Denver killed it! In a good way. #2 - The fact that he went ahead and did every single shot, with minimal nodes and ultra clean keys was the difference maker.
When I heard his voice, I was like, hey, this is the color grading centre guy, I learn how to color grade from him! Recommend everyone who’s into color grading to check out his course. I tried other color grading course as well but his course is the easiest one to understand and learn from.
color graders are like the audio mixers of video production, wildly underrated/underrepresented, and most consumers don't even know they exist, but the incredible and specialized work they do is what gives the final thing the professional touch that we all see and go "that's some good shit right there" It's incredible to see masters of their craft at work, I'll never get tired of humans
And most importantly, he didn't ball out on qualifiers and windows - that are prone to easily break an image and cost time to ripple across shots - like the others did.
I noticed that he clipped the specular highlights quite a bit. The luminance on the white jacket is much higher than anything else in the scene, almost matching the actual light source. Maybe if he graded the whole scene, I would be able to see and appreciate how the look ties it all together.
It would have been really helpful to compare the final results side by side. This format made it very difficult to choose. That said, although I liked the contrast of on the denim shots of #2, I would definitely lean more towards #4 for the overall look and super clean/sharp skin tones.
4, because he gets the spirit of the scene, not just grading this like any other scene. He’s done his homework before diving in and that’s what efficiency and accuracy is about.
4 did an incredible job correcting the initial flaws in the footage. And to me, that made a bigger difference in the final image than the more minute things the other artists were able to accomplish.
@X D From these comments, yours is actually on point. To add to this and I think you would agree; need log-like footage or raw footage. Need to get the specs from DP from what camera it was shot for proper color management pipeline with gamma and gamut transform to working color space. I tried this and made it corrected with 3 parallel nodes with custom curves. Not a hard task if you just try to counter what camera did. Curves curves.
@X D Also, they are youtubers in the end. They need to make them selves "a spectalcle" for ppl to be amazed at. Adding extra to a correction will make them stand out more. But it was not the assingment, just like you pointed out. :)
I tried my hand at this. As someone fairly new to the color correction side of editing, I think this was a great exercise and lesson, Thanks for making the test available to the public, and thanks for this amazing video!
Like, what color grade tutorial can be more helpful than this: show how 4 talented colorists attack a crazy problem in their own way. THANK YOU for this!!
4 for me. I love how details feel soft and balanced. Others were too punchy for me. I also like 3rd artists aproach to color. I just prefer cyan over blue.
An opinion from someone who knows nothing about coloring, I prefered #2's more detailed version that the softer version because it represents the texture of the denim jacket as it is
#2 -- for a couple of reasons. First, the final tone matches the mood of the shoot location's attributes: dramatic, dark, a little "secretive." Secondly, he actually graded the other clips accordingly. The other contestants also did a bang on job, too, but the standout is #2.
Dang those are all really good! I liked the one by Hopkins best because it looks neutral (to me). Everyone else made it look "cinematic" shifting into blue-yellow contrasts. If Hopkins wanted to he could easily set up a filter on top of his footage that achieves the same look as the other guys, but it wouldn't work the other way around for them. He really cleaned up the footage and made it ready for styling it. And as I understood it the challenge was to "save the footage"
Agreed - I felt Hopkins' grade had the most "natural"/neutral look, and could easily then have been tuned further into the "Dark Knight"-style or any other desired look. I'm sure the other guys could do the same, but I felt like he nailed the spirit of the challenge. Also, beyond the main challenge, I really appreciated how understandable and accessible his breakdown felt.
Yo, seriously give these guys some love! And if you want to follow along you can download the assets here, and give it a shot! Don't forget to comment who you like the best! makeartnow.sellfy.store/p/save-the-skin-tones-challenge/ Colorist #1 instagram.com/amartincolor/ Colorist #2 instagram.com/colorgrading/ Colorist #3 instagram.com/jadonfilms.color/ Colorist #4 instagram.com/willmannering/ One last thing, I really have been using Canva for designing advertisements stuff for Orbit, its extremely helpful, been blown away at how fast and easy it is making products stuff---- Canva wants me to tell you about the video editing portion of the site, but honestly building well designed poster boards and advertisments squares is where its at, 100% Here's the MAKE ART NOW 45 a day free trial -- Worth checking out Canva.Me/makeartnow
Should have linked to their You Tubes so anyone could follow. I know Denver has a great channel as I've been a subscriber for years but would be good to see if the others have. Great stuff by all of them!
#1 looks super professional super well balanced! He brought the sealing down and has the smoothest highlight rolloff which I like. But the others are awesome too. Great video!
#3. Really liked Denvers contrasty approach, but Hopkins made the colorgrade that works on every smartphone well and that‘s key for an advertisement many people on different devices should enjoy.
I think #4. Don't think I can do a better job yet, but these kind of videos really help with understanding that most things can be done in so many different ways when it comes to color grading. It gave me a feeling of freedom. One of my favourite videos from you Josh!
Maaaan, this is a masterclass in one video! I haven't really looked, but without research, I can already imagine this as someone's niche on TH-cam: taking bad footage and fixing it. We learn a lot from bad situations than anything, so this is the most ideal type of tutorial. My philosophy is, if you can make shitty footage/images look good (or when it comes to music, if you can make a song sound good on crappy earphones), then when you have higher quality options, you're UNSTOPPABLE! It's like training with weights!
#1 for sure. Focused on not only balancing the shot, but giving it character as well. He was also able to keep things much more simple than the other colorists, which shows he is a true professional.
I vote for #2 - The systematic approach to fixing the footage by using the least amount of nodes. Node organization is top-notch. Color grading is also expression - the others did great but #2 added a look that works for the shot. Denim is woven and so the textures needed to pop out. The grungy look made for a great contrast to the "clinical" studio setting. It made the most statement out of the rest IMO. As someone studying color grading this video is great!
The cleanliness and textures from Hopkins (#3) give a nice edge/bite without going overboard on the contrast. He's my pick! They're all amazing though, and the approaches being so different is encouraging for beginners who may have different approaches to the same subject.
#4 by far what the hell. No power windows, super clean look and he can apply it over the whole length of the clips. Skin tones on that grade look way healthier than the others.
#2. I love his procedure. He seems to be very focused on the core issues, and attacks them straight on. He also finds those core issues not from what he sees, but what data shows him. Which may give him a more precise solution, over if he had looked at the color in the clip with his own eyes
Exactly like a real pro colorist would do. In just two nodes corrected the color shift properly without making two dozen secondary corrections with hue curves and qualifiers.
watching this makes me realize how similar color grading is to my job as an audio mixing engineer. From the terminology used, to the techniques used, even to the interface design and the way the info is displayed. loved the vid very eye opening.
It's interesting how the color adjustment curves remind me of an EQ interface. There are so many parallels between visual art, music and even flavor balance/contrast in cooking, etc.
I do both and yeah it was incredibly easy to start with photoshop doing photo manips, move to a DAW and do mixing etc, and now to video editing doing transitions and color correction, it all flows together! Happy mixing my engineer brutha!
# 2 - Even though I consider Denver a friend of mine. I thought that he pulled it together the best. Although the others were pretty good. The amount of nodes shouldn't be a good thing or bad, the finished grade is the most important. I am surprised that none of them talked about viewer eye trace and how they were guiding the viewer's eyes. I think on the wide shots I would have pumped some parallel nodes with some directional light. Especially in a batcave, the light needs to come from somewhere. Obviously you can't just draw lighting in, but done just right, you wouldn't notice, but it would look more natural.
Wow, they are all so good but yet so different! I didn't expect that. I flipped between them and it ended up between Denver and Will, with my final tip to Will, #4, came down to the depth, consistency and clarity of the ceiling across the scenes. All were great in their own way! Nice, guys!
Really cool and informative to give a look into different workflows like this. I do have one remark concerning Denver's advice on desaturating the high's and low's using the luma vs saturation curve. As the head of colors cience at Arri in germany once told me: A high dynamic range image always has some color in both the high and low ranges. It's bad practise in many cases to desaturate these completely as it creates unrealistic looking images (unless this is what you want). You are more likely to get more pleasing results if you balance your high and low ranges using primary or log wheels while looking at your scopes. This is however a more tedious job. Kind regards from a pro colorist in the Netherlands.
My vote is for #1 because I just liked the workflow and the end result, but I’ve got the deuteron color blindness so I’m not seeing everything ya’ll are seeing. It’s as fascinating as it is frustrating. Thanks for the great content!
Maaan it's a hard decision between 2 & 4 for me, but I think Will's final grade in that scene is my favorite. Huge kudos to Denver for editing all the shots, though!
At first I thought there was a bit too much contrast in Will's rendition, but the end result compared to the other 3 looks so clean, crisp and simple. Great stuff!
I don't know what 90% of these terms are and this video was just recommended to me, but I always appreciate people taking time to explain their workflows.
WOW. Tough choice between #2 and #4. Will had the most movie-looking outcome. He needs to teach us how to BALANCE so perfectly! That single node itself was Spot On! and the idea of stealing the lut info from IMDB! EPIC! But Denver Riddle! What a workflow there. That was IMO the perfect way to tackle this shot, and not too many nodes as well. Would love to understand the colorspace transform and lut selection. As in why transform exactly to cineon and why exactly that lut. I've worked on a hard-to-handle footage, I'm not a colorist, so I had to read resolve manuals and many YT tutorials, and my workflow that time was logicaly similar to Denver. I now believe this workflow can handle most bad shots.
#2 Denver Riddle is my choice. #1 is the runner up. What I would do is dial back the contrast a bit on Denver's look, just a smidge. And here's an idea. Do part 2 and invite: Waqas Qazi / Dado Valentic (colour training) / Cullen Kelly / Darren Mostyn. That would be amazing. 💯
I totally agree...Invite Qaz...just to see what he can do for fun, as his take is not only HDR-ready and nondestructive, but it can be adjusted to any style later, etc.
Denver's version is the best as for me. I would like to watch more colorists battles! Thank you PS: #4 Node structure is absolute mess. It's good for stills, but if you'll try grade feature film with such a node structure ... you'll die after it:)
Don't know if it's already been decided or not, but I've gotta cast my vote for #4. So clean, went the extra mile going for the Dark Knight look, used soften and glow nodes which make things look polished to me, and the skin tones look amazing.
#1 gets my vote. #1’s process and workflow was the best IMO with #3’s being a close second, and #2’s workflow drove me crazy for some reason. #2 and #4 were a bit too heavy on the contrast.
this stuff is crazy, i edit in Davinci Resolve and the only reason i go into the color tab is to bump up the highlights when it's too dark. it hurts my brain watching this tuff, good stuff, I vote 1234
#4 was my favorite. Love the final look. But you can tell some of the other colorists kept their node trees a bit cleaner haha. #2 had a bit too much contrast for my personal taste.
#4 - Will Mannering!! Everyone did such a great job but Will was my favourite. He gave a quick run through on what he did but that finish in my opinion is so sick!
Seeing the difference and similarities in the workflow of all the color graders is really interesting to me. It’s cool to see people do something so similar in such a different way.
I think #1 was the nicest to look at. All the other color grades felt fatiguing in a way with too much contrast, but #1’s color grade just felt so much more pleasing to look at.
I’ve watched the final clip of all their finished products 12x now. Three is the one more me. Thank you for the crash course. Learned so much so quickly.
This is crazy to me. The only thing I have ever been able to learn so far is basic color correction in Premiere. I would love to get into more intense stuff like this!
Wow this is so tough to choose between all of them. #2 and #4 definitely stood out to me but so little separates them. I liked what Will did with the look so #4 it is.
My vote is for Hopkins, yes it was a cooler tone but it just have the best sharpness and contrast level. Wish he had gone a tab bit yellower as the shirts are reflecting yellow hues
I took a shot at the footage and honestly, the global offset wheel in the HDR panel and a minor hue rotation was enough to get to 90% of the balance for every shot. All of the skintone hue variance was retained and I barely had to touch secondaries for the whole set of clips. Five nodes max. As long as you respect the color space you're in, the global balancing tools can do a vast amount of your balancing work with little effort.
#2. Made those shirts pop the way I want them to look on me. Best product colour imo. They all absolutely nailed fixing it though. I wouldn’t complain one way or another
1 and 3 end up looking the best, but #2 went the extra mile and did every scene. 2 and 4 are too heavy on the contrast IMO. Still, I think its a toss up between the final product actually looking the best and making the jacket look good while also staying realistic. So #1 gets my vote, with #3 close behind.
This video is very helpful to get into the various approaches one can use as a colorist. It was really hard to choose from all of the grades, because each one of them have their pros and cons. I'll vote for #1 as it looks the cleanest in the light rolloffs.
Mane I thought I was the only one thinking this!! I would have loved to see him take this on - I don't have his course but I will be buying Denver's if he wins!!
Will was onto something with the earthy tone in the scene, but it falls flat when you need the blue to pop the denim. Would have loved to see Denver go slightly away that direction, but with everything else he’s the hand down winner:
I gotta throw my vote in with #4. Dude nailed the look of the scene from the film in addition to fixing something that I would have wagered was beyond salvageable.
Oh my, I'm split between Denver and Will... Denver had a SUPER clean setup. Not only his organization but the end result had such a professional look to it. The image did not break at all. I felt like he did magic with the footage. But also, Will got a really nice end result. It was the one that most resembled Batman's look and feel. Ugghhhhh Alright... Denver it is! #2 got my vote.
#4 is easiest on the eyes to me and gives the sense to the viewer of not immediately thinking, "how was this graded?" while also making sure to stylize the footage. Good stuff!
I vote #3, Hopkins. As somebody who knows nothing about color, Hopkins' work was the only one that didn't give me, and I hope I don't sound dumb/ignorant for saying this, "horror hospital" vibes. The teal and the dark walls lowkey make me scared because they remind me again of dark hospitals in horror films; Hopkins was the only one that made it blue-ish instead of teal, and it looked the most natural.
Hi I’m a new viewer , I’m literally blown away by the innovation of putting a lav mic holder on that drip damn this might be my first merch purchase on TH-cam
OMG 😱😱😱 I hope no real colorist will see that horrible work from these guys. I had some hopes with the #2 guy, and then he started using the Lum vs Sat to clean the highlights and shadows...
@@troywhite8980 To be clear, I like the content of these guys and I never said I was "superior". (Superiority is such a shitty concept to be honest, especially in art) And I'm pretty sure these guys got way more work than me in color grading. Sorry if my comment sounds bad. To be more precise, I think their workflows are pretty bad and not professional. I think the #2 guy is the more professional of all, except the part when he uses the Lum vs Sat to clean the shadows and highlights. It's an "easy trick" known by beginner colorists, but doing that you lose all the color data in these area. A LOG adjustement (with custom High Range and Low range) would have been a better way to do it as it keep way more information.
This is on e of those difficult decisions where no matter who you choose their is an argument for one or more of the others to win... That being said, for me its between Denver Riddle and Will Mannering... I have to go with Denver for the win here. PS; love the simplicity and organization that hopkins brought to the table and Alex Martin bringing that old school effeciancyand quality! Like I said, this was a tough one.
I'm not even close to understanding about color grading, but the result #2 got feels more realistic to me, rather than looking "cinematic" or pleasant. The skin tones are incredibly defined and distinguishable, which is really important when you remember about how blood subtly affects the skin and about subsurface scattering :)
Denver killed it! In a good way. #2 - The fact that he went ahead and did every single shot, with minimal nodes and ultra clean keys was the difference maker.
When I heard his voice, I was like, hey, this is the color grading centre guy, I learn how to color grade from him! Recommend everyone who’s into color grading to check out his course. I tried other color grading course as well but his course is the easiest one to understand and learn from.
Denver’s work was concise and clean. Such a pro.
@N W calm down
I bought Denver's course about 3 years ago. Well worth the price of entry.
-Jason
@N W Shutup u r a nobody
color graders are like the audio mixers of video production, wildly underrated/underrepresented, and most consumers don't even know they exist, but the incredible and specialized work they do is what gives the final thing the professional touch that we all see and go "that's some good shit right there"
It's incredible to see masters of their craft at work, I'll never get tired of humans
Are you an alien? 😳
AI will definitely replace them in a short time. #TechShit
Dang, #4 looks so good. He's got a great eye.
And most importantly, he didn't ball out on qualifiers and windows - that are prone to easily break an image and cost time to ripple across shots - like the others did.
Well, the skin tone looked very orange though, and lots of unnatural oversaturated blues on the floor and in the ceiling.
I noticed that he clipped the specular highlights quite a bit. The luminance on the white jacket is much higher than anything else in the scene, almost matching the actual light source. Maybe if he graded the whole scene, I would be able to see and appreciate how the look ties it all together.
It would have been really helpful to compare the final results side by side. This format made it very difficult to choose. That said, although I liked the contrast of on the denim shots of #2, I would definitely lean more towards #4 for the overall look and super clean/sharp skin tones.
4, because he gets the spirit of the scene, not just grading this like any other scene. He’s done his homework before diving in and that’s what efficiency and accuracy is about.
Both #2 & #4 used the Kodak 2383 lut as the grade look. #2 may have done the same research but just didn't draw emphasis on to it.
4 did an incredible job correcting the initial flaws in the footage. And to me, that made a bigger difference in the final image than the more minute things the other artists were able to accomplish.
all of those guys are incredibly skilled 💪 my pers fav was #2
@N W calm down lol
@X D From these comments, yours is actually on point. To add to this and I think you would agree; need log-like footage or raw footage. Need to get the specs from DP from what camera it was shot for proper color management pipeline with gamma and gamut transform to working color space.
I tried this and made it corrected with 3 parallel nodes with custom curves. Not a hard task if you just try to counter what camera did. Curves curves.
@X D Also, they are youtubers in the end. They need to make them selves "a spectalcle" for ppl to be amazed at. Adding extra to a correction will make them stand out more. But it was not the assingment, just like you pointed out. :)
I tried my hand at this. As someone fairly new to the color correction side of editing, I think this was a great exercise and lesson, Thanks for making the test available to the public, and thanks for this amazing video!
I also tried your hand at this. Now I'm thinking you could try easing off on the caffeine a little!
Got to give it to #2, the fact he treated individually both color profiles and the overall cleanness of his final image... he's got my vote
Like, what color grade tutorial can be more helpful than this: show how 4 talented colorists attack a crazy problem in their own way. THANK YOU for this!!
4 for me. I love how details feel soft and balanced. Others were too punchy for me. I also like 3rd artists aproach to color. I just prefer cyan over blue.
An opinion from someone who knows nothing about coloring, I prefered #2's more detailed version that the softer version because it represents the texture of the denim jacket as it is
#2 -- for a couple of reasons. First, the final tone matches the mood of the shoot location's attributes: dramatic, dark, a little "secretive." Secondly, he actually graded the other clips accordingly. The other contestants also did a bang on job, too, but the standout is #2.
Colorist #2, Denver was the best. It shows that he's one of those people who can handle anything. Also, his style of explaining is very watchable.
Dang those are all really good! I liked the one by Hopkins best because it looks neutral (to me). Everyone else made it look "cinematic" shifting into blue-yellow contrasts. If Hopkins wanted to he could easily set up a filter on top of his footage that achieves the same look as the other guys, but it wouldn't work the other way around for them. He really cleaned up the footage and made it ready for styling it. And as I understood it the challenge was to "save the footage"
Agreed - I felt Hopkins' grade had the most "natural"/neutral look, and could easily then have been tuned further into the "Dark Knight"-style or any other desired look. I'm sure the other guys could do the same, but I felt like he nailed the spirit of the challenge. Also, beyond the main challenge, I really appreciated how understandable and accessible his breakdown felt.
Yo, seriously give these guys some love! And if you want to follow along you can download the assets here, and give it a shot! Don't forget to comment who you like the best!
makeartnow.sellfy.store/p/save-the-skin-tones-challenge/
Colorist #1 instagram.com/amartincolor/
Colorist #2 instagram.com/colorgrading/
Colorist #3 instagram.com/jadonfilms.color/
Colorist #4 instagram.com/willmannering/
One last thing, I really have been using Canva for designing advertisements stuff for Orbit, its extremely helpful, been blown away at how fast and easy it is making products stuff---- Canva wants me to tell you about the video editing portion of the site, but honestly building well designed poster boards and advertisments squares is where its at, 100% Here's the MAKE ART NOW 45 a day free trial -- Worth checking out Canva.Me/makeartnow
Please make a poll, like straw poll or something? My pick is #2. He's a pro and it shows. Also does it as he explains it and it's very watchable.
I'm literally going to count comments. ;)
Should have linked to their You Tubes so anyone could follow. I know Denver has a great channel as I've been a subscriber for years but would be good to see if the others have. Great stuff by all of them!
@@AllTorque th-cam.com/users/colorgradingcentral
I think the right tool for the job is the new Color Wraper. Using the Color Wraper it takes about 5 minutes to fix these. One node per shot.
#3 gets my vote. Love the final look as well as how organized his workflow is.
#1 looks super professional super well balanced! He brought the sealing down and has the smoothest highlight rolloff which I like. But the others are awesome too. Great video!
#3. Really liked Denvers contrasty approach, but Hopkins made the colorgrade that works on every smartphone well and that‘s key for an advertisement many people on different devices should enjoy.
For me also the best one, although it is leaning a little on the blue side. Still the overall look very nice!
I think #4. Don't think I can do a better job yet, but these kind of videos really help with understanding that most things can be done in so many different ways when it comes to color grading. It gave me a feeling of freedom. One of my favourite videos from you Josh!
Maaaan, this is a masterclass in one video!
I haven't really looked, but without research, I can already imagine this as someone's niche on TH-cam: taking bad footage and fixing it. We learn a lot from bad situations than anything, so this is the most ideal type of tutorial.
My philosophy is, if you can make shitty footage/images look good (or when it comes to music, if you can make a song sound good on crappy earphones), then when you have higher quality options, you're UNSTOPPABLE! It's like training with weights!
Well said!👏
#1 for sure. Focused on not only balancing the shot, but giving it character as well. He was also able to keep things much more simple than the other colorists, which shows he is a true professional.
Exactly. It's not about a million nodes
I liked his approach. It was a bit less technical and more intuitive.
I actually disagree because he used for the most part masks which are not the best for color grading especially when you have to edit multiple clips
I vote for #2 - The systematic approach to fixing the footage by using the least amount of nodes. Node organization is top-notch.
Color grading is also expression - the others did great but #2 added a look that works for the shot. Denim is woven and so the textures needed to pop out. The grungy look made for a great contrast to the "clinical" studio setting. It made the most statement out of the rest IMO. As someone studying color grading this video is great!
Will aced it 🎯 I have to give it to #4
You're too humble. It's okay you can bite for yourself buddy. Bahahah. You both smashed it.
this guy is awesome, whatched loads of his videos - useful and recommended"
Color Grading Central- that seems to ring a few bells.
You did a great job Denver, but I agree #4 had a smidge more character.
In terms of technical accuracy, and not over complicating it, you take the cake brother.
#2. He graded in broad strokes and set himself up to make the job more efficient when grading the other clips in the scene.
The cleanliness and textures from Hopkins (#3) give a nice edge/bite without going overboard on the contrast. He's my pick!
They're all amazing though, and the approaches being so different is encouraging for beginners who may have different approaches to the same subject.
#4 by far what the hell. No power windows, super clean look and he can apply it over the whole length of the clips. Skin tones on that grade look way healthier than the others.
#2. I love his procedure. He seems to be very focused on the core issues, and attacks them straight on. He also finds those core issues not from what he sees, but what data shows him. Which may give him a more precise solution, over if he had looked at the color in the clip with his own eyes
Exactly like a real pro colorist would do. In just two nodes corrected the color shift properly without making two dozen secondary corrections with hue curves and qualifiers.
watching this makes me realize how similar color grading is to my job as an audio mixing engineer. From the terminology used, to the techniques used, even to the interface design and the way the info is displayed. loved the vid very eye opening.
It's interesting how the color adjustment curves remind me of an EQ interface. There are so many parallels between visual art, music and even flavor balance/contrast in cooking, etc.
@@ryo-kai8587 fr i thought damn this look just like a digital eq
I do both and yeah it was incredibly easy to start with photoshop doing photo manips, move to a DAW and do mixing etc, and now to video editing doing transitions and color correction, it all flows together! Happy mixing my engineer brutha!
@@DruNature u too! have a great creative 2022!
All four are undeniably masters at coloring. My vote is for 1, 2, 3, and 4 because if I had to choose one I'd be scrubbing back and forth for a while
#2 is best. You can always dial back the contrast. But his method is the most efficient and straight to the point.
# 2 - Even though I consider Denver a friend of mine. I thought that he pulled it together the best. Although the others were pretty good.
The amount of nodes shouldn't be a good thing or bad, the finished grade is the most important. I am surprised that none of them talked about viewer eye trace and how they were guiding the viewer's eyes. I think on the wide shots I would have pumped some parallel nodes with some directional light. Especially in a batcave, the light needs to come from somewhere. Obviously you can't just draw lighting in, but done just right, you wouldn't notice, but it would look more natural.
Wow, they are all so good but yet so different! I didn't expect that. I flipped between them and it ended up between Denver and Will, with my final tip to Will, #4, came down to the depth, consistency and clarity of the ceiling across the scenes. All were great in their own way! Nice, guys!
Really cool and informative to give a look into different workflows like this.
I do have one remark concerning Denver's advice on desaturating the high's and low's using the luma vs saturation curve.
As the head of colors cience at Arri in germany once told me: A high dynamic range image always has some color in both the high and low ranges.
It's bad practise in many cases to desaturate these completely as it creates unrealistic looking images (unless this is what you want).
You are more likely to get more pleasing results if you balance your high and low ranges using primary or log wheels while looking at your scopes.
This is however a more tedious job.
Kind regards from a pro colorist in the Netherlands.
My vote is for #1 because I just liked the workflow and the end result, but I’ve got the deuteron color blindness so I’m not seeing everything ya’ll are seeing. It’s as fascinating as it is frustrating. Thanks for the great content!
You just have to get into audio engineering and everyone will be like "How are you hearing that?" haha
@@RhodokTribesman I just received some glasses to help with the color blindness and it’s a game changer.
#2 this guy works at scale, so clean and well done.
Maaan it's a hard decision between 2 & 4 for me, but I think Will's final grade in that scene is my favorite. Huge kudos to Denver for editing all the shots, though!
Don’t do it
#4 for me. I liked how the color wasn't too high contrast on the shirt and more accurately showed it's color.
Dude!!! Such a fun and insightful vid. Nice Josh
At first I thought there was a bit too much contrast in Will's rendition, but the end result compared to the other 3 looks so clean, crisp and simple. Great stuff!
Split the drone to 4. They all are great and each has his uniqueness. All of 4 are major pros!
I don't know what 90% of these terms are and this video was just recommended to me, but I always appreciate people taking time to explain their workflows.
I love #2 Denver's process, very clean and clearly explained step by step process, He is simply the master in colorgrading
Honestly was pretty surprised you didn’t know about Denver prior!
But i know about rekoill
Honestly was pretty surprised to even see you here.
I've seen a lot of #2's videos online and he is a great color grader, but #4 takes the cake for me.
WOW. Tough choice between #2 and #4. Will had the most movie-looking outcome.
He needs to teach us how to BALANCE so perfectly! That single node itself was Spot On! and the idea of stealing the lut info from IMDB! EPIC!
But Denver Riddle! What a workflow there. That was IMO the perfect way to tackle this shot, and not too many nodes as well.
Would love to understand the colorspace transform and lut selection. As in why transform exactly to cineon and why exactly that lut.
I've worked on a hard-to-handle footage, I'm not a colorist, so I had to read resolve manuals and many YT tutorials, and my workflow that time was logicaly similar to Denver.
I now believe this workflow can handle most bad shots.
#2 Denver Riddle is my choice. #1 is the runner up. What I would do is dial back the contrast a bit on Denver's look, just a smidge. And here's an idea. Do part 2 and invite: Waqas Qazi / Dado Valentic (colour training) / Cullen Kelly / Darren Mostyn. That would be amazing. 💯
I totally agree...Invite Qaz...just to see what he can do for fun, as his take is not only HDR-ready and nondestructive, but it can be adjusted to any style later, etc.
it's the #4 for me, just a clean & minimal on the cinematic looks, so cool!
Gotta give it to #4!
All these colorists came out with some solid grading processes but I think Will really nailed it the most.
No. 4 for sure. Not too punchy in your face, clean and colors are well-balanced. Very pleasing to the eye.
This is what "influencers" should be doing. Such creative approaches to the project. Well done!
They've all created spectacular results! But I've got to say 2 and 4 really (as they might say) popped! particularly Will Mannerings!
Denver's version is the best as for me. I would like to watch more colorists battles! Thank you PS: #4 Node structure is absolute mess. It's good for stills, but if you'll try grade feature film with such a node structure ... you'll die after it:)
#2 as the final edit looks awesome and all shots match, Plus the workflow video was the most engaging to watch. #4 looked the most natural and clean.
Guy #2 smashed it! I like that one the most.
Don't know if it's already been decided or not, but I've gotta cast my vote for #4. So clean, went the extra mile going for the Dark Knight look, used soften and glow nodes which make things look polished to me, and the skin tones look amazing.
#1 gets my vote.
#1’s process and workflow was the best IMO with #3’s being a close second, and #2’s workflow drove me crazy for some reason. #2 and #4 were a bit too heavy on the contrast.
I totally agree, that contrast was nuts! I thought the assignment was to white balance, not apply a theme.
#2 was definitely going for that Dark Knight, super deep, contrasty look
Ive had this idea for a video for the longest time and I’m so glad someone finally made it
this stuff is crazy, i edit in Davinci Resolve and the only reason i go into the color tab is to bump up the highlights when it's too dark. it hurts my brain watching this tuff, good stuff, I vote 1234
#4 Will has such a great approach to grading. Nice touch with the film specs and it's a very clean look.
#4 was my favorite. Love the final look. But you can tell some of the other colorists kept their node trees a bit cleaner haha. #2 had a bit too much contrast for my personal taste.
agree
#4 has better skintones, that suit well the perfect blueish / teal tones. The style isn’t too distracting and just helps the scene well imo
#4 - Will Mannering!! Everyone did such a great job but Will was my favourite. He gave a quick run through on what he did but that finish in my opinion is so sick!
Seeing the difference and similarities in the workflow of all the color graders is really interesting to me. It’s cool to see people do something so similar in such a different way.
Really great to see this challenge and get more insight how guys are doing it, my vote goes to #2 Denver although #4 is also great work for my taste.
4th one is timeless love that neutral stylised asthetic
#4 - each were fantastic in their own right, but the vibe Will's color's brought simply felt right
I think #1 was the nicest to look at. All the other color grades felt fatiguing in a way with too much contrast, but #1’s color grade just felt so much more pleasing to look at.
I loved Denver's
But what really amazed me was that each contestant provided different techniques to tackle fixing this footage.
I’ve watched the final clip of all their finished products 12x now. Three is the one more me. Thank you for the crash course. Learned so much so quickly.
#4 by far in terms of results, and while the nodes look messy, the image looks super clean, and that's what matters the most.
This is crazy to me. The only thing I have ever been able to learn so far is basic color correction in Premiere. I would love to get into more intense stuff like this!
Wow this is so tough to choose between all of them. #2 and #4 definitely stood out to me but so little separates them. I liked what Will did with the look so #4 it is.
Why did I missed that competion :D I vote for #2
My vote is for Hopkins, yes it was a cooler tone but it just have the best sharpness and contrast level. Wish he had gone a tab bit yellower as the shirts are reflecting yellow hues
I took a shot at the footage and honestly, the global offset wheel in the HDR panel and a minor hue rotation was enough to get to 90% of the balance for every shot. All of the skintone hue variance was retained and I barely had to touch secondaries for the whole set of clips. Five nodes max. As long as you respect the color space you're in, the global balancing tools can do a vast amount of your balancing work with little effort.
#2. Made those shirts pop the way I want them to look on me. Best product colour imo.
They all absolutely nailed fixing it though. I wouldn’t complain one way or another
1 and 3 end up looking the best, but #2 went the extra mile and did every scene. 2 and 4 are too heavy on the contrast IMO. Still, I think its a toss up between the final product actually looking the best and making the jacket look good while also staying realistic. So #1 gets my vote, with #3 close behind.
Completely agree 👍 #1’s process and workflow was the best IMO, and #2’s workflow drove me crazy for some reason but still have a decent result.
2/4 for and my taste with what they did overall, but all of them did a really great job and prove why they're the best at what they do.
This video is very helpful to get into the various approaches one can use as a colorist. It was really hard to choose from all of the grades, because each one of them have their pros and cons.
I'll vote for #1 as it looks the cleanest in the light rolloffs.
Man, so cool to see all these approaches. I liked #2 Denver Riddle's the best. The way he went about it just made more sense for the footage.
Yo, I would give a propeller to each!😂😂 They all did a great job. But. In the end, I would go with #2. Denver rocks!!
I think #2 should win. I loved everyone's unique approach to color grading. Great video!
It would be cool to see Waqas Qazi take a crack at this. Also love that you focused on colorist because I feel like it’s always overlooked
Mane I thought I was the only one thinking this!! I would have loved to see him take this on - I don't have his course but I will be buying Denver's if he wins!!
Will was onto something with the earthy tone in the scene, but it falls flat when you need the blue to pop the denim. Would have loved to see Denver go slightly away that direction, but with everything else he’s the hand down winner:
I gotta throw my vote in with #4. Dude nailed the look of the scene from the film in addition to fixing something that I would have wagered was beyond salvageable.
Oh my, I'm split between Denver and Will... Denver had a SUPER clean setup. Not only his organization but the end result had such a professional look to it. The image did not break at all. I felt like he did magic with the footage. But also, Will got a really nice end result. It was the one that most resembled Batman's look and feel. Ugghhhhh
Alright... Denver it is! #2 got my vote.
#4 is easiest on the eyes to me and gives the sense to the viewer of not immediately thinking, "how was this graded?" while also making sure to stylize the footage. Good stuff!
#1 for overall natural feel and realism but #2 for that deep, cinematic look
Grade #1: 1:47
Grade #2: 5:41
Grade #3: 14:32
Grade #4: 15:06
Edit: #4 is the best imo
I vote #3, Hopkins. As somebody who knows nothing about color, Hopkins' work was the only one that didn't give me, and I hope I don't sound dumb/ignorant for saying this, "horror hospital" vibes. The teal and the dark walls lowkey make me scared because they remind me again of dark hospitals in horror films; Hopkins was the only one that made it blue-ish instead of teal, and it looked the most natural.
All of them did a great job, but #4 pops out. Super nice.
Hi I’m a new viewer , I’m literally blown away by the innovation of putting a lav mic holder on that drip damn this might be my first merch purchase on TH-cam
This is voodoo. SHEEESH
For real, simply magic to me 😂
Amazing to see 4 pros tackle the same problem in different ways. Great way to learn. Thanks for the video
OMG 😱😱😱 I hope no real colorist will see that horrible work from these guys.
I had some hopes with the #2 guy, and then he started using the Lum vs Sat to clean the highlights and shadows...
Put your work on the line and let us all judge you if you think you're so superior! What an absolute asshole thing to say!
Second.
Ahah pretty intense comment but I understand what you mean. These guys should watch Juan Melara and Avery Peck tutorials
@@troywhite8980 To be clear, I like the content of these guys and I never said I was "superior". (Superiority is such a shitty concept to be honest, especially in art) And I'm pretty sure these guys got way more work than me in color grading.
Sorry if my comment sounds bad. To be more precise, I think their workflows are pretty bad and not professional.
I think the #2 guy is the more professional of all, except the part when he uses the Lum vs Sat to clean the shadows and highlights. It's an "easy trick" known by beginner colorists, but doing that you lose all the color data in these area. A LOG adjustement (with custom High Range and Low range) would have been a better way to do it as it keep way more information.
@@truecooper7970 My comment sounds like shit, I'm sorry for that guys. And Yes, thank you ! Too many few people know these guys.
#2 for sure. I still still feel that purple on the darker skin on #4. I gotta give it to #2
#2 was the cleanest
At least 2 or 3 of them are Qazi viewers for sure.
This is on e of those difficult decisions where no matter who you choose their is an argument for one or more of the others to win... That being said, for me its between Denver Riddle and Will Mannering... I have to go with Denver for the win here. PS; love the simplicity and organization that hopkins brought to the table and Alex Martin bringing that old school effeciancyand quality! Like I said, this was a tough one.
#2
I'm not even close to understanding about color grading, but the result #2 got feels more realistic to me, rather than looking "cinematic" or pleasant. The skin tones are incredibly defined and distinguishable, which is really important when you remember about how blood subtly affects the skin and about subsurface scattering :)