Color Correcting and Grading your P3 Footage V2

Color Finale which is probably the best color grading plug-in I have come across allows you to do what Mr. Hagan did in his tutorial. FCPX's built-in color board is so unintuitive and tough to color grade with.

I am not sure if Mr. Hagan has come across this issue on FCPX.

Thanks for the input. Very disappointing I must say. I made the jump from Final Cut to Premiere Pro when Final Cut Pro X was introduced. That was about 4-5 years ago?. By now I'd hoped Apple had upped their game since then. The initial release of FCPX was somewhat of a step down (professionally speaking IMHO) into the world of pretty consumer eye candy apps. They (Apple) lost a massive percentage of professional, die hard FCP cutters and editors when they decided to turn Final Cut Pro 7 into what FCP X is.

Regardless I know folks that still use FCP7 and FCPX. They produce some wonderful pieces so I guess in the end it's all about investing in an app... and learning everything you can. Strengths and weaknesses.
 
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Thanks for the input. Very disappointing I must say. I made the jump from Final Cut to Premiere Pro when Final Cut Pro X was introduced. That was about 4-5 years ago?. By now I'd hoped Apple had upped their game since then. The initial release of FCPX was somewhat of a step down (professionally speaking IMHO) into the world of pretty consumer eye candy apps. They (Apple) lost a massive percentage of professional, die hard FCP cutters and editors when they decided to turn Final Cut Pro 7 into what FCP X is.

Regardless I know folks that still use FCP7 and FCPX. They produce some wonderful pieces so I guess in the end it's all about investing in an app... and learning everything you can. Stelnghths and weaknesses.
Imo premiere is premiere and moreover is a cross platform application so your tutorials are useful also for us windows users.
 
Imo premiere is premiere and moreover is a cross platform application so your tutorials are useful also for us windows users.
Exactly. Plus it sure makes it easier when I have to work on a project with another editing or color studio. If I brought my Final Cut X files to them...they'd probably give me the stink-eye.
 
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Exactly. Plus it sure makes it easier when I have to work on a project with another editing or color studio. If I brought my Final Cut X files to them...they'd probably give me the stink-eye.

Thanks for the feedback on FCPX. The problem is that for non-professionals like me, FCPX is $299 vs Premiere / Resolve which are subscription or ~$1000... I love color grading but to your point, one can still produce some nice videos on FCPX following your tutorial by learning the transferrable skills.
 
Very interesting thread.we only have our P3P for 5 weeks an tried a lot of different settings and I have to admit that the settings from fhagan really come close to the maximum what the codec can deliver. Only for showing the footage on a 4k display I would adjust the sharpness to max -2.
The other thing what we like to test on another shots is to try a manual whitebalance with a greycard.
The fixed manual setting doesn' t seem very accurate. (A lot of magenta in the highlights)
Funny enough we just upgraded one suite to cc2015 and tried the new grading capabilities.
This is the result
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All the best
 
Very interesting thread.we only have our P3P for 5 weeks an tried a lot of different settings and I have to admit that the settings from fhagan really come close to the maximum what the codec can deliver. Only for showing the footage on a 4k display I would adjust the sharpness to max -2.
The other thing what we like to test on another shots is to try a manual whitebalance with a greycard.
The fixed manual setting doesn' t seem very accurate. (A lot of magenta in the highlights)
Funny enough we just upgraded one suite to cc2015 and tried the new grading capabilities.
This is the result
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All the best
Gorgeous location. Gorgeous music. Some really nice shots here. For full on sun try a Manual WB around 5600K. Seems like it would be a bit high but I've obtained decent results with this WB setting and this should help with the Magenta cast. Nice work and thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks so much for sharing. This is a fascinating topic and am eager to learn much more. I imagine the concepts you've described apply broadly as 'best practices' and form the foundation for a much deeper area of study. What resources would you recommend to learn about these foundational topics and concepts.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks so much for sharing. This is a fascinating topic and am eager to learn much more. I imagine the concepts you've described apply broadly as 'best practices' and form the foundation for a much deeper area of study. What resources would you recommend to learn about these foundational topics and concepts.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the comment, Quinn.
Oddly enough I was just thinking about my next tutorial. I think it would be fun and informative to show how and why "rules can be broken". More intense color and cinematic treatments could be fun as well as inspiring I think. What are you specifically looking for? I can't think of anything in particular, tutorial wise, but you can do a search on YouTube for "Cinematic Color grading." You'll find quite a few examples of pushing the footage beyond the "safety zone." Your thoughts?
 
Hey Frederick .... could you post a link to the Version 1 Color Grading video.
I can't seem to locate it.
Thanks!

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I'm thinking that there are particular "rules of the road" that most experienced film makers know. You shared several, for instance the idea of ensuring proper white balance (basic, I know) and touched on differences of color grading between 'real life' and a cinematic view.

Interestingly , as you had suggested, I had been poking around on this topic and tripped across a short video (don't have it in front of me right now) discussing the differences between the flesh tones of men & women for instance. The fellow had a reference table which he used to describe and quantify the particular color values, and the video was the technique he used to correct when off.

Those types of things seem to me as likely well know among those in the 'biz' and would be interesting to learn more about..

Hope that helps..
 
I'm thinking that there are particular "rules of the road" that most experienced film makers know. You shared several, for instance the idea of ensuring proper white balance (basic, I know) and touched on differences of color grading between 'real life' and a cinematic view.

Interestingly , as you had suggested, I had been poking around on this topic and tripped across a short video (don't have it in front of me right now) discussing the differences between the flesh tones of men & women for instance. The fellow had a reference table which he used to describe and quantify the particular color values, and the video was the technique he used to correct when off.

Those types of things seem to me as likely well know among those in the 'biz' and would be interesting to learn more about..

Hope that helps..
Yes... Gotcha.
Obviously it's a much larger and deeper topic but as a quick example: The Vector Scope is what's used to determine if you're in the ball park in regards to skin. From the 11 to 5 o'clock position there's a line. It's referred to as the "flesh line." If the information of your shot rides along this line you're in the right area for correct hue and saturation of realistic looking flesh. See attached for caucasian skin example. Hope this helps a little.
VectorScope.jpg
 
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Used your tips today for this!
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Thank you so much for sharing ur gifts with us!!

Sent from my PT beating heart
 
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Used your tips today for this!
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Thank you so much for sharing ur gifts with us!!

Sent from my PT beating heart
Two words: Very. Nice. Thanks for sharing your results!
 
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Exactly. That was the 'gist of the video that I saw. Of course, without our friend Google, I wouldn't have even known that there was a 'rule' for.

No doubt that there are many other similar concepts I am even more in the dark about. What I'm looking for is a pointer to where I might uncover them in a more systematic manner. I'd prefer to avoid film school ....

Many thanks for what you do!
 
Exactly. That was the 'gist of the video that I saw. Of course, without our friend Google, I wouldn't have even known that there was a 'rule' for.

No doubt that there are many other similar concepts I am even more in the dark about. What I'm looking for is a pointer to where I might uncover them in a more systematic manner. I'd prefer to avoid film school ....

Many thanks for what you do!
Hat's off to you, Quinn. I'm learning new and wonderful things everyday from many people. It's exciting to share and learn from others that seem to possess the same tenacity that you seem to have. You made my night!
 
Frederick I need your guidance. A few days ago I did a shoot for a realtor. The video was fine but I used the same settings for photos and it was a disaster. The video I used an ND8 filter with your video settings. What should I be doing different for photos. What do you think about the 3-5 bracketing option. Thanks in advance.

Define "disaster". Post an example?

That said, I use the same settings for photos. I then bring everything Into photoshop and make my adjustments.

The bracketing mode is ok but to be honest I use HDR more than any thing.
 

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