Pro Colorist Shares Tips for Grading Problem Footage
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2023
- Follow along with a pro colorist as he shares his tips for grading less-than-ideal footage, regardless of its limitations.
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Love hearing the LOGIC of your moves and your explanation of WHY you made such-and-such a change. Sooo many videos by others seem to be mostly disconnected sequential changes with the only explanation of why a certain tool or technique is, "I'm liking that."
Omg yes! I’ve been jones’n for this exact topic to be covered! My… friend.. never has a shoot that he doesn’t mess up at least one aspect of the image.
Hi Cullen, using custom inverse tone mapping is definetely the way to go with display refered footage, but I'd still set it up slightly differently. You are setting the wrong IDT in order to control the tonemapping in a CST node, which has one major drawback. If you toggle Bypass you will always see a nasty image.
Instead you should set up the IDT correctly and only use the CST node for tone mapping. So go from input color space: timeline to output color space: timeline. One important thing to do here is to enable "Apply Inverse OOTF"
Tone mapping in Resolve works in linear anyway, so you are effectilvely going timeline > linear > tonemapped linear > timeline.
You might wonder "why not use the gamut mapping OFX (which is designed for exactly that job)?"
One huge benefit over using the gamut mapping OFX, is that the OOTF buttons on the CST actually work (in the Gamut Mapping OFX they don't - for whatever reason), but other than that it works exactly the same.
Would like to hear Cullen’s response on this one 👍👍
I want to add, this only works under the assumption that you do NOT use an (inverse) DRT at the project level - which, as you can see in the video, is the case for Cullen's CM.
@@CullenKelly you're right. I didn't think about the gamut, but I guess since inside the CST you are in XYZ linear the operation works in XYZ anyways, so it should be the same. I did some tests with the DaVinci method, you used Luminance, so maybe there could be something I am missing out on.
The OOTF is automatically applied in your workflow aswell, but you are right. It depends on whether there has a forward OOTF been applied in the first place (which it usually is, right)
@@dronyfilm @cullenkelly what are the markers for telling if an OOTF had been applied/not applied??
Hey Cullen, I just want to thank you and all guys that let their comments here. These two last videos were a really Teamwork, great collaborative effort. When I put all that in practice in a real world job it was amazing the level of control I had combining everything I've learned from you guys! It helps a lot!
Would love to see a video on how you would grade HDR footage for rec 2020 or 2021. Does and don't and how and when to use it correctly.
Blown out highlights and shadows: do you ever ADD texture in otherwise flat blown out areas? That is, one can replace a entire sky, for example, (which is compositing, not grading) but have you found it helpful to add texture? Perhaps an artificial gradient in a sky or add heavier than normal grain to a shadow? Less than ideal archival footage has these issues in spades. Great tutorials, Cullen. Thanks.
I've noticed I've often had to soften Rec 709 footage, especially stock footage, in order to make it match the stuff shot on good cameras. It especially helps on drone footage. Just bring down the midtone detail 20% or so.
this video has been one of the most useful videos of yours for me. i've learned a lot of things watching your channel, but very little of the footage i am working on is log, this explained why i have been struggling to adjust the way you can and also reset my expectations on how much delta i should expect to be able to bring
Cullen, this is so awesome. So glad that you posted this as it really provides a very sensible and reproducible approach to rec709 footage. The input CST and mapping is awesome information, and something that I will use as standard practice. Thanks again.
Hi Cullen, thank you (again) for your excellent tutorials. I am actually dealing with some footage shot on an old camera and I think the techniques you have explained here may be just what I need to make the final product look 'better'. I will be playing around with it in line with what you have explained. Thanks again for your contribution to those of us keen to learn the dark art of color grading!
Thank you Sir. This is a golden nugget. Very much appreciate your guidance. Just added a new chef knife!
Excellent video as always! I think it would be also interesting to see how to deal with the current mid tier camera‘s footage. The usual problems I encounter there is incorrect exposure (meaning too low for the usual log formats) leading to high noise in the shadows and wonky auto white balance.
love the idea of shifting offset for balance then reducing using key, not loving it as its a new trick I learn, loving it because I always knew how offset works & what key does, but I was never ever able to use both together to get perfect spot, if I wouldn't have seen you doing that, I would have shift my offset Ball to get the right & on spot balance. thank you for sharing small small tricks which is not a big deal but dam effective.
I am waiting for this for so long
Hey bro great Video you are Definitely one of the Instructors out there for Resolve, I'm having a PROBLEM though
I recently shoot some footage with BMPCC 6K, But Grain in video HOW best to deal Such issue in Resolve I don't see
Resolve work as Good as Red Giant's Denoiser.
Woah!!! Can’t wait to watch!!!!
Hi Cullen, great video! First of all, could you please answer the gentleman below? Now my question for you. Using this color management do I need a CST node "acting" as an ODT at the TIMELINE LEVEL?Thanks again for all the great stuff.🤘
Hi Cullen, these are some amazing tutorials that you have. I just discovered your channel through Darren Mostyn's vid and I going through your vids one by one. I have a very basic question. I have Panasonic HXC 1000 camera. Some clips shot in it (using Cine-Like D) profile - a non raw profile- it's been producing very green hues on human skin under low light conditions. I have tried everything to fix it, in vain, and finally stopped using the profile. I do not know which color space or gamut the camera uses. It gives out H264 High L5.1 videos. Beyond that I have no clue even how to find out it's color space. You see I'm very new to grading and color management is something I just got introduced to. How do I grade these clips? I mean which color space do I use? If my question is too basic or needs lengthy explanation, please point to any of your vids that I can watch to understand. Thank your for sharing your deep knowledge with us, again.
I learned a lot! thank you
Amazing content,
I do have a question how do you save preset nodes? to be able to have a template node from the beginning
Thank you.
Hi Cullen, Always nice to watch your videos back. Question, I have Saturation set in a dedicated node but in my primary color correction (even using HSV), I see you using it as a secondary node. Is there any specific reason, or can I just keep my workflow and have Saturation in my primary nodes? So basically I have 4 primary nodes: exposure, color balance, ratio (contrast) and saturation. love to hear what you think,
Best regards Adeep
Hi Cullen, thanks for showing such cool techniques. I really enjoy your content.
How would you tackle this:
I am shooting mostly 1 stop over with SWideGammutCine3.Slog3 (to be out of the noise floor) and grade within AWG/ArriLog3. What ist the best option to bring back down that 1 Stop? Should I do it before the CST-IN to AWG/ArriLog3 to have a better math into the Intermediate Space? Or should I forget about it an reduce exposure after the CST-IN and just do it in AWG/ArriLog3? Thank you so much...
this was helpful. thx. 🤟🏼
Hey CK ! Nice tips. Bought your voyager pro couple weeks ago but quite hard to find the best gradient for group or post clip. What is your gradient ? TIA
Professor Culllen. How do I color Manage a monitoring PK2ALEXA LUT that was a “monitoring reference” in Gen 4 color space photographed in BRAW? Furthermore, why do you use Histogram instead of IREs /Waveform monitor? Thank you for your time.
With the Input DRT set to 'None' in the project level RCM settings, and with the approach to working with Rec709 footage you demonstrate, Cullen, a render-in-place seems to go wrong. I pointed this out in one of your earlier videos. Other actions such as render caching, proxies and optimized media seem to work well but not the render-in-place. Can you confirm this? I tested with with Resolve Studio 18.1.2. I've just updated to Resolve Studio 18.1.3 and will re-test just in case it was a glitch in the matrix. Thanks as always for a stellar tutorial.
Update: Problem still exists in 18.1.3. I suppose the reason this occurs is because a render-in-place effectively replaces the timeline clip and would require that you perform some sort of additional CST to the resulting clips color space (i.e., it comes back in as Rec709/gamma 2.4 if that's your output color space - does that sound right?). Once again, I am losing my grasp of reality, Cullen. Hope you are having a great week. Lol
Update2: I see that the other workaround is to apply a CST to the grade for the rendered-in-place file similar to the one used for the original file (matching the output color space - Rec709/gamma2.4 in this example). Then the render-in-place matches the original Rec709 image. Perhaps this is the best way to go if setting the Input DRT in the project settings is the preferred approach.
Thank u so sir♥
hi Cullen, It is a great lesson. you always put great quality lessons on this channel. but I have a question, in this lesson you set your IDT in clip level rather than project settings, is it help with anything? why did you set up your IDT in clip level? If I set my Input color space to rec 709 in the project setting, is that wrong for the rec 709 kinds of footage? and why do you take a different approach to set your input color space to rec 709 in the project setting?
Most people I know, including me, always set up IDT on clip level because sometimes you deal with different clips at the same time (especially in documentary work). Having to set them up on clip level forces you to do it correctly for each clip and not miss out on anything.
I think he summarised it quite nicely at 04:42 : )
@@dronyfilm thanks
Hi Cullen, how can we get your ebook and luts? The links in the description are broken sadly 😢
Thank you for this video, very helpful! There was a video once that you made and I cannot pinpoint it where you talked about exporting, and my question please is (unrelated to this video): If I wanted to work on a timeline, apply my color techniques and grading, afterwards, is there a way I can send this file to an editor without having to show my color workflow that I applied? In a few words, I do not want the editor to see my techniques. Or shall I have the editor edit first and then, I do my color work?
Any solution for this or workaround you could recommend in your experience please? thank you!
In this case you should send the editor graded high res footage. A common workflow is to export as individual clips with source names and a decent amount of frame handles. That way the editor should be able to relink the timeline to the graded footage and do further editing.
@@dronyfilm Thanks for your reply. Do you think in your opinion, that would be best for the editor to make all the cuts, music, fx, etc. and when he is done, he would hand me the drp file with the media and I can perform my colorist techniques? Would that make it simpler? Because I am thinking I do not want to disrupt his editing in any way. thanks for your help.
@@studiorental yes that's usually the better option. finish the edit first and then go into color grading. A professional color grade takes into account how a film is edited. meaning when you cut from a darker shot to a brighter scene, you try to smoothen the cut by adjusting the brightnes of the first and the second clip. You simply can't do this when you do grading first.
@@dronyfilm That is very smart and very true, I did not think of that factor too. that is what I will do then, thank you! Appreciate it.
Hey Cullen, is there a way to just use Resolve as a noise reduction tool and import and export a clip with zero color / gamma shift? I am finding it impossible and the export is always more crunched or more flat on export than the original files. Thanks for any advice!
Cross check your color management, make sure the image is never transformed. Your display color space is another factor, check that your output color space matches your display color space.
most of the times a shift in gamma is actually not the case. rather some incorrect tagging. make sure those are set up correct.
Good point. I know about the display differences between Resolve and Quicktime, etc. Does that also stand for Resolve to Premiere?
@@Emmanuelking Thanks Emmanuel, I tried every permutation of color management, "display mac colors", gamma tags, etc. but I might have missed something.
@@cincinnatijones try bypassing all color management since you’re doing only noise reduction and leave the timeline in rec709, declare the footage as 709 as well.
If you are shooting with a lower end camera - the trick is to shoot one stop over then pull down the exposure where needed. Lousy cameras always break when you are raising exposure, never when you're pulling it down.
I am not really sold on the adding the CST up front just to use the luminance mapping - I'll have to experiment with that - it looks and feels like overprocessing to me. Not sure why you can't just right click the clip and set the input source. Lots of ways to pull the highlights away from clipping.
Almost every problem I see people having in the forums is underexposing. The bad footage doesn't have the light for detail and breaks when you expand the exposure in post.
ETTR is always a good practise for lower end cameras if you are not clipping highlights. But sometimes it's better to noise reduce an underexposed shot, than to deal with clipped highlights of an overexposed shot.
About tonemapping: You are not wrong. Lying to Resolve with the IDT has a big disadvantage when you are bypassing the grade, which many colorists do all the time. Read my other comment how to set it up more efficiently :)
@@dronyfilm I was about to say the same. I suppose Jim is referring mostly to shooting under controlled lighting.
Usually, when I’m shooting, I’d rather preserve highlight detail as best I can because dark shadows look better than clipped highlights. In my opinion at least.
I discovered that with rec709 material I will stay in rec709. No CST to a larger color space. All I care is that nothing is clipped. But that's it. Sure, the offset behave differently. But in my research converting to DWG can be problematic.
Hello! What happens if I bought the essential voyager pack but then I realized I should have bought the pro pack?
:(
Why do you prefer to go too far in a first pass? Isn't it basically the same distance to double back and make an adjustment either up or down?
He might have a more specific answer for this scenario, but a reason I’ve heard him and many other colorists give for this is that if you go too far with whatever node, it’s easy to pull the output gain of that node down to the desired level. Whereas if there are multiple parameters being adjusted, there’s usually no easy way to boost it up in the same fashion. Even with a simple offset adjustment, it’s manipulating the RGB levels individually, so trying to add more of that adjustment might skew things towards a slightly different color vector than where you started.
I don't think it was a purely technical bit of advice. In my experience it's a more efficient way to use passes from a psychological perspective. Be bold and ambitious on the first pass, then on the 2nd pass when you have fresh eyes you can realize if you went too far or not and reign it in. That might not work for every grade, but I often find it's a good approach.
I remember him saying that if you go too far, it's easier to back it off to where it needs to be, whereas if you don't go far enough, you have no idea how far much further you would need to go - are you 20% there or 80 or 99?
Hi Cullen. This question (out of context) :
- instead of a main EXPOSURE node, what about a set of 3 nodes parralleles in HSL or HSV (gamma : Linear),
one node by channel (Hue, Sat, Luma)
for isolating mainly Saturation & Luma (brightness) for grading. (channel 2 and 3)
is this grading approach wrong or un-professionnal ?
thx
@@CullenKelly thx a lot Cullen for your kindly words.
So this manner, while dealing with saturation or luma (brightness) you're sure not to move either color or brightness
How did you go from looking like a seedy bald lurker with a moustache…. To a handsome catwalk model / Clark Kent. Lucky you.
OMG IN EVERY VIDEO😤. First of all Please increase your video exposure or brightness all of your videos are very dark, so if I increase my laptop or smartphone brightness up then its hurting my eyes a lot. 2. If you really want to teach something to us then come to the point straight don't waste our time with useless talking. No hate. Got Very uncomfortable with your dark videos and extra unwanted talking. PLEASE UP THE BRIGHTNESS PLSS.