Color Grading 101 - Everything You Need to Know

from the strong and gritty looks of the Matrix Mad Max Fury Road and Blade Runner 2049 to the unique pink and soft atmosphere of the Grand Budapest Hotel or the famous teal and orange look of Michael Bay films color grading has always had an important place in cinema even in the days of black and white different chemical treatments made it possible to give different atmospheres to the image most recently in the 1960s the Italian yellow style a film genre that mixed Thriller and horror brought its influence of bright and flamboyant colors which could feel almost

surreal at times and it was immediately linked with its lighting and production design while back then treatment to the final image was done through a chemical process on the actual film today we have robust and easy to usee tools to perform the color grading step and today that's exactly what we are going to be diving into starting with some important basic concepts [Music] color grading is a post- production process a final sweetening of the image it shouldn't be the salvation of the image so it is essential to lock in your look on the day getting

as much in camera as possible to create a consistent atmosphere through lighting production design composition and so on but once in post there are two stages of Color Work color correction and color grading color correction comes before our color grading step and consists of harmonizing our image to have a neutral base ready to be worked on during this step if necessary we will correct the white balance equalize the exposure reduce the highlights increase the midtones and apply noise reduction but also we are able to match our shots between different angles and cameras this step is

very important and when done well will save a ton of time when we shift to color grading once our image is properly balanced we do move into that color grading step this is where we will give character an atmosphere to our scene we can play with curves masks color wheels and other precise tools to land the look that we're looking for we can also apply some effects such as grain to give an organic look and texture to our image or glow to create a light atmosphere or even play with some chromatic aberration when we work

on an image whether for color correction or color grading we are working in a limited color space the most common profile that most screens use by default is Rec 709 its purpose is to ensure that all devices display the same image however since the standard was created in 1990 and is now outdated it's being replaced by Rec 2020 and Rec 2100 for Cinema and with it we get much more Rich HDR color space HDR which stands for high dynamic range allows for more brightness very Vivid colors and deep blacks re 79 Rec 2020 and Rec

2100 are essentially broadcast color spaces in practice if you want to export for editing for distribution on say YouTube you can use Rex 709 for broadcast on Netflix it's going to be necessary to use Rec 2020 or more precisely the p3d 65 a more realistic version of Rec 2020 since to date no screen is capable of displaying all the nuances that Rec 2020 provides there are also acquisition specific color spaces each camera manufacturer offers its own color space optimized for its sensor for example Ari with their Alexa cameras provide Alexa wide gamut color spaces red

offers the red wide gamut RGB and DJI the DJI D gamut not to be confused with gamma gamut relates to color while gamma relates to brightness and contrast in any case the best way to see the color space is as a container with most cameras we have several options for how we capture our image the first and most standard is to record in Rec 709 our image is immediately usable however we will obtain an image with limited amount of information and are then Limited in possibilities for color grading highlights will tend to clip quickly and

shadows will contain only a few details this is useful for fast turnarounds but not when you want complete control over your image another possibility is to record in raw raw saves as much information received by the sensor as possible which gives us a very rich image but there are some drawbacks for the uninitiated firstly its size raw files tend to be much larger which means the storage and overall workflow become much more complicated as a result but you are getting a ton of a lot more useful data raw images are often recorded in 12 or

even 14 bits while while in re 709 we generally stay at 8 Bits the amount of bits refers to the number of colors that can be obtained to give you an idea in 8 Bits we have a maximum of 16 million colors in 12 bits it is almost 69 billion colors that we have at our disposal the other problem with raw which is also what makes it interesting is that the recorded image requires development or debing to be technically more exact a raw file is a mass of information and not an image itself during this

development process it's us who will be able to choose which details we want to keep or not in our image we will also be able to play with many parameters that would normally be baked in if we had recorded in Rec 709 for example white balance tint ISO or ASA exposure noise reduction and so on so raw is definitely ideal but again there is the tradeoff of needing enormous storage and power however there is a good alternative to all of these constraints which is lock unlike raw which records all the information from the sensor in

order to develop a usable image log uses an optimized gamma curve to record an image containing as much information as possible in the highlights and the Shadows so log is sort of a middle ground between raw and Rec 709 log uses a logarithmic curve rather than a linear curve in the way to record the highlights and Shadows the log Curve will deliberately push the low lights up to bring out more detail and pull the highlights down to avoid overexposures this is done at the camera sensor and before or encoding in a video file which usually

will be 10 bits so the details are truly preserved and when shooting in log for the most flexibility it's best to try to expose your image as much as possible in the highlights just before clipping the log image is recognizable by its disaturated appearance and it's very grayish low contrast it's an image that cannot be used as is when importing a sequence taken in log in our color grading software we must Define a conversion generally it's going to be a log conversion to Rec 709 which again is the most used broadcast standard each camera manufacturer

offers its own log profile adapted to its sensor at ay it's the log C at Sony you have SL log slog 2 and S log 3 at red the red log film each log must be converted in a certain way fortunately current tools allow these conversions with one click or if you don't have that all of our L packs that we sell on our Triune Digital Store do have utility lets included that will do this for you but thanks to log we have an image Rich enough to perform Advanced color grading but without the huge

weight of raw files and its complex workflow so it's really ideal for a colorist Asis is a dynamic color grading process that allows you to work on original video files whether in Rec 79 log or raw without having to conform each sequence to a destination color space so we can work on the full range of colors that each shot gives us the conversion to destination color spaces is done at the end of the chain or at the end of the aces pipeline this makes it very easy easy to distribute a project on different platforms with

different standards for example let's say you have an edit that includes Clips recorded in log with a wide dynamic range and lots of highlights if you work directly in Rec 709 you will lose this dynamic range and your highlights will be burnt out because re 79 is limited for Youtube upload that's no problem but if tomorrow you wanted to export your edit for HDR projection or Netflix streaming then you will need to rework your entire edit however while working in Aces the wide dynamic range of your video files will be preserved and considered throughout the

color grading process and at the end of the chain you can choose to export either in Rec 709 HDR Rec 2020 P3 and so on with an ases workflow you benefit from all the color capabilities of your image right from the start and keeping them throughout the color grading process if there must be a limitation it will be done on export let's pause there to thank today's sponsor and the one plugin that I've used on every project I've done for about six years now and that's film convert film convert nitrate is a plug-in that gives

you the look of actual film stock like Kodak 5207 or 523 or some Fuji stocks and others you select one and you immediately get that look applied in your Luma and chroma which you can adjust how much of the color and contrast are affected independently it's also some of the best film grain out there you can pick from different types as presets here then can dive in further to customize exactly how you want it to look more or Less in the shadows or highlights the size amount and so on you also have great controls to

dive in deeper and fully grade your piece from this one app if you wanted it's a very powerful tool and one that I use as the finishing touch on every project I grade including our latest short Sentry adding nitrate at the end of the line really unifies everything and takes it that last step to fully feel filmic if you want to try it out for yourself check out the link in the notes below and use the code Film Riot to get 10% off of nitrate hello go you've definitely already heard of Luts but what is

a lot a lot or a lookup table is a file containing instructions for replacing one RGB value with another based on Hue luminance and saturation really you can think of it as a color filter a lot only affects colors and luminance and cannot contain effects so while a Lut can adjust your color and contrast a Lut cannot add grain vignettes reduce noise correct chromatic aberration and so on lets are often used to facilitate color space converion versions for example converting a log image to re 79 like we talked about before they're also used for calibration

of screens and these type of Luts would be called technical Luts an excellent use of Luts in production is to see something close to the final intended image while shooting and log most monitors do have the ability to load a lot and many cameras do as well so you could create a unique L that will be your final look or use a standard Rec 709 but then of course you have creative LS creative Luts have many uses they obviously facilitate the work of color grading by applying a ready to use look to the video clips

that will harmonize the entire edit they can also serve as a final touch or starting point for an intricate original look and thanks to Luts we can easily switch from one style to another auditioning looks and moving right along let's also act pixel by pixel so they are extremely precise but it's important to remember that a l is just a tool so its Effectiveness depends on its use a chainsaw is more efficient than a manual saw as long as you know how to use it correctly and don't Lop your own arm off the common mistake

with creative Luts is being overdone with their use almost all tools that support Luts allow you to play with the intensity of the L so for example if we use a l as a final touch let's apply it to around 25 to 50% Max for a solid end result without pushing it too far most video editing software offers built-in color grading tools some are more advanced than others but all decent software will be good enough enough to get a workable end result but the best bit of software for post color is by far D Vinci

resolve D Vinci resolve from Blackmagic design was initially exclusively dedicated to color grading and reserved mainly for pro colorists but of course the software continued to evolve into what we have today a complete post- production Suite accessible to everyone since you can get it for free right now there is a studio version that lets you get more but the free version is loaded with everything that you would need to take your project all the way through post there's several strengths that make make resolve one of the leading color grading tools the first is its use

of nodes like layers in Photoshop nodes allow you to add adjustments and effects in an organized and non-destructive way it's then easy to rework upstream and downstream of each step the nodes also give you great visual workflow to facilitate the work then you have its masking capabilities and tracking tools and a few clicks we can select and correct the skin tones on an actor's face and track it to that area we can also use power windows to isolate a part of image and apply correction and effects to it but you may not want to dive

into resolve or learn new software or get that advanced in those cases what you have is likely more than enough like using the lumry panel in premere Pro or the tools in Final Cut Pro X in the end the software is just a tool when we work on the color correction or color grading of an image we absolutely have to control what we are doing with the Scopes Scopes may seem scary at first but they are essentially tools that ensure that our modifications do not degrade the IM image so we can control the balance overall

Scopes are more reliable than our eye so it's perfect for that use there are many different Scopes but let's take a look at the three main ones the waveform is a graph that gives you important information about your image your highlights and low lights are represented vertically with everything at the top being Pure White and at the bottom pure black so here we can easily check that our image does not include over or under exposure areas if I exclusively increase the brightness of my image you can see the waveform crashing against the top of the

graph showing that clip and vice versa if I reduce the brightness then we have the RGB parade which is nothing more than a waveform broken down into three graphs red green and blue with the RGB parade we can check that our image is neither Overexposed or underexposed but also ensure that its RGB balance is correct if our image contains a blue color cast for example we will see that blue graphic shift up compared to the red and green so we can use the RGB parade to control our white balance and finally the vector scope it's

quite a different chart that comes in a circular form in the center of the graph is our image all around that we find the Hues arranged in the same way as on the wheels red at the top yellow on the left blue on the right green at the bottom the more we move away from the center the more saturation increases if I deliberately push the blue to an extreme we can see the graph moving away from the center therefore a properly balanced image will be represented by a well positioned graph in the center of the

vector scope the vector scope has a tool that can be useful the skin tone indicator in theory the skin tones of our image should be positioned on this line otherwise they will either be too pink or too orange to check this we can isolate the skin tones with a power window or a mask and look at where they are positioned on the vector scope as you can see the Scopes are a very important tool since after a while your eyes may lie to you but the Scopes never will you probably already know the RGB curve

which allows us to correct the brightness of our image as well as its contrast either globally or individually on each Channel red green and blue but then we have slightly different curves the huever SAT curve allows you to modify the saturation based on a hue for example if I wanted to increase the saturation of the Blues I can move up just that area here or I could use the eye dropper to select a color directly from my image the SAT verse Loom curve allows you to modify the luminance of a color based on its Hue

so if I position a point in the red orange you can see I can lighten or darken the skin tones of this image right here the loom verse sat curve allows you to reduce or increased saturation based on luminance so we can adjust the color saturation in the highlights and shadows and finally the Hue vers Hue curve allows you to modify the Hue based on a hue like the skin tones if I place a point right here you can move up or down and you see the Hue of the skin tones change drastically it's a

very convenient and quick way to do small adjustments and now that we've had an overview let's take a look at the entire process at work here we have a scene shot in log my timeline is Rec 709 so import my log clip and apply a log to rec 709 conversion at the last note we place it at the end so that we can work on the wide dynamic range of the image before that shift for the Second Step we'll do our color correction first we will correct the white balance and adjust the exposure contrast and

saturation my waveform and the RGB prade tells me that my image is properly balanced with no over or underexposed areas on this scene I want to create a teal and orange Blockbuster type look and I'll help that along with a creative blood here I'm using bloodshot from our cinematic V5 pack this L is profiled for re 709 so I apply it after my conversion node and like I said before we are using it as a final touch so we're going to set it to about 50% now we can do our color grading using the white

balanced influence how the creative L looks I'll push some warmth into the highlights then reduce the saturation a bit correct skin tones here then I'll add a bit of glow for a cinematic look and that is a very simple process to quickly get a solid look for your product and of course we are using our Luts here if you are interested in finding out more about those check the link in the notes below we have all kinds of different looks from horror to action and everything in between so jump over to trand digital.com for more

of that but we're also going to be doing a lot more color grading tutorials so if you aren't subscribed consider doing that and hit the Bell to be notified when we do put up new stuff until next time don't forget to write shoot edit repeat [Music] oh [Music]