Calling all color correction masters

Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/21/2006, 8:58 PM

I am but only a color correction apprentice, but I plan to closely watch this topic and learn from the ways of the CCMs.

Here's my novice attempt

EDIT: Anyone who wants to use Madison Library to host their images for this is welcome to here

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/21/2006, 9:07 PM

Keith, as you'll see in the mail I sent, you need two tools: Levels and C/C.
there are several ways to work with this, but to bring it to a satisfactory state quickly, those are the two tools I used.

You'll want to use your scopes for Levels adjustments, viewing on Luma (use B/W filter to turn off colors) and then once Levels are set, reenable color and use the color pickers to correct. I needed to slightly alter the midtones because I badly chose the skin tone. A second pass immediately repaired that.

fldave wrote on 9/21/2006, 9:32 PM

Here's my quick attempt.

Final output

V6 Veg file

I used Color Curves to taste, followed by Color Corrector (Secondary) with Desaturate Highs preset. The second one made all the difference in my mind! Not even sure if first Color Curves is necessary, I'd have to play around more.

Edited: Wow, I can't believe I just did that.

Grazie wrote on 9/21/2006, 10:54 PM

I was out most of yesterday. Thakns for your email. I got it. You have email from me too.

Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/22/2006, 12:12 AM

"Grazie, Grazie" said Jon
"You should share!
Share your results with us.
See Spot share?
Spot is sharing.
Share, Grazie, share."

Cooldraft wrote on 9/22/2006, 1:01 AM

You all are the best. I leaned my lesson. Inexpensive help = expensice post. Still no help on how you guys knew what to do...share the wealth (at least with me), what books, tuts do I need to buy? I want to be part of the Colorist Elite Club.

Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/22/2006, 1:18 AM

Well for starters we all use these imaginary plug-ins, duh.

apit34356 wrote on 9/22/2006, 1:41 AM

Cooldraft, I should suggest that you go to a library and get a couple of books on using Photshop CS2 or Photoshop Elements4. They all deal with basic color correction with stills, which is really the best way to correct stills before loading them into vegas. With PS you can crop and put fancy edges on the pictures, saving alot of rendering time in vegas with large projects. If you have a high-end still camera, like Nikon D200 or canon ..., they have great batch processing software for fixing stills fast and superior noise reduction apps.

Grazie wrote on 9/22/2006, 2:06 AM

Hey Cools! By email I made you an offer to contact me via SKYPE. We can have a One-ON-One colour correction session. To type this out would be tedious, fraught with misunderstandings and would drive me nutz!!

Please take up my SKYPE offer - you would be very very welcome. If you don't, then get yourself a good DVD tutorial - I'm not getting into DVD Tute value here - read the books on offer, read plenty plenty threads here . .. OR still, take up my offer.

There is no elitism - well not on my behalf, there ain't! And my offer is still available to you . .

Oh Jo-Jo you tease! You total tease you . . But you do have email . .

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/22/2006, 5:34 AM

Keith, you might try Glenn Chan's most excellent DVD on color correction. It covers the subject VERY much in depth specifically for Sony Vegas. If you're not familiar with Glenn, he's a color master of the first degree.

Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/22/2006, 5:38 AM

Spot may be too humble to post the link, but here's the page where you can read a little blurb about the DVD and see what it covers.

http://www.vasst.com/product.aspx?id=2212ad20-81a5-4415-a37a-fa0c83fa1dcd

vicmilt wrote on 9/22/2006, 5:49 AM

and try to remember that color correction is as much "art" as it is "science".

Keep referencing your original to see where you are, and where you are going.

Don't be afraid to try stuff - it is "non-destructive" after all.

And once you've "got it" - put it away for over night and relook the next morning. You can definitely get color fatigue after a while and lose all sense of what you originally were hoping for. (This does not relate to professional or highly experienced color correctionists. Those guys are genius in what they can wring out of an original. But that's generally all they do. They are the true "color masters". In fact, if your job happens to be "critical" or highly funded, it is definitely worth it to go to a color correction house with your few scenes that are desperate. Expensive - yes - but what a treat to see your stuff recovered.)

v

rs170a wrote on 9/22/2006, 6:07 AM

you might try Glenn Chan's most excellent DVD on color correction

I'll second that recommendation. I bought the video a month ago and, even though I've been in video for more than 30 years, I learned A LOT!! Once you know how to use them properly (and Glenn explains this very well), the colour correction tools in Vegas are amazing.

Mike

briggs wrote on 9/22/2006, 6:36 AM

A resource that has helped me is this book:
Color Correction for Digital Video by Steve Hullfish.

(Although, I was not aware of Glenn Chan's offering and will definitely check that out myself...)

Les

DavidMcKnight wrote on 9/22/2006, 6:41 AM

Hey Keith / cooldraft, how's tricks? I recommend taking Spot's and Grazie's advice on the CoCo DVD from vasst and the skype offer - Grazie, can I get in on that too?? I'll contact you in a few days to schedule.

farss wrote on 9/22/2006, 6:53 AM

I'll second the advice on that book. There does seem to be some technical errors in it however the explaination of many of the concepts is very good indeed. However it isn't Vegas specific although I've been able to do all the tricks with Vegas, just more work.

winrockpost wrote on 9/22/2006, 7:49 AM

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~wvg/tutorial-8.htm

old tut for v4,, easy to understand and implement.

Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/22/2006, 7:58 AM

Cooldraft:
If you are using a photo editor to color correct stils...

One thing really valuable about PhotoShop CS2 for correcting stills is that it has a Firewire out for previews. This is great because getting your photos at the correct "broadcast legal" levels for luminance and saturation can make them look a bit grey and washed out on the computer screen, whereas they'll look great on a calibrated television that you connect via Firewire.

You can of course do the same thing by loading the still into Vegas, which for sure you should do if not using PhotoShop CS2. The nice thing about doing this with PhotoShop is you're able to check your results on the fly without having to save the file (i.e. non-destructive edits). I don't want to sound like a sales guy for Adobe, but I did find CS2 to be great for Digital Video. There are some automation actions for digital video (you have to load them) that can be tweaked a bit to work great with stills for Vegas. Some of these actions, for example, ensure broadcast legal colors, adjust PAR (pixel aspect ratio), etc.

Since you're targeting digital video, previewing in a web-browser is less than optimal (as I'm sure you're aware).

TimTyler wrote on 9/22/2006, 9:09 AM

Since I like the warmness, I'd probably dial out just a little of the red using the Primary Color Correction filter.

I'd also crush the blacks using the Levels filter just a tiny bit to increase contrast.

Then I'd use the overexposed whites to my advantage by applying the Magic Bullet Basic Black Filter.

Here's my result.

jwcarney wrote on 9/22/2006, 12:14 PM

Okay, dumb question, I haven't received 7 yet (on the way). I assume the dvd will work fine with 7?
If so, I'm ordering it.

Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/22/2006, 12:21 PM

The FXs are the same in V7. The DVD won't be obsolete in any way.

GlennChan wrote on 9/22/2006, 8:47 PM

here's my result

the veg file

You don't necessarily have to have very good white balance... having a warm-ish WB is ok. That being said, here is what I did:

Method A (fast and easy):
a- Use the Color Corrector and fix white balance as shown in my DVD. In this particular case, the overexposed highlights turn blue-ish. This is a by-product of how the color corrector is designed (it works in Y'CbCr space)... in my opinion, it could be better in this regard. Anyways...
b- To fix the blue cast in the highlights, use the secondary color corrector. Target the highlights (via luminance) and lower saturation to make the highlights appear white.

Method B (the convoluted method):
We can correct white balance in R'G'B' color space by using the channel blend. What we want to do is to change the gain on the offending channels. The aim is to find a color that should be neutral. We will make it actually neutral, as in R=G=B. The channel blend can achieve this my multiplying the channels by a certain amount.

First convert from studio RGB color to fill the 0-255 range, otherwise the math won't work right (black level at 16 16 16 RGB will shift when you multiply the channels). Take the "studio RGB to computer RGB" preset, and tweak the input end slider until the highest levels just peg 255 on the **histogram**.

Add the channel blend filter. You have to figure out the two offending channels... I would just eyeball this. If there is too much red in the image, raise the green and blue channels. Red should equal 1.000 * R, while the other channels should equal something greater than 1.
Use the CRTL modifier key to move in smaller increments... or use the numpad to type in numbers. Don't normalize rows.

After this filter, apply the levels filter to convert from computer RGB back to studio RGB.

*Unfortunately this method doesn't quite work perfectly since the camera's colors shift in the highlights. So we use the secondary color corrector trick as in before... it goes in between Channel Blend and Levels.

Is this method really worth your time? I don't know.

- Color Correction DVD for Sony Vegas / does it apply to Vegas 7:
I am working with the Vegas 7 demo and pretty much what works in Vegas 6 works in Vegas 7. The most significant chang is native HDV support... which is not a big deal, since you're doing the same color corrections anyways.