Best Color Correction Tutorials?

I have finally realized to get video that absolutely pops and stands out is to spend hours Color Correcting? - Would you agree or disagree with this statement?
What tutorials have you seen that really helped you learn the color correcting process? Any videos or online books I could go to or buy?
What is the easiest or best way to go about color correcting.
Jay

Yes.
Steve Hullfish's Class on Demand Basic Traing for Color
http://www.classondemand.net/media/apple-training/basiccolor.aspx
Easiest and best are almost always mutually exclusive. Best is to use Color.

Similar Messages

Best color correction method?

I'm dealing with a particularly problematic indoor shoot of a wedding that as usual looked perfect on the camera's monitor, but not so great when viewed on the big screen.
When I did color correction in Edius and Vegas some time ago, I would find an area as close as 50% gray as possible and click there with the eyedropper, then the same for whites and then blacks. The difference is that under those two programs, when I clicked on grays and whites, the area I had clicked on would turn completely gray or completely white, but in Premiere CS6 it makes a small change towards white, but not to the point where the area is white, in other words, not as if I would have done white balance on site (which in this case wasn't possible because of time and also it the sunlight was coming in through the windows, but clouds kept passing by and changing color temperature all the time).
So I'm wondering if there is a good tutorial somewhere on the best way to do color correction. I don't mean just any video that some guy posts on YouTube, I mean a tutorial from a professional who really knows.

It sure is annoying that there just isn't any information available out there, isn't it?
I remember when it was a LOT harder to find things. Of course, I remember when I could read my email line by line as it downloaded at 300 baud from Compuserve too. But that's another issue.
When I started with Premiere in 2002, a few of use put together some little tutorials and used tiny little frame sizes to save bandwidth and storage space. Then I produced the Premiere Pro 1.5 tutorials for Lynda.com. God bless Lynda. That money has been coming in every month since late 2004. It isn't much any more, but it is still enough for a decent steak dinner most months. Of course, quite often I just give $25 of it back to her to take some classes for a month. Tim Kolb did some for Class-On-Demand and there were a few others.
Nowadays, tutorials are full screen, HD, and YouTube or Vimeo host them for free. What a tremendous difference. I still love lynda.com because the tutorials are really well done and worth every penny, and the audio is clean - no pops or clicks or echo, but many of the free tutorials out there are really high quality as well. Take the Creative Cow tutorials, for example.
Life is good. We shoot in HD, edit with a PC that is so much faster that we seldom have to wait for a render, and all of the information in the world is at our fingertips. What a great time to be alive!

Color Correction Tutorials

Having searched this forum for some advice on color correction, I've found some links to some very useful information.
I was wondering if anyone could also recommend some more detailed information on color correction. Books, or DVD tutorials.
One specific issue I'm trying to solve is the fact that I have some footage I shot which was manually white balanced along with some that was not. So I'm trying to bring the non-white balanced footage in line with the white balanced footage.
(new underwater housing and I bumped the white balance button, oops)
G5 Dual 2.5 GHZ, 4.5 MB (cause WinXP Can't), GeForce 6800 Ultra, Sonnet SATA 4+4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)
G5 Dual 2.5 GHZ, 4.5 MB (cause WinXP Can't), GeForce 6800 Ultra, Sonnet SATA 4+4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

steve hullfish wrote a text several years ago about digital video color correction. it's pretty good if you know nothing about this subject.
there's also the apple pro text by alexis van hurkman that is okay if you know nothing about this subject.
One specific issue I'm trying to solve is the fact
that I have some footage I shot which was manually
white balanced along with some that was not. So I'm
trying to bring the non-white balanced footage in
line with the white balanced footage.
for this issue, i would apply the three way color corrector to your non-white balanced clips. use the match hue function to have fcp match to your white-balanced clips. that'll give you a base to start tweaking from. magnifying your vectorscope will help with the tweaking.
search the manual for the match hue function and how to use it.
zeb

How to best color correct image

Hi,
I earlier asked a question whereas I was having problems with color consistency from PS to ID. After resolving that I've run into another issue:
In trying to figure out a way to put an image in ID in a specific set of red cmyk numbers. I've come up with two solutions, but each has a set of problems. Both are CMYK.
The image on the left is a flattened black and red image (halftone) tif from Photoshop (the filter used flattens it). IT looks pretty god but If I try to adjust it with the correct red numbers, the black isn't neutral and gets a color cast, or I'm afraid it will in the printing process.
The one on the right is a black and transparent tif from Photoshop that has been place over a red background (already in ID). Why does this 2nd one appear to be greyed?
(I think I need to learn to fine-tune the color correction on the left one, but not sure which controls to use).
Thoughts?
No sooner did I post this, I read about someone else talking earlier about using the Multiply effect ( I didn't realize you could do this in ID), I tried it and got a more integrated image which is what I wanted. Neat. Now, are there any printing repercussions during the printing process with this effect that I need to worry about, or WYSIWYG? ( I still need to tweak the contrast I know, but at least the red is right.)

I just wrote a huge, even more convoluted post trying to answer your questions, which I'll save for later because it may be moot. I'm thinking aloud here to try to clarify:
We'er talking about 2 issues here, the greyness of the blacks and how they look on the surface and the color cast that may occur, is that right?
Let me say that I initially used a 3rd party filter called "Ghost" (can only be used on RGB images). I use it on B&W images as well as color. That takes out all white information and leaves all transparency in various densities. Only a solid black has no transparency. Then I converted to Robin's SWOP Heavy. She is using black & white photos, not transparent images.
Then came along your process.
I took those images that were over cream (in Robin's workflow...I didn't see anything wrong with these images intially), then put them over red and sure enough got that greyed-out look, which is only noticable over red, but if I use them may show up in print that way, which leads me to believe I need to use your process, as the quality of the blacks needs to be consistant.
Left is Robin's profile, right side is with "Multiply" applied. Which leads me to believe that I need to re-do all my images as per your ideas. I thought black would be black. Guess not. I'm not sure if the end result of using your process is the same as using multiply or not but it looks the same and is consistant.
All that being said, what again should be my images profiles and ID file be?
this is what they are, ..and I thought they were Blurb's but I screwed something up there too...
Images..don't remember If I need to convert!!? I think so then what's the point? UGH:
ID file:

Color correction questions

I have a few questions about the color correction tools in Premiere CS4.
1. Suppose that the colors in my shot are basically correct, but the blacks have a tint to them. Which is the best color correction filter to use to correct for this?
2. Do any of the color correction filters desaturate secondary colors? I have a shot that would probably look fine if I could just desaturate the yellows.
I know that this can be done in Photoshop.
3. Is there a good technique in Premiere for matching colors between two scenes or cameras? I know Avid's color correction has a specific setting for this.
Thanks in adance!
J. D.

1) tint in black probably means white balance was off a bit ( not matched to your light source).
Can try to correct WB overall and get rid of black tint ( use eye dropper and choose the black area that's supposed to be black and make it black...see what happens to the rest of your image colors )
2) maybe broadcast colors...which has some tendency to imitate "selective color" in photoshop, as you adjust stuff ...
3) no ...except maybe ( again ) broadcast colors ... but probably you have to do by eye or LUT...but basically no
I'm kinda new at this so dont take my word as gospel...someone else may have cool ideas ( they usually do )

Best way to go from Final Cut to DVD preserving Color Corrections

What is the best way to take my video project from Final Cut and burn it on a DVD (using DVD Studio), I need to preserve the color corrections I have made (used an external video monitor)? Also my camera shoots at black level IRE 0 and I have edited it that way, but as we all know NTSC TVs use IRE 7.5 is there anyway DVD Studio or FCP can convert the IRE so it matches?

from FC; export to compressor
In compressor, choose appropriate preset (i.e. best quality, >90 minutes, 16x9)
encode the sound as dolby 2 (if you choose "all" you'll get an extra aif file)
take the 2 files (video and audio) into dvd studio to encode.
Not sure about your IRE 7.5 question, I always assumed it was automatically converted but now you have me thinking...

Best conditions for Color Correcting

Hi
If I'm color correcting at home, what are the best conditions to have in my room?
Probably not near a window, daylight, even without direct sunlight seems to change things. Maybe not even direct lighting from lights.
Any tips, suggestions?
best
elmer

Hello elmerlang,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
To calibrate your display follow the steps in the article below:
OS X Mavericks: Calibrate your display
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13768
Take care,
Alex H.

Best procedure for setting iMac screen for color correction

Hi All
I know the iMac screen is not ideal for color correction, but I would like to know the best way to set the color space of the iMac screen to achieve the best possible result when color correcting.
Specs: iMac 21.5” 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo
Cheers
-j-

use Generic RGB
any other profile is for colour managed still photography

What's the best decklink usage apply for color correction

Hi Guys,
recently i jsut noticed that matrox supplied a very good color corrcetion for Adobe, im using blackmagic hd extreme 2 now, seems it doenst grade color very well compare with matrox, i wonder, any decklink u guys using that grade color very well? Im newbie in color no matter in FCP nor COLOR. Thanks for help guys

What is this footage that you are trying to color? The hardware used really doesn't matter in this case, all they are doing it outputting a signal to your monitor. How that footage looks and how far you can push it isn't dependant on the cards...it is dependent on the footage you have to work with.
I know your English might be poor, so I hope you don't get lost.
Read this first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling
Now, if you have 4:4:4 footage, you can push it very far. Film, HDCAM SR, Viper...all sorts of high end HD can have this sampling. However, a more common high end format is 4:2:2, like DVCPRO HD, HDCAM SR, D5. If you shot HDV...HD on those miniDV tapes, then your chroma sampling is 4:2:0. You are missing information COMPLETELY. So HDV cannot be pushed very far when color correcting. DV is 4:1:1, so it too cannot be pushed very far. If you shot on those formats, there is only so much you can do.
Shane

What color correction setting is best

I just bought the Canon Pixma IP4300. I'm using a lot of ink trying to figure this out, so I thought I'd ask in case there was a default. In Advanced>Color Options>Color Correction, the choices are;
1) Driver matching
2) ColorSync
3) None
Is one of those generally better to use
Also, is it generally better to print from Photoshop(Elements 4) vs iPhoto or Preview?

choosing colorsync over adobe color management is not a popular choice
The only place I chose ColorSync is in OS X print dialog/color options/color correction. I have 3 options to choose; Driver matching, ColorSync, None. Which of the other 2 would I choose if I wanted to maintain Adobe Color Management? Also by Adobe Color Management, I assume what you mean are the adjustments I made in PSE. Is that right.
Have you tried using printer color management
Do you mean not using PS at all & just using the Color Options from the OS X print Dialog. If that's what you mean, I don't like using that because the adjustments are made on a generic OS X provided picture. You can't tell what the adjustments are doing to your photo until you choose Preview. If you don't like what you see, canceling causes you to start from the beginning.
keeping an sRGB image flow if that's what your originals are?
Most of the photos from my Canon SD 700IS are RGB. The others are scanned older photos. I'm embarrassed to say I'm not familiar with an sRGB image work flow
Barbara, To tell you the truth, if I could get 2 things down to a general rule of thumb it would be helpful. 1) In PSE/Print/Color Management, what to save the printer profile to (Same as source?) & 2) In OS X print dialog/color correction, what to save it as, out of my 3 options.
Feel free to tell me when you've run out of answers to all my questions, as I have many!

Over-exposed / Color Correction / what 's the best method?

I have some overexposed footage. White tee shirts, skin tones going white on highlights... (uuuhhh)
To make it more difficult, this is only on one side of the image. The light coming from a window that is on the side, out of the frame.
I have been reading about color correction. I know it's impossible to get anything from highlights that are totally white... but still, I really need to save my footage.
I've been using the 3 way color corrector, and with great results. It's a powerfull tool. But still, sometimes the skin doesn't doesn't look good. White tee shirst remain white or can go to grey, that's ok, but skin tones are really not good looking...
Is there any "trick" or method I could use to make it better? Is the 3 way color corrector the only way to go? Should I use another tool?
I've heard about cloning the images, expose for the hightlights, put this like a "layer" on top of the original. Is this better than the 3 way color corrector?
Any another method?
Thanks a lot...

Hi:
No good news:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5505825
Read the tutorial linked in that thread:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/cc_legalfcp4.html
And the Captain's blowout fixe plugin mentioned :
http://pistolerapost.com/pluginz/index.html
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Color Correction help...

Hello,
In still working on these issues, when I turn on the Range Checker, and scroll thru the clip, I notice an “X” on the upper-right-hand side of the clip in the Viewer - what does this mean?
Then, when I start color correcting w/the color correction 3-way wheel, a different wheel opens up each time for each clip. By the time I get to the end of my project, I had opened and closed several color correction tabs, How do I know which color correction tab corresponded to which clip, if I want to go back and do more color correction? Do I have to count clips to correspond w/wheels? There must be a better way - thanks so much.

kristina,
what robbosaur is too diplomatic to say is you need to crack open your manuals and figure this out. if you would have looked around for the range check filter in the manual, it would have told you what the x or the check mark signifies.
also, you should probably get real cozy with the manual when it comes to applying filters and then altering them, this is real basic but confusing stuff. i highly recommend the tutorials and there are excellent 3rd party texts out there, especially from peachpit press.
it will help you to gang the canvas to open your sequence clip in the viewer, that way your sequence clip will already be open in your viewer when you stop the playhead and then when you open the "filters" tab, you'll see what you've applied to that clip.
i hope you're viewing your corrections on a monitor that best represents your delivery format.
zeb

Advice for logical workflow for color correcting and color grading

I am an experienced user of PPRO CS5. I am a novice with color correcting and color grading. I am also just barely competant in AE CS5. It has been suggested that I use AE for color correcting my footage. Can you advise me as to the most logical workflow for doing this in coordination with PPRO CS5? Are there some tutorials that you recommend? I subscribe to Lynda.com and I think that they have some great tutorials, I am unsure as to where to begin looking and what to search for.
Thanks so much,
Lisa

lisaellensegal wrote:
I am an experienced user of PPRO CS5. I am a novice with color correcting and color grading. I am also just barely competant in AE CS5. It has been suggested that I use AE for color correcting my footage.
You can do it that way, sure. But you don't have to. You can accomplish quite a lot without leaving PPro. This has two major advantages. First, if you aren't using AE for anything else, it gets you out of using AE at all, so gets you out of climbing another set of learning curves.
Second, even if you are using AE for other things (I use AE to make motion lower thirds, for example), doing the work in PPro can improve exporting speeds. This is because AE gets restricted to a single processor core in some workflows as discussed in this thread and others (search around if you're interested). This can make exporting take 3x as long or longer, depending on how much footage has to be processed by AE.
So, how to do color correction without leaving PPro? Use either a luma corrector or luma curve effect to set black and white points, and contrast (use a waveform monitor to help). Then use a three way color corrector effect to get rid of any residual color casts (use the vectorscope to help, and the RGB parade, etc.).
If you find you have specific colors that need to be fixed, you can apply another three way color correction effect and use it to make that secondary color correction (for example I find the blue dyes used in many labels tend to fluoresce under fluorescent lighting, and has to be desaturated with a secondary color correction or it "blooms" on an HDTV -- IOW, it has to be made "broadcast safe").
If you want tutorials for using these tools, the ones on Creative Cow by Andrew Devis are quite good, and free. The ones on color correction with PPro cs6 start at tutorial number 47. There's a bunch of them. All good.
Finally, get a copy of Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook. May be the best technical book I've ever read, and it'll certainly point you in the right direction for doing color correction work regardless of which tools you use to do it.

Fixing Footage Shot with wrong filter on Sony F900, color correction, underexposed film

Hello everyone...
I am new to the forums but have been with Adobe since CS3. I love Premier Pro and have fully abandones FCP 2-3 years ago for the first CS5. I was out shooting a SONY F900, which i am not used to (as I work primarily with small format and dslr workflows) and I made the TOTAL ROOKIE MISTAKE of shooting on the 1A rollable filter setting... rather than the 1B which is for indoor tungsten. I didn't have a monitor with me or available, so through the BW view finder... i had no idea it was wrong. The result is that I lost a stop and a half in an already lowlight setting... and the minus blue filter of the 1A (or daylight / 56K) setting removed color depth and turned every thing kind of washed out orange.
I am confident that i can bring it back to acceptable through color correction and i have been training on Speed grade tutorials like crazy. I am proficient in Premier and After Effects workflows but have never dealt directly with this.
Any help of steps to take in general would be appreciated and I thank you in advance for your help.
Cheers!
Dustin

Yeah... I feel like a tool for it. I have been shooting for a decade and a started on full broadcast shoulder mounts. I just have drifted sooo farrr over the past five years that I forgot about it. No excuse on my end. I have "colorista" for after effects. Part of the red giant suite right? Or am i mistaken?... Would you share the best simple approach to the settings for that plugin. Thanks in advance,
D

Does any1 know how to color correct for white balance/color grade?

hey wasup guys just finished my 1st music video now i need 2 color correct & color grade. i willl be making the video black & white so i was told i need 2 get rid of any color cast in my footage. i 4got 2 set the white balance on my 7d when i was shooting sum sceens so i could use any help possible like what is the best color corrector to use or how to white balance my footage any help is greatly appreciated thanks.

Check the basics and do a Google search. The first three listed will be videos, the next link points to the Adobe Help files.
The basic tools are the same as in Photoshop but there are a bunch of 3rd party plug-ins out there that make the job easier. If you run one of the tutorials found in your Google Search and are stuck get back to us.

Best Color Correction Tutorials?

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