Need help color correcting, please!!

[JohnnyRandom]

Heh you could make the clean plate hazy easier than cleaning up the bad plate. Better yet go half way with it.

The pictures you posted are tiny is that how big it is going to be?

hehe got a microphone in they too going to fix that too? :)

The image needs more contrast+reds imo but with that getting his coat/shirt to look the same good luck.

I tried three layers of the same image.

top blending mode set to softlight.

next blending mode set to hard light
a hue/saturation work the individual colors mode to get it right.
brightness/contrast ruduce brightness
opacity %50

base blend mode normal
curves use individual color modes
brightness/contrast ruduce brightness add contrast

I really guess it all depends on how much time you want to spend on it...

[shirak23]

Wow, that looks great!

The actual size of the image is widescreen NTSC (720xwhatever, can't remember now). I shot the footage in 16:9 aspect ratio on a Canon XL2. Pics are small 'cause I had to reduce them file size wise to get them to post on the forum (I was in a rush so shrinking them was quickest). And no, not going to bother with getting rid of the mic. With subtitles, etc. you won't really notice it.

I only have 2 shots out of about 50 that I'm using that are hazy like this, so unfortunately, this is the way to go.

Yeah, the reds are the challenge in regards to his shirt so I've opted on this compromise. I've been hesitant to push the contrast too much since the whites are already so blown out. On an NTSC monitor it actually looks real nice and this pic is taken from a lower res/compressed video clip...

Thanks for the tips, I'm going to try it out and see what I can do. Normally I use AVID to color correct, but in this case, due to various circumstances I need to go this route. I use AE to composite and for motion graphics, but I really need to get some more of this under my belt. I'd been using levels and curves and hue/saturation in various combos for last couple of days on this clip, but I hadn't tried layering the clips like this. So, thanks again!

[shirak23]

Okay, I'm starting to get a headache. I know it's asking a lot, but could you post your settings for me? I'm getting to a point where I can't be critical in my observations. Too much green? Too much red? Too contrasty? Ugh. I'm down to these last two shots and I just need to finish this. It would be much appreciated. At the very least I could use it as a starting point to fine tune from. This way too I would get a better understanding of how this works and way. Right now I'm feeling like I'm shooting in the dark. Thanks.

[scrimski]

basic CC for AE

http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=2&page=http://www.creativecow.net/articles/onneweer_barend/colorgrading_1/index.html

[shirak23]

Thanks skrimski, this helps a bit, but I still have the same problem after that which is the contrast...

Hope you can help me out Johnny!

[payton]

i did not read the other hints, but here are my 2 cents.

just levels and additionally hue/saturation applied.

used a adjustment layer with a gradient applied as a luma matte because the footage needs to be stronger corrected in the upper half.

a quick one, could be still optimized (like everything, no matter how long you worked on ;))

good luck,
payton

i just recognized that i missed to upload the file. here it is.

[JohnnyRandom]

Great idea Payton:)

here's the file...
no pro at cc so, usually on to fix my screw ups:)



I did it 7.0 tho... I'll have to see if I still have 6.5 installed somewhere...

Better to shoot a little dark than to light in my opinion, seems really hard to get things to look right when the shot is blown out.

I'll post some screens in a bit.

[shirak23]

Hey all,
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who replied. I really appreciate all the help!

[payton]

i addad an attachement, that i missed to upload in my last post...

[JohnnyRandom]

Nice Payton:) cool trick!

[shirak23]

Hey all,
So after a little tweaking on my own it worked (or at least as good as it can)! Basically I combined ramps and masks to isolate sections.

First I precomposed the footage layer.

I then had the footage layer and added the ramp and adjustment layers (with levels, curves, hue/saturation, etc.) as Payton suggested. Then on top of that I duplicated those three layers and added a mask around my subject to seperate out the background and adjusted the effects as needed.

One ramp was too gross to deal with the whole foreground so I split it up into two ramps 'cause the top my subject was hazier than the lower part.

I pre-composed that group of layers. Then I duplicated the trio of layers (footage, adjustment, and ramp layers) and pre-composed that. This isolated the background. I adjusted the ramp and effects on the adjustment layer (curves, levels, hue/saturation, etc.) to get the background to look just right.

So now I had the background layer (pre-composed) on top of the foreground layer (pre-composed). I then added another adjustment layer to add some effects over both (more levels, curves, grain softener, whatever). These layers were all nested into the original footage pre-comp.

Well, that's pretty much it. Thank you again, I couldn't have done it without your guy's help! Looks pretty damn good, too (not exact, but whattya gonna do?)!

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