right color correction ?

[Rainer Fritz]

Hi Guys !

Wanted to ask if somebody could give a good technical advice how the "right" color grading is done. Specially when it should be done on Color. How are the Blacks set at the different finishing medias and color rooms. What about LUTs. But generally advices would be great for finishing to PAL, to HD (BlueRay, Broadcast), to Cinema. Would be fine to have a little think tank regarding grading RED footage. Also equipment (Which Cards, or only DVI-D conected Monitors or via HDMI). I know not really much about grading, would be great If anybody take a short time for my question.

thanks a lot

rainer

[Giancarlo Bianchi]

Well, from my point of view there is no right CC, there is just a certain look you may want to achieve.
The right CC can go just from "Simply" color matching a sequence to advanced CC and painting.

For a basic color grade, I`ll start by adjusting levels or curves, and then add a color corrector and take it where you want to go.

About cards, the best you can get for Mac are the Nvidia Quadro.

I hope this could help as a starting point, it could help if you posted a tiff grab from the footage you have, and a picture of the look you want to achieve.

[Rainer Fritz]

thx eisenstein....

I mean if I go to a HDCam Tape final or blueray final and I rendered out the dpx files with Redlog colorspace, how is the right workflow with color. When I look to the scopes where are the right blacks?
Regarding monitoring: If I have a EIZO monitor as my preview connected via DVI-D from the Nvidia Geforce 8800. Is it possible to grade with this minimum setup? Or is a HDLink Pro from decklink a good option?

thx
rainer

[Giancarlo Bianchi]

I dont quite understand your first question (not native english here), So if you are finalizing on HD you dont want to "clip" the blacks?, or may want to know the tolerance for the DR before blacks get noisy... or? Sorry, dont quite get your point.
Monitoring, as always, best is better. But with the equipment you have you can get quite a descent CC (I have the same card, different monitor but quite alike). What I would recommend for better results is a color calibration unit like the spyder 3.

[Kjetil Haugen]

You should buy a tutorial DVD like this:
http://library.creativecow.net/artic...topstaring.php

The guy is somewhat annoying to listen to, but the information here is valuable to get you started in color.

Eizo ColorEdge screens are among the best. But anyway, first thing you should do is calibrate your monitor with an EyeOne calibrator. If delivery is for television you need to stay within broadcast colors and color will help you with this. Just check the box for broadcast colors and color won't let you crush blacks or clip whites past a point.

If you're using RedLog in color then I belive you need to check a box that says something like "override header settings" in the "settings 2" tab in the right lower corner of the interface. That would be like a log to lin conversion. Or else you will start off with a very contrasty image. It should look washed out to start with.

Experiment with curves rolling off into shadows and highlights. The rest is pretty much experimental. Don't go overboard.. Less is more.

If it's for cinema... Let the pros handle that one with their expensive sofwares. You need to make sure the film print matches the screen and so you can't just go ahead and grade on your own, hand off and expect it to look exactly like you graded it.

[Rainer Fritz]

thx a lot for the infos.....