Color Correction and Grading - how to do it well?

dante0 · Sep 29, 2024

Hi all,
I am new to Drones and Da Vinci. Being perfectionist (learning to let go!

), I would like to do things at least somewhat properly.

I have watched a number of tutorials regarding how color grading UI works in Da Vinci. That's all nice, but... none of these tutorials seem to explain what I'm actually supposed to do :-D. I'm increasing saturation and shadows... till when? What is good? What is too much? Alas, I don't have sufficient knowledge to make the call. Yes, I know it is more of an art than science, but there is bound to be some 80/20 best-practice which my autistic mind can follow.

I appreciate that one can take the whole university degree in professional video editing but... would you happen to know any videos or courses which (in a nutshell) could give me some idiot-proof explanation or workflow?

I watched this 4h DaVinci tutorial (great overview) and this brief DJI color grading tutorial (interesting, but lacking the what and why behind the how).

... or, perhaps, is the answer "shoot with Mini 4 Pro in HLG, apply Davinci YRBG Color Managed to the whole timeline, don't make any adjustments beyond minimal ones / if you really feel like you need them, you'll be good to go"?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

GFields · Sep 29, 2024

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

It would be very difficult for anyone to help much via a forum. Every image has different qualities or issues. The best that I can suggest is knowing the ins and out of your software. I use Photoshop myself, and knowing what it is capable of is very important. I would search for more tutorials and watch them (maybe more than once).

Then practice! Practice makes perfect

Phantomrain.org · Sep 29, 2024

My suggestion is to not start with video, because it very difficult to work with the Rendering and process time.

Start with Adobe Lightroom and learn on a single picture how to use the white balance, the blacks and than how the shadows bring into focus your key aspects of that picture. Once you learn how to dial in your pictures than you can take that knowledge to the video aspect if your computer has the video processing power it needs.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water,

mavic3usa · Sep 29, 2024

Here's another color page tutorial from Casey if you haven't seen it already:
I have similar issue, color being the 2nd hardest aspect of DR and since I have a speed editor, I purchased one of these to hopefully help with the flow as well:

SethB · Sep 29, 2024

The goal of color correction is to eliminate discrepancies between the way we perceive a scene with direct eyesight and the look of the photo or video clip.

Primary tools for color correction are color balance, exposure, contrast, blacks, shadows, highlights, whites. Secondary tools apply the previous controls on various ranges, like reducing blue only in the shadows, or limiting luminosity only in the blue sky.

Color grading is using the same tools and more in an artistic process, used for various goals in different media and genres. To subliminally convey emotional context. Perhaps to conform to conventions of particular genres, such as high contrast and b&w for film noir. Or sepia looks representing the past. A forest glen *should* look dark green, cool, and inviting? The rays of sunlight golden yellow? So many choices, so many styles, etc.

Some questions to ask yourself about your clips you’re color correcting:
Are the light areas “blown out”, or do they show detail? (Sky, clouds, reflective surfaces)
Is there detail in the shadow areas / shadow tones? (Mostly there should be)
Is there detail in the highlights? (Mostly there should be)
Is there true black in the clip? (Mostly there should be)

When you have solid foundation in color correction, grading is more about overall looks and feels. In film grading will typically be done on whole scenes and films after all color correction, which is different than drone footage where we’re mostly concerned with just one or very few clips.

Other than grading scene-by-scene, the other tool in grading not common in correction is masking; using moving masks to apply a different look to a person but not their environment, etc.

In my own experience, like what @GFields and @Phantomrain.org wrote above, lots of correction (several thousands) of stills in Lightroom helped me develop my eye for color, and better understand how I wanted my video work to look.

MavicAir2Marc · Sep 30, 2024

I've been doing color professionally for over 30 years. My advice is, don't overthink it. Lift is for shadows, Gamma is for the midtones, and gain is for the highlights. If you have a decent monitor, then just use those controls to make it pleasing to your eye. There are tools to make sure you don't clip the shadows or the highlights (waveform) and as long as everything fits in between the top and bottom you will be fine. (specular highlights such as the sun off chrome may clip in the highlights but that's totally ok). The main thing is that you are happy with what it looks like, you're not adhering to any broadcast standards so don't get too caught up in color CORRECTION. If you aren't shooting LOG, then any color correction will be very minimal. Just don't get caught up in pixel peeping, it's not worth it.

mavictk · Oct 5, 2024

Have you tried using the DJI LUT as a starting point assuming you recorded in DLOG mode?

Donnie Frank · Oct 5, 2024

dante0 said:
Hi all,
I am new to Drones and Da Vinci. Being perfectionist (learning to let go! ), I would like to do things at least somewhat properly.

I have watched a number of tutorials regarding how color grading UI works in Da Vinci. That's all nice, but... none of these tutorials seem to explain what I'm actually supposed to do :-D. I'm increasing saturation and shadows... till when? What is good? What is too much? Alas, I don't have sufficient knowledge to make the call. Yes, I know it is more of an art than science, but there is bound to be some 80/20 best-practice which my autistic mind can follow.

I appreciate that one can take the whole university degree in professional video editing but... would you happen to know any videos or courses which (in a nutshell) could give me some idiot-proof explanation or workflow?

I watched this 4h DaVinci tutorial (great overview) and this brief DJI color grading tutorial (interesting, but lacking the what and why behind the how).

... or, perhaps, is the answer "shoot with Mini 4 Pro in HLG, apply Davinci YRBG Color Managed to the whole timeline, don't make any adjustments beyond minimal ones / if you really feel like you need them, you'll be good to go"?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

I went down this rabbit hole a couple years ago (I use Lumetri in Adobe Premiere Pro). The problem is that color grading is not strictly science. There is an artistic element to it that simply can't be taught. I liken this to audio engineering (one of my professions).

While you can teach someone the technical part of engineering (how the console works), and the acoustic science side of engineering (how sound behaves in a given space), there is the artistic side of understanding what "good music" or a "good mix" should sound like. Unfortunately, it's become blatantly apparent to me over the years that this cannot be taught. Being a pro musician for 43+ years, I have a leg up in this regard. So, for me it was much easier to learn the technical side and the science than it was for someone with an audio science and technical background to learn the artistic side.

Color grading is kind of the same.

For me, because I don't have an intrinsic "eye for color," I simply compare my videos to full length feature films. Do my trees look like their trees? Do my skin tones look like their skin tones? Etc. That said...

I honestly don't color grade that much. I make h.264 videos. I don't make full length feature films shot in RAW. So I generally trust the camera equipment's settings. For instance, I use GoPro cameras. There aren't going to be a lot post-production options with a GoPro. I also use a Sony point-n-shoot. My "good camera" is a Canon 70D, which does not record RAW video.

Remember, "Color Grading" and "color correction" are entire careers. People who are good at it probably generally eat, breath and live "color." So I wouldn't be too disappointing in yourself as a colorist. That said...

Honestly, the WORST thing I have seen is incorrect color grading. People take perfectly acceptable footage and grade it to look like crap. I see this quite often. Over-saturation and purple shadows make me cringe.

NOTE: If ever you want to see over-saturation done right, watch some of Wes Anderson's films. I believe his latest 2 or 3 offerings utilized over-saturation to achieve a 50's film feel. Good stuff.

Good luck!

D

Xitor · Oct 5, 2024

This guy is most knowledgeable color grading expert I've seen on Davinci Resolve. The question is, do you need to go as deep as he does into it, or is a shorter, high level video good enough.

Darren Mostyn

I am Senior Colourist and founder of Online Creative Post Facility in the UK - established in 1999. I regularly colour grade for BBC, Amazon, C4, C5, ITV and most of the UK terrestrial broadcasters. I have worked internationally with ABC, Turner (USA), Channel 7 (Australia), HBS (FIFA), NHK...

www.youtube.com

MavicAir2Marc · Oct 5, 2024

Just to clear things up a bit, color grading and color correction are not the same thing. Color correction is about color balance and exposure (and to a greater extent color matching). Color grading (especially in video) is to correct to elicit a feeling or mood. Think horror films, they mostly have that dark blueish cast going on to set a feeling of suspense and dread where happy tones are mostly accomplished with bright vibrant colors.