need some help with the Vegas color grading panel

Mindmatter wrote on 6/14/2023, 11:07 AM

Hi all,

can someone point me to an in depth explanation video of the Vegas color grading?
I used to color correct somewhat more superficially using ColorFast2 or AAV lab and the likes. But while trying out Vegas Color Grading, I can't seem to really grasp some of the concepts, and most tutorials I found on YT are rather superficial or besides the point as far as the precise working of the functions go.

My main problem seems to be the inability to define where shadows, mids and highlights actually begin and end in the RL color wheels, thus making it difficult to grade those areas precisely as they overlap into values I don't want. What exactly in Vegas determins where shadows end and mids begin? Why can't we precisely set those values for each wheel like in ColorFast 2?

Also, I don't quite understand the HSL curves behaviour and the functions of the tangents, as I can't seem to define only specific colors and areas to be affected, especially in Hue vs Hue, which I thought to function more like AAV Color Lab to literally alter a hue into another color.
I'm probably missing some basic concepts here, so thanks for some links!

Comments

Wolfgang S. wrote on 6/14/2023, 2:05 PM

I think there is now way ho to define the values for each color wheel up to now, as you find that in other applications.

The HSL curves seems to work for the luminance mainly, what means that they influence all colors. They only allow to adust the shadows, midtones and highlights in an extra way, and allow to define at what luminance level that starts.

bvideo wrote on 6/14/2023, 4:34 PM

You've seen the one adjuster with two sliders to divide the ranges for shadow/mid/hi on the left? The scale of those sliders is 0.000 to 1.000. If the CG panel is not tall enough, you can't see the values for the low and high sliders. The two sliders apply to all the wheels. The boundaries between the regions are feathered, but just a little (small amount of overlap).

If you enable the video scope histogram or RGB parade, you can watch how the Y slider under each wheel affects the three ranges. There is a button next to the "Limits" label at the top left (if your CG panel is full height) that enables two blue guidelines in those scopes showing the boundaries of S|M|H.

Wolfgang S. wrote on 6/15/2023, 1:41 AM

You've seen the one adjuster with two sliders to divide the ranges for shadow/mid/hi on the left? The scale of those sliders is 0.000 to 1.000. If the CG panel is not tall enough, you can't see the values for the low and high sliders. The two sliders apply to all the wheels. The boundaries between the regions are feathered, but just a little (small amount of overlap).

This is true for the RL color wheels only, but not for the Color Wheels. Sure, the lower and upper limits applies to the the wheels in the RL color wheels, and you can separate the luminance range here in three areas. I use the RL color wheels in my HDR projects mainly, so with log footage - to adjust the top luminance in the highlights. The positioning of the upper limit in located at 100 nits, what is fine for that.

But I am not so sure if they should be used for SDR content. It can be used, but you have to set the limit of the upper line higher, since with IRE 50 it is too low for SDR.

If you enable the video scope histogram or RGB parade, you can watch how the Y slider under each wheel affects the three ranges. There is a button next to the "Limits" label at the top left (if your CG panel is full height) that enables two blue guidelines in those scopes showing the boundaries of S|M|H.

Yes, one can adjust R, G and B with the color sliders behind the wheels, and adjust R, G and B separte. But that is it.

RogerS wrote on 6/15/2023, 2:16 AM

Another option is to use color curves where you can make edits on a per-channel basis.

Mindmatter wrote on 6/15/2023, 3:34 AM

Thanks to all of you.

Have you seen this? It's kinda what I thought we could do with the Vegas grading tool.

https://3dlutcreator.com/

Wolfgang S. wrote on 6/15/2023, 5:04 AM

Thanks to all of you.

Have you seen this? It's kinda what I thought we could do with the Vegas grading tool.

https://3dlutcreator.com/

Not sure if they can be contacted at the moment. They are located at Russia, and payments seems not to work?