Where to learn color correction in editor

Hello everyone,

I am curious how other underwater videographers learned how to do all the post editing to their footage? There seems to be very little on the web regarding any specific color adjustments etc and how to do them. Is there anything out there that I am missing? I am currently using Premiere Pro. I can cut up a video, but I don't know what to do on color correction. Something like make a scene a little brighter, or get rid of some blue or green. if there are any resources that people know of, please send me a link.

Thanks in advance.

Dustin

Search Adobe TV on Adobe's site. Karl and Jason have basic and indepth tutorials. There's plenty of stuff regarding color correction if you google. It's just not underwater specific but just put change the colors to what color you want to correct. Principle is the same.

Plenty of practice...

Some of the short tutorials on YouTube can be very useful for learning about new skills in NLE...Premier Pro or others.

Drew is correct as Adobe has many fine tutorials on color correcting. I know it is not always feasible financially for many to CC using an external monitor, either a HD TV or the much more expensive broadcast monitors, but the best CC really shouldn't be done off your computer's monitor. If you can, use an in/out box like the Matrox MXO2 or Black Magic Designs Intensity Pros to go to an external monitor. Also remember that an external monitor should be properly calibrated after a new monitor has at least 150 hours on it and then let it warm up for about 20 minutes before you actually do the calibration.

In general, and I am sure others have different techniques, I like to initially crush the blacks a bit before I move on to other areas of the correction or grading.

Steve

How do you know when you have done too much correction? Does the video start to become pixelated?

thanks for all your responses, that gives me a starting place.

Dustin

No, CC will not create pixilation. However, if your greens look yellow and your blues look red you know that you might have taken things too far. Not sure what NLE you're using but most have parameter reset buttons in case you need to start over. If what you are seeing meets what you want it to be then your color correction is probably ok. Also, almost all NLEs do have an 'undo' keyboard shortcut so if you don't want to completely start over and just want to undo the last couple of corrections, you can do that as well. I use my undo all the time.

One last thing, learn to use your waveform monitor, vectorscope and histogram..they will help you see, in graph form, what your corrections look like. For instance, in your waveform monitor, the one I use the most, never have your highlights above 100 and avoid crushing your blacks below 0, unless that is the way you want your blacks to look. Another scope that may be in your NLE is the Parade monitor which can show you the balance of your colors. I don't use it much myself but sometimes do go to it.

Steve

How do you know when you have done too much correction? Does the video start to become pixelated?

 

thanks for all your responses, that gives me a starting place.

 

Dustin

The best approach is to be a minimalist...do the least necessary color correction to attain a natural look. Also don't forget to use the gamma curves...often this will provide a more pleasing result than trying to balance Brightness and Contrast settings. Try to do all your corrections on the timeline in one go before rendering. Pixelation/noise will start to appear if you keep doing multiple generations of the timeline to get the final edit.

I don't know about other NLE's but Edius has a useful split-screen option (user adjustable) which is very helpful for seeing the original and altered versions of the same clip simultaneously.

Slightly off-topic, but at a more basic level, it can be interesting to check how good your ability to see color actually is.

There is a color game on the Method of Action website, that can help. I'm afraid it can get quite competitive though

http://color.method.ac/

Adam

Well Adam, here's another reason why I always have someone check my color correction and why I use the monitors and, somehow, have learned to cope. Been color blind since birth and failed your test miserably. Cool site tho.

HDV...never saw anyone cause pixilation by color correcting, even badly. I suppose if you top one CC filter on top of another enough times that could cause it but have never seen it occur myself. Interesting.

Steve

Well Adam, here's another reason why I always have someone check my color correction and why I use the monitors and, somehow, have learned to cope. Been color blind since birth and failed your test miserably. Cool site tho.

 

HDV...never saw anyone cause pixilation by color correcting, even badly. I suppose if you top one CC filter on top of another enough times that could cause it but have never seen it occur myself. Interesting.

Steve

I agree...I was talking about inefficient workflow by using multiple generations (re-rendering) instead of doing the all the color corrections in one go prior to rendering.

Hello everyone,

 

I am curious how other underwater videographers learned how to do all the post editing to their footage? There seems to be very little on the web regarding any specific color adjustments etc and how to do them. Is there anything out there that I am missing? I am currently using Premiere Pro. I can cut up a video, but I don't know what to do on color correction. Something like make a scene a little brighter, or get rid of some blue or green. if there are any resources that people know of, please send me a link.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dustin

I found this tutorial from Underwater Realm to be a helpful overview:

https://vimeo.com/32137186