for that sorta training class. And my co-star owns a pretty high-end post house in Santa Monica that charges probably in the several hundred per hour range for color grading. Also, our production costs ain't cheap either cause we want it to look and sound good.

So yeah you might put together the same info via a lot of web searches and reading and wasting time. But then again you paid $1,000 for the software, say another couple of grand for your computer and you really want to take your footage to the next level so you can charge more for your work- right? So is $74.99 really that much for a solid bit of training? I don't think so...:violin:

Noah
 
Hi Noah. Actually I bought my iMac second hand (with Color and FCP already installed) for the equivalent of $1200. When you're just starting out and you're making non-profit short films... you can always find a way! And sure I could probably stick to 3-way color correction in FCP since I'm a beginner, but why if I can yield better results in Color with a little practice and hard work?

I'm not criticizing your productions or anything, and it's perfectly reasonable of you to ask that much for such a specialist product - but it's not in my budget, and with the internet at our fingertips, I don't expect for knowledge to be charged at premium rates anymore.
 
Hmm- by that rationale we don't really need colleges or books anymore either. :) Sure information is at your fingertips but with no filter it's all about how much time/effort do you want to spend actually distilling it into something meaningful. That's where professional training offers value. But I respect the budget- we each do what we can.

Noah
 
I suggest poking around on youtube. There's some excellent tutorials on there that will give you the basics. I spent a few hours a day for about a week and figured out how to get most of what I wanted done. Then I happened to have a session with a colorist and picked her brains for the rest of it. I'm still by no means an expert, but I feel confident in handling the work. Oh, and Color is an amazingly powerful tool, well worth putting in the week of shuffling through the garbage.
 
I went to college for other reasons, but I understand what you mean!

Thanks Drcheese... I'd found a few good tutorials this evening on youtube and vimeo, and have learned the basics. I agree, it's a great tool. I finally understand the power of superflat! Only worried about getting enough exposure... even with a 2.8 lens I'd like more light to play with in my interior shots, for post... Do you think it's worth going for one of these cheapy 126 LED video lights from Ebay? Are they good for narrative film-style work?
 
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