Color Correction - What Is Your Preferred Tool?

IAM4UK wrote on 8/24/2016, 7:01 PM

Probably topics on this already, but no "Search" function yet on these new forums, so please pardon me if this is a repeat...

What are your preferred tools for color correction? Criteria that interest me include speed, ease of use, and simplicity of matching color among multiple cameras.

Last year, I "hacked" VP13 per some great information in the forums, to try out ACES within Vegas. But that took a long time for my Core-i7 to render the intermediates, and one of my regular projects is the "48 Hour Film Project." This year in that contest, I devoted zero time to color correction, got the final movie submitted with only 11 minutes to spare, and the lack of color correction unfortunately showed in the finished product.

Comments

dxdy wrote on 8/24/2016, 7:09 PM

Are you concerned with color correction or color matching?

I use the Sony Color Curves for correction (almost always the best option), and Graide color matching (paid add-on) for matching.

IAM4UK wrote on 8/27/2016, 2:45 PM

Interested in both matching and correction. For the 48 Hour Film Project, matching is probably most important (use 2 or 3 cameras, and don't want them to look different -- seems to happen even when checking in-camera settings before shooting).

Tom Pauncz wrote on 8/27/2016, 4:55 PM

If they're close, Colour Match would be, by far, your best bet.

Grazie wrote on 8/28/2016, 2:20 AM

Colour Match:

Color Match VP
Fred Baumann

White Balance:

Color Corrector VP
Fred Baumann
NewBlue ColorFast

Colour Grading:

NewBlue ColorFast
RG: Magic Bullet Looks
Track level Vegas Compositing and Gradients
Corel X8
Anything I can usefully get my hands on!

Levels!:

Vegas Scopes with Levels FX, Colour Curves Fx, Channel Blend FX and most recently ColorFast2 with Region Scopes (!)

Arthur.S wrote on 8/28/2016, 1:10 PM

As above, Vegas's own Color Match get's you quite close for matching cameras, and I use NBFX for most all other correction. I find the NB Color fix filter is the quickest way for me to adjust white balance issues.

PeterDuke wrote on 8/29/2016, 6:32 PM

For white balance, I use AAV ColorLab. It is free and works in older versions of Vegas that Baumann's tool doesn't.

Tim Stannard wrote on 8/30/2016, 2:16 PM

For those of you using NB Color Fast (Grazie), can you see any benefit in upgrading to CF2? All I see is it gives me scopes and a bunch of presets. Any advantage with these scopes over those included in VP?

Grazie wrote on 8/31/2016, 10:46 AM

I like it.

It's not just Scopes. It's Scope you can set for a region of the video.

Now there are controls the work globally, not just at the HMS levels.

Yes, many more Presets. I find Presets are a great way to quickly have a go at the narrative look.

so, Tim, have a go at a Demo and you see if it is of value to yourself. I know when I'm in this predicament, after trying for some weeks,there is always something that gets me across the budget line.

aboammar wrote on 9/1/2016, 10:14 AM

I used to use all Vegas color tools and they are fine for basic colorings. However, after I used Resolve 12, I never looked back .. it is just amazing, and nothing compares to Resolve!

OldSmoke wrote on 9/1/2016, 11:24 AM

I think it very much depends on your work. For my work, Resolve would be an overkill and way to slow to work with. I use Vegas own color correction tools and usually more then one on a clip that requires it. I always try to do as much as I can in camera to aviod dramatic color correction. This way I can deliver my work faster and move on to the next job. My work is mostly corporate which doesnt require to be as "accurate" as a feature film and Vegas has all the tools required.