Color Grading of Videos: Recently I have become interested in color grading of videos. There are lots of methods and lots of videos on youtube on the subject. Color grading is software...

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Recently I have become interested in color grading of videos. There are lots of methods and lots of videos on youtube on the subject.

Color grading is software enhancement of color, contrast, exposure, etc. on videos and is routinely done with professional videos and movies as part of the editing process.

I tried it on a recent video and was surprised to find out this can be done in Lightroom with free presets downloaded from the internet. It can also be done without the presets but is time consuming.

The attached pic shows a screenshot of the original and color graded video. The effect is not over the top but I think makes the colors more vibrant and pleasing. I used a free Kodachrome preset I downloaded.
Bob

(Download)

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I should have spotted this earlier.

If you're still around, where did you get your preset?

Thanks.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

The video color grading presets I used were used with a 30 day free trial of Adobe Lightroom. I since deleted Lightroom as I wasn't happy with it. I'm doing another music video now and will probably use presets with Adobe from here:

http://www.toolfarm.com/blog/entry/in_depth_8_great_freebies_for_color_grading_after_effects_premiere_pro

If you google kodachrome presets for video color grading for (put the name of your editing program here) you can find out if any are available for your program.

I first came upon this topic by searching for youtube color grading.
There's a lot of tutorials on color grading on youtube. Like everything else, it's a question of watching and pausing the videos and trying to copy what they do.

Bob

bsprague wrote:

I should have spotted this earlier.

If you're still around, where did you get your preset?

Thanks.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Bobspez wrote:

The video color grading presets I used were used w... (show quote)

Thanks! I've been avoiding the learning of grading for mood. Perhaps it's time to start!

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I use it to correct for exposure as well. Here's one I'm working on now. The sequence was shot in room light but was underexposed due to lack of additional lighting. I graded it to lighten the clip and make it usable.Here's a screen shot of before and after.

bsprague wrote:

Thanks! I've been avoiding the learning of grading for mood. Perhaps it's time to start!

(Download)

Samuraiz Loc: Central Florida

I know that this is an old post however, Blackmagic provided Davinci resolve lite for free. The limitation of lite will not be noticed by the hobbyist.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Samuraiz,
I tried using Davinci for a couple of hours. I downloaded the free version. I couldn't figure out how to use it. I downloaded the 1,000 + page manual and went through the first three chapters. I couldn't even figure out how to load a clip. I presently use Premiere Pro CS6.
Bob

Samuraiz wrote:

I know that this is an old post however, Blackmagic provided Davinci resolve lite for free. The limitation of lite will not be noticed by the hobbyist.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

Samuraiz Loc: Central Florida

Bobspez wrote:

Samuraiz,
I tried using Davinci for a couple of hours. I downloaded the free version. I couldn't figure out how to use it. I downloaded the 1,000 + page manual and went through the first three chapters. I couldn't even figure out how to load a clip. I presently use Premiere Pro CS6.
Bob

Yes I agree, It's not intuitive. however, it's extremely powerful. This may help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eikf0VGJYTc

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Hi Samuraiz,
Well there's good news and bad news here. The good news is I watched the video and it simplified everything so I re-installed Davinci12 beta 4.
I allocated 8GB of my 16GB of RAM to the program and loaded an 8MB 30 second test clip, an H.264 mp4 file at 720x1280 30fps file with stereo sound. Everything looked good as i entered the edit window. Now the bad news. I guess my system isn't good enought to handle Davinci Resolve. The clip started and stopped, the audio was disjointed. I checked the task manager and running the clip brought my CPU utilization to 99%.
My system is a very low power one, an HP slimline Pavillion with a 1.4GHZ AMD E-1 2500 APU processor and an integrated Radeon HD graphics card. I'm running Win 8.1 64 bit, and I can use Premiere Pro CS6 64 bit by reducing the resolution in the playback window. I didn't see a comparable command on Davinci12. The way Davinci was unable to play my clip was similar to another youtube video I saw where a person had a souped up system and was trying to edit 4K video. Commentors were advising him to get a better video card. In my system, nothing is upgradeable.
Do you use Davinci12?
Bob

P.S. I just read the system trequirements for Davinci 12. It lists "A modern computer platform with at least a Quad core CPU and a powerful GPU". Well, I guess that leaves me out. Great free program if you have the latest and greatest CPU and GPU, several thousand dollars worth.

Samuraiz wrote:

Yes I agree, It's not intuitive. however, it's extremely powerful. This may help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eikf0VGJYTc

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

P.S. I just ran the same 30 sec. clip in Premiere pro and it used 85% or less CPU, so it never sputtered or stopped the video or the audio.
Bob

Samuraiz Loc: Central Florida

Bobspez wrote:

P.S. I just ran the same 30 sec. clip in Premiere pro and it used 85% or less CPU, so it never sputtered or stopped the video or the audio.
Bob

Yes, I presume you are correct. I am using a I7-4770 CPU @ 3.4 GHz ASUS, I had to upgrade the stock GPU to a Nvidia 750TI. for it to do any kind of video work. The entire PC can be had for under $1000 these days. I don't stutter in Resolve. I do have to transcode from H.264 to (usually) DNxHD for composting and planer tracking. I also transcode my Sony Camcorder footage (.MTS) before doing any editing I I use Cliptoolz (also free. Cliptoolz also has scopes.

Cliptoolz website
http://hdcinematics.com/convert-V2.html

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I tried transcoding to uncompressed .mov with free 5DtoRGB.exe. Made no difference, my CPU and GPU are on the lowest end of the performance scale for new hardware. Since I have another alternative it doesn't pay for me to upgrade the PC. I got it new just 9 months ago for $250 at Best Buy, but none of the parts are upgradeable. Essentially it is a low power laptop in a slim desktop box.
Thanks for the info.
Bob

Samuraiz wrote:

Yes, I presume you are correct. I am using a I7-4... (show quote)

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

If you mean to grade you are better off shooting everything neutral and at low contrast, to give you maximum latitude in post. If your camera has slog2 or slog3 those are best, otherwise set saturation and contrast low.

Samuraiz Loc: Central Florida

kymarto wrote:

If you mean to grade you are better off shooting everything neutral and at low contrast, to give you maximum latitude in post. If your camera has slog2 or slog3 those are best, otherwise set saturation and contrast low.

I agree. I use Flaat 10, Cineflat, Tassin Flat and Alvaro yus profiles. in D7100. The 800, 810 offers a native flat profile not available to the 7100.

Here is more information.

http://www.photographio.com/nikon-flat-picture-control-videography-photographios-cineflat/

http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/393-shoot-flat-on-your-nikon-d7000-and-then-edit-flat-in-final-cut-pro-grade-in-color

http://alvaroyus.com/2013/12/24/nikon-d7000-video-tricks-picture-control/

http://www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-picture-controls/index.html

tripsy76 Loc: Northshore, MA

I use Davinci for most grading, but there is also Magic Bullet, and Speedgrade available.