Color Grading Monochrome RED.

[Les Hillis]

Just having a look.









Thanks for the Monochrome samples Rodrigo.

 

[Rodrigo Violante]

I can upload the full video file if you guys want to play around.

 

[rand thompson]

Sure Rodrigo, That would be great!

 

[rand thompson]

 

[rand thompson]

 

[rand thompson]

 

[Les Hillis]

Had another look at this one I left out the other day.



Thanks again for the nicely shot images.

It's been interesting checking out the Monochrome frames and revisiting black & white in general through them.

It's a wide and varied genre. Even without colour, it still all comes down to the creative intent imo, with a lot of potential there to create before, during and after the shoot a cohesive whole, something bigger than the sum of its parts.

The Monochrome enables that, as do the modern grading tools.

Kind of amazing to think what could be done in b&w, now that hardly anyone's using it (comparatively speaking).

 

[rand thompson]

From Screen grabs of original video.

 

[Patrick Tresch]

A quick grade. A couple of shots could be a bit over the top, but those easily can be toned down, if needed. I could use some more time working on better masks blending, but I don't want to spend too much time on this. I think, doing more of a silhouette would probably work even better in this case. Also, with this grade, a couple of images could use a bit of noise reduction, but you can't do temporal noise reduction on a single frame, so...

I tried to replicate your grade as I liked it. Here my test in RCX with one curve and some Alchemy. I probably get at the limit of working with one four points curve.
The texture is quite different, it's "color" also, yours has some silver in it. Mine is harsher, like more black and white. Difficult to get that exact look.

 

[rand thompson]

From Screen grabs of original Video.

 

[rand thompson]

 

[jake blackstone]

I tried to replicate your grade as I liked it. Here my test in RCX with one curve and some Alchemy. I probably get at the limit of working with one four points curve.
The texture is quite different, it's "color" also, yours has some silver in it. Mine is harsher, like more black and white. Difficult to get that exact look.

I don't use curves for grading. I feel curves are not really easy to use with a simple, non $30k panel) Using curves, if overly aggressive, can introduce bending, halos and solarization, as clearly demonstrated on a lot of grades here. All grades were done with just Basegrade with a couple of masks and the texture was manipulated using Texture Equalizer. Actually, all these are very simple grades.

 

[Patrick Tresch]

I don't use curves for grading. I feel curves are not really easy to use with a simple, non $30k panel) Using curves, if overly aggressive, can introduce bending, halos and solarization, as clearly demonstrated on a lot of grades here. All grades were done with just Basegrade with a couple of masks and the texture was manipulated using Texture Equalizer. Actually, all these are very simple grades.

I've heard that curves are not used by some colorists. I've worked with some of them. I'v seen that the one that don't use them usually don't know how to work with. Probably they never had to learn? I wonder if it's due to the habit of using wheels LGG? But I've used curves since the Online times in 2000 as a postproduction supervisor and never seen any banding nor halos if not torn like crazy (Brandon style ;-) ). (Though Photoshop curves are of no use). It's just mapping the values in more linear ways than using 3 points wheels even if you can modify your 3 points threshold. You can also posterize with wheels. "Key-like" grading changing the value of selected tones are IMHO more dangerous as it's affect the edges of the effect. They are blended from one effect to the other with some kind of opacity. It's not a linear transition. I might be wrong... ;-)

There are a lot of contrast elements that can't be reproduced without the right curve. Some use to keying out the range they want to enhance. But I always stay away of keying and changing luma value.
Perhaps it's due to the poor key engine some color tools had?

The only rule with curves to avoid banding/posterisation is "stay away from low angle, flat or negative slope"

BTW I love your work Jake.

See you.

Pat

 

[jake blackstone]

I've heard that curves are not used by some colorists. I've worked with some of them. I'v seen that the one that don't use them usually don't know how to work with. Probably they never had to learn? I wonder if it's due to the habit of using wheels LGG? But I've used curves since the Online times in 2000 as a postproduction supervisor and never seen any banding nor halos if not torn like crazy (Brandon style ;-) ). (Though Photoshop curves are of no use). It's just mapping the values in more linear ways than using 3 points wheels even if you can modify your 3 points threshold. You can also posterize with wheels. "Key-like" grading changing the value of selected tones are IMHO more dangerous as it's affect the edges of the effect. They are blended from one effect to the other with some kind of opacity. It's not a linear transition. I might be wrong... ;-)

There are a lot of contrast elements that can't be reproduced without the right curve. Some use to keying out the range they want to enhance. But I always stay away of keying and changing luma value.
Perhaps it's due to the poor key engine some color tools had?

The only rule with curves to avoid banding/posterisation is "stay away from low angle, flat or negative slope"

BTW I love your work Jake.

See you.

Pat

Thanks Pat.
Some colorists actually use curves a lot, I just prefer not to, because I don't have to. Also, I don't use LGG, as I mentioned, I prefer to use BaseGrade or FilmGrade. BaseGrade is probably one of the only completely new color grading operators, that came out lately. The other being, may be, 3D LUT Creator. (Nobe Color is a rip off of 3DLUT Creator, unfortunately). Anyway, using color wheels doesn't mean, that you're limited to just a simple up and down adjustments. Don't forget, Baselight utilizes a LOT of pivot points, that can act as a sort of curve shapers, but those are predictable and reproducible and these operators are much easier to use with a panel. Also, BaseGrade goes to great lengths to protect users from themselves by automatically limiting curves transitions in order to avoid solarization. Basically, Baselight takes care of all the heavy lifting and leaves all creative decisions to the user, just like color God intended to

 

[rand thompson]

Jake,


I love 3D Lut creator also. I was just getting use to the layer based method of during things in the Baselight plugin for Avid Media Composer but Avid Media Composer just kept crashing with it and I just got tired of Avid. I think If I would have started out with Baselight instead of Davinci Resolve, I would be using it instead.

 

[jake blackstone]

Jake,


I love 3D Lut creator also. I was just getting use to the layer based method of during things in the Baselight plugin for Avid Media Composer but Avid Media Composer just kept crashing with it and I just got tired of Avid. I think If I would have started out with Baselight instead of Davinci Resolve, I would be using it instead.

You can get a Baselight Student Edition license. It's not a plugin, it's a real thing. Contact FilmLight...

 

[rand thompson]

Thanks a lot Jake!!

 

[rand thompson]

Mac Based only, Damn!! That's the story of my life. But thanks again all the same Jake.

 

[rand thompson]

Experimenting,

 

[rand thompson]

Frame grab from video