Graide Color Curves provides a much faster way to alter saturation by range or even luminance. I stopped using color corrector secondary as it took too much time.

Alternatively, Leeming LUT has GoPro technical LUTs to give a better starting point.

AAV Color Lab is free and still works in Vegas: http://aav6cc.blogspot.com/

It's usable to change hue or saturation of the 6 main colors it has. I'd still recommend Graide for precise control.

You don't mention which version of Vegas you're using, but as a general approach I almost always start with the levels adjustment. With the use of scopes one can achieve a lot just using the levels adjustment. The latest color correction module in Vegas can get you down the road with automatic color levels.

Yes color correction and then levels always come first. The Graide plugin looks very nice! But I am trying to stay within Vegas' current stock fx set. Figuring out new ways to use the existing native fx is kind of like solving a puzzle. :)

Hi Alo, in addition to the color correction secondary, you should have selective hue by NewBlue. It has similar functionality but I found the interface to be quicker to deal with. I used to stack a few of these to do selective hue and saturation tweaks.

For what you're doing I think that's about it. The native Fx aren't really well suited for this.
You can also use Bezier masking to mask Fx and limit your corrections to one place in the image.

I do recommend AAV for quick fixes and it's free.

If it weren't for Graide I'd be using Resolve- having the hue-hue curves, etc. is just so time-efficient.

 

If it weren't for Graide I'd be using Resolve- having the hue-hue curves, etc. is just so time-efficient.

Thank you for letting me know about this plugin! It is immensely useful.

Of course. My only regret is that I didn't realize its value earlier! (I thought "Curves- I already have color curves!") Enjoy.

VEGAS Pro only have the basic saturation slider, but not vibrance. You will need plugins for this.

Can try Graide plugin as @RogerS mentioned.

Or use 3DLuTCreator plugin which allow you to make extreme hue modifications without introducing color banding, even with 8 bit color profile.

Have you tried saving a frame, taking it into photoshop and correcting it and then export a LUT so you only do it once a project?

Have you tried saving a frame, taking it into photoshop and correcting it and then export a LUT so you only do it once a project?

This is a totally viable solution -- thanks for mentioning. PS is a little wonky when it comes to creating LUT's and you can't access the full power of the app, so another strategy would be to work on a frame in PS, save it, import back into Vegas, and use Vegas Color Match which seems to have gotten better since its earlier editions.

You could also do the same with Resolve, which is very good if you can stand working with it.

Roger, you've broken my heart (and on father's day no less!). After further testing, it seems the Graide plugin's most useful tools (the hue/brightness/saturation dependency curves) all bleed like crazy when you try to isolate. I guess it's back to the hit-or-miss alchemy/voodoo of the CC (secondary) for me. :(

What do you mean bleed? You control that by using eyedroppers to set the range and then manually add points outside it to eliminate bleed. The distance you choose between the selection and outside points determines the severity of the transition and lets you give it a bit of roll-off.

What do you mean bleed? You control that by using eyedroppers to set the range and then manually add points outside it to eliminate bleed. The distance you choose between the selection and outside points determines the severity of the transition and lets you give it a bit of roll-off.

Attempting to isolate a range in Graide via this method results in hues/saturations/luminances across the entire image being affected, even for narrow targets. Huge difference compared to same targets/methods in Resolve.

It may be that Graide is correctly but dumbly applying the effect to all pixels that meet the criteria (ie, including color noise scattered about the image). Regardless, the quality of the algorithm is about what you'd expect for the price. It's a shame. This is otherwise one of the key color tools that Vegas is missing.

Are you sure you are using it right? Feel free to post a screenshot.

Working from a color chart and isolating individual and groups of colors to standardize cameras, I didn't see that. I did have to be careful with the selections but the eyedroppers gave good insight into where the colors were I wanted to affect. Similar issue to selecting the range in color corrector secondary, but faster to apply.

Color noise shouldn't be noticeable - who cares if a green pixel in the shadow is slightly yellowish or bluish due to a hue change? You could also desaturate shadows with saturation over luminance if you are having issues with shadow color casts.

Roger I tried switching to footage from a different (much cleaner) camera. Then I targeted skin tones in both Vegas via Graide, and Resolve via its native curve tools.

Simple hue correction to bring skin inline with vectorscope target -- both apps' results look very close.

Switch to sat dependent on hue and target the skin tones, and Resolve alters skin tones but leaves everything else in the scene (person standing in front of a mountain on a sunny day) alone.

Graide pumps up saturation in scattered points and splotches around the image -- very noticeable. I tried narrowing the selection range to the point where the skin started to look splotchy. The bleed into the background continued.

It looks like either the Resolve algorithm is far more intelligent, or something is going wrong in Graide's selection/adjustment scheme (or both).

Have you tried saving a frame, taking it into photoshop and correcting it and then export a LUT so you only do it once a project?

After much experimentation, I think D7K has by far the most useful advice in this thread. I have tried all of Vegas' saturation tools; it is clear they indiscriminately target saturation across the entire image, resulting in a progressively more cartoonish and less contrasty look. In comparison, Photoshop's saturation intelligently augments saturation depending on pixel brightness, resulting in a more natural, punchier image.

I have tried to replicate the effect using Vegas' CC (Secondary) fx, which takes a lot of time and gives at best erratic results. My strong preference is to stay within Vegas' native toolset, but at some point you just have to stop trying to pound nails with a screwdriver.

If you have access to PS, note that you can create a set of generic LUTs that apply saturation and/or vibrance in whatever increments you desire, giving you in effect access to these two PS algorithms entirely within Vegas.

This should be especially useful for those working with GoPro footage shot in native/flat mode, but is certainly worth a look for any of you who regularly use Vegas' native fx to enhance saturation.

Roger I tried switching to footage from a different (much cleaner) camera. Then I targeted skin tones in both Vegas via Graide, and Resolve via its native curve tools.

Simple hue correction to bring skin inline with vectorscope target -- both apps' results look very close.

Switch to sat dependent on hue and target the skin tones, and Resolve alters skin tones but leaves everything else in the scene (person standing in front of a mountain on a sunny day) alone.

Graide pumps up saturation in scattered points and splotches around the image -- very noticeable. I tried narrowing the selection range to the point where the skin started to look splotchy. The bleed into the background continued.

It looks like either the Resolve algorithm is far more intelligent, or something is going wrong in Graide's selection/adjustment scheme (or both).

I did a similar test between the two programs and couldn't really see a difference in functionality. Selections take more time in Graide as you have to make multiple points to limit the range affected. However, I do like that you can select and manipulate multiple points on the curve at once and copy from one curve to another (hue vs hue to hue vs sat, for example). In Resolve you can use the spline feature to quickly set the width of the affected area. I don't normally like splines on curves (just give me more points) but for this it's helpful. I see spill into the background in Resolve as well if there are overlapping tones. In both you can limit that with masking.

Personally, for time efficiency reasons I'd go with a technical correction LUT to get the GoPro into a better place to start grading from. The one I use is here.