Color Correcting and Grading your P3 Footage V2

[turkminator]

Zoolander, Mohan (FPV king) and Mr Hagan are now my heroes

 

[Rothgarr]

I'm using Final Cut Pro, I'll still watch the OPs video and hopefully some of it translates to FCP. I don't even know if FCP can do this sort of thing. But I thought I'd still ask if there were any FCP users that know of a similar tutorial.

 

[fhagan02]

Sorted this, I was using an existing PS grad which was blue to white rather than blue to transparent - from the simple selection.
I made a new one based on the NDs which fade from black to nothing. (using blue to nothing)

Awesome.

 

[JohnK]

You can easily enough make a few different grads to suit different horizon levels.
Once you've made one it's so easy you can just make one to suit.
For example you might do a reddish one to enhance a sunset.

I also use a black to 50% gray gradient in overly to leave existing color alone and just darken and bring out the detail in the skies. Works nicely if you want to keep the drama of a intensely detailed gray sky with lots of clouds and shades of gray. This tutorial explains and illustrates the idea quite well with the blue one!!!

 

[fhagan02]

I also use a black to 50% gray gradient in overly to leave existing color alone and just darken and bring out the detail in the skies. Works nicely if you want to keep the drama of a intensely detailed gray sky with lots of clouds and shades of gray. This tutorial explains and illustrates the idea quite well with the blue one!!!

Good idea. Keep in mind you can also apply a Fast Color Corrector to the graduated layer. With the FCC you can change the hue of the graduation without having to create a new one.

 

[4wd]

Good idea. Keep in mind you can also apply a Fast Color Corrector to the graduated layer. With the FCC you can change the hue of the graduation without having to create a new one.

That's a good point, would it be best to just have an ND one and modify the colour precisely in the clip?
Will try later anyway.

 

[fhagan02]

That's a good point, would it be best to just have an ND one and modify the colour precisely in the clip?
Will try later anyway.

I believe that would work best if he graduated layer had some kind of "color" to it. Pixels that are 100% black or gray are difficult to tint or saturate as there is no confirmation there. That said you could always try adding a "tint" and a "fast color corrector" effect to the graduation.

 

[__astronaut]

@fhagan02 I notice that you still use PP CC 2014 (at least in the videos). I would love to know your take on Lumetri Color tool in CC 2015 and how that might change your color correction & grading workflow. Thanks!

 

[fhagan02]

@fhagan02 I notice that you still use PP CC 2014 (at least in the videos). I would love to know your take on Lumetri Color tool in CC 2015 and how that might change your color correction & grading workflow. Thanks!

I do work in PP CC 2015. And yes I've been wanting to use Lumetri for an entire color correction and grading tutorial. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[__astronaut]

I do work in PP CC 2015. And yes I've been wanting to use Lumetri for an entire color correction and grading tutorial. Thank you for the suggestion.

No, thank YOU! Looking forward to your video on this. To me, there are fewer and few reasons to go into SpeedGrade (not that I used it much in the first place).

 

[phuocsandiego]

The best thing I've found about the Lumetri color tool is to be able to use Photoshop to create my own LUTs by tweaking an exported frame from my videos. I've prepared LUTs for different types of shots, mostly from shooting using the LOG profile on my P3P. It has simplified my workflow a lot to have a good starting point.

 

[apsphoto]

Nicely done, well worth viewing. Thanks for spending the time to make it.

Alan

 

[fhagan02]

The best thing I've found about the Lumetri color tool is to be able to use Photoshop to create my own LUTs by tweaking an exported frame from my videos. I've prepared LUTs for different types of shots, mostly from shooting using the LOG profile on my P3P. It has simplified my workflow a lot to have a good starting point.

This is a great idea. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[fhagan02]

No, thank YOU! Looking forward to your video on this. To me, there are fewer and few reasons to go into SpeedGrade (not that I used it much in the first place).

You said it. Trust me, you can accomplish 98% of any color correction or color grading with the tools available in Premiere Pro. I gave up on SpeedGrade long ago. Too cumbersome having to jump back and forth between apps. And that's only when it would launch without crashing. I use Premiere Pro for all final color work for my clients TV spots at the Advertising Agency I work for. And again, with Lumetri as an addition to your tool pallet.... wow.

 

[swoopair]

Thanks

A closer look at what "the scopes" are for when color correcting and grading your P3 footage

Thanks for the video! it really helped. Here is my quick sample:

I had an ND8 filter on my pterodactyl.

 

[fhagan02]

Thanks



Thanks for the video! it really helped. Here is my quick sample:

I had an ND8 filter on my pterodactyl.

You're most welcome and thanks for the comment.

Very nice. Glad to see you held back and didn't blow out your whites in the pavement and docks. Subtly goes a long way. Nice work.

 

[fhagan02]

Nicely done, well worth viewing. Thanks for spending the time to make it.

Alan

Thanks for the kind words, Alan. Really appreciate it.

 

[swoopair]

You're most welcome and thanks for the comment.

Very nice. Glad to see you held back and didn't blow out your whites in the pavement and docks. Subtly goes a long way. Nice work.

I think that the best thing that I did with that video was the contrast/saturation settings that you recommended as well as the ND8 filter. For fun, I took the filter off, reset the settings, and took another video. I had a heck of a time editing the colours in the new video.

 

[fhagan02]

Absolutely. Test and re-test! A flatter image to start with will always allow you much more leeway in post than a high contrast "pretty" image will. Once you've blown out the whites or crushed the blacks in the original shot... you can't get that back in post. You're stuck with it. It's pretty cool when you discover the truth about things yourself...by doing the work. Ive had countless people dismiss the "flatter settings" theory because...the image was "ugly" when shot flat. And it is. But that's the point. You're keeping much more information (aka dynamic range) so your post work can yield so much more. Again, nice job on the test you did.

 

[swoopair]

Absolutely. Test and re-test! A flatter image to start with will always allow you much more leeway in post than a high contrast "pretty" image will. Once you've blown out the whites or crushed the blacks in the original shot... you can't get that back in post. You're stuck with it. It's pretty cool when you discover the truth about things yourself...by doing the work. Ive had countless people dismiss the "flatter settings" theory because...the image was "ugly" when shot flat. And it is. But that's the point. You're keeping much more information (aka dynamic range) so your post work can yield so much more. Again, nice job on the test you did.

Thanks for the guidance. I'll be checking out your other video soon.