Color Correction Advice

MarkHolmes wrote on 12/5/2007, 12:29 PM
Firstly, thanks for any advice people give on this.
We're in the final stages of a feature project, and I spent some time last night color correcting (mild stuff, slight adjustment to curves, B/W filter to desaturate, slight adjustment with secondary color coorector) all done directly to DVCPro HD files via Raylight plugin in Vegas Pro 8 at 32-bit.
It looks good, but there are some slight artifacting problems, I'm assuming because the adjustments are happening in such a compressed space. I've read in Stu Maschwitz's DV Rebel book that the best post workflow is to output all untouched files to an image sequence and do all the work in After Effects. We have access to AE but given our unfamiliarity with the program and the simple work we plan on doing, it seems to be overkill. And now that Vegas does processing in a 32-bit space, we would like to do all the post work in Vegas.
So this leads to my real question: What is the best workflow for getting our final edits into a less compressed space to do CC in? Render our to Cineform, re-cut at the edits and CC? Render out to image sequence? What do you all do? Any personal examples, examples of footage, etc., are welcome.
And one note: this footage will be seen in theaters, at least at festivals, possible with a small theatrical run. It has to look as clean as possible...

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 12/5/2007, 12:55 PM
Usually it is not going to help you unless there is some image processing that is different through that other path that that particular side effect is beneficial e.g. ingesting DV via SDI is helpful as your 4:1:1 gets converted to 4:2:2; in Vegas, you can also access the really illegal superwhites. The difference here is that different image processing is applied... the deck will do a 4:1:1-->4:2:2 upconversion that Vegas doesn't do by default. (Theoretically you can get the same or better results from a Vegas filter.)

2- One source of problems when you CC is any noise (from the sensor and compression) in the camera footage. Exporting everything to an uncompressed sequence will not help there... you need to look at noise reduction techniques, or blurring + eroding the matte (the latter/second is clunky to do in Vegas).
Bill Ravens wrote on 12/5/2007, 1:26 PM
noise reduction with NeatVideo, after doing some CCing, is working really well for me. The amount of processing with NV affects the overall look of the images, getting buttery soft and smooth if pushed real hard.
MarkHolmes wrote on 12/5/2007, 3:26 PM
So, neither of you think there is any benefit to rendering out to another format and CCing in that? Both of you would do all correction and grading within the acquistion codec? ...and thanks to both of you for the quick reply.
Xander wrote on 12/5/2007, 4:52 PM
I've just finished reading that book too. Using Stu's CC Rebel is really quick and easy. Even so, I thought it was a real pain having to go to AE and then rendering out to YUV for import back to Vegas. Vegas should be able to do CC after all. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down and made an effort to learn how to do CC in Vegas using 32bit linear mode.

Generally, but not exclusively, I will add the CC Vfx to my .m2t timeline. On the timeline I select a frame that looks like it has a good set of highs and lows - make sure you have the Videoscope open in RGB mode. I then use the complementary low picker to set the black, the complementary high picker to set the white, and the normal mid picker for gray. I then adjust the gain and gamma until the low and high levels look good in the scope. You may need to use curves and/or the levels effect as well if the CC Vfx doesn't come out as desired.

I still struggle if I have two clips that need color matching. Still have a lot to learn, and as Stu says, CC is quite and art/skill. Anyways, the above may not have answered you question, but it is my current experience, and if anybody else has tips on CC in Vegas, I would love to hear them.