Color grading tips for underwater.

Over the last 7 years, I've been asked about color grading underwater clips and what my settings are etc. Unfortunately the answer isn't as easy as giving some value. Each software works differently and their settings are not like a LUT table where you can just bring it up and plug it into another program.

Furthermore, each program has different ways of correcting color. In the last 5 years, color grading made a big jump in availability. Shake was a very powerful program but was dumped by Apple. Apple's Color was powerful but the interface was a bit rough, coming from Final Touch. And now it's dead and parts of it have been integrated in the FCX. Da Vinci Resolve has been an industry player but only recently has it been interested in the general market, releasing a free version that is limited to HD resolution. For those not familiar with nodal gui systems, the interface can be a bit daunting.

Basically there are many ways to color correct and there's no easy way to learn it. One simply has to learn how water affects colors and adjust to taste. Here is a short tutorial by Dave Reynolds of Realms Productions using AEFX. While it isn't comprehensive, it goes go over very basic concepts about underwater lighting. Again, don't try to copy but understand the concepts:

[vimeohd]32137186[/vimeohd]

Thanks for posting this. It was well worth watching. I have always used AE for other purposes and have not done too much CC in AE but I see that I might as well do it there as well.

Steve

Thanks for posting this. It was well worth watching. I have always used AE for other purposes and have not done too much CC in AE but I see that I might as well do it there as well.

Steve

Me too I use AE for a stack of stuff but not colour grading, interesting concepts

I actually don't think AE is as powerful as a dedicated color grading software. I posted the video to elucidate the relationship between cyan and water and how it affects overall color.

Working with r3d files, wouldn't REDCINE have been easier? I'd like to see how working with AVCHD, HDV, H264 or XDCAM footage would hold up, although got to say that whole process looks a lot more involved and probably a lot less instinctive than the 3wayCC in FCP, let alone a dedicated grading package.

edit - ah should have read Drew's comments above before posting!

That's ok Simon. Most people should ignore me... and do!

But to your point Red Cine Pro isn't optimal either. It works in RGB whereas the Selective plugin works in CMYK, following Photoshop. Thus it is easier to handle CYAN casts in Selective than RCP. I'm not sure what the implications are of using CMYK to RGB to YUV. It was explained to me before but I think I fell asleep! Something about 8/16bit vs 12bit blah blah blah

Thanks for posting this. I've watched many of Realm Pictures' series of EXCELLENT video blogs, but somehow missed that one.

I now do nearly all of my grading with "Color Curves" in Sony Vegas Pro. They are really fiddly to use, but not so bad once you've got a load of presets saved, and it means in most cases I can get the color and levels correct all in one FX, thereby losing the minimum of colour information.

Previously I was tending to use Vegas Pro's 3 "Color Corrector" wheels followed by "Color Curves" or "Levels", but the Color Corrector does a little clipping of the RGB channels; Colour info that can't subsequently be retrieved.

I have all 4 of Vegas Pro's scopes on an old 17" monitor that sits above my dual 24" monitors, and I find I need to use all 4 scopes in unison to get the curves right.

BUT, this process takes a blummin long time. Would happily spend $$ on software that automated more of my grading workflow.

Thanks for posting the video...found it very helpful as I usually just use "Curves"... never thought about the potential of Selective Color...

Don