Color Correction Look Book

The digital colorist’s job is no longer to simply balance, fix, and optimize. Today’s filmmakers often want to recreate the idiosyncrasies of older recording methods, or are looking for something completely new, to differentiate the look of a given project. Furthermore, end-to-end digital shooting, postproduction, and distribution means that stylizations and effects once created by the film lab are no longer photochemically available. The color grading suite has become the lab, and these sorts of stylizations are now part of the colorist’s job description. In this follow-up volume to the bestseller Color Correction Handbook, Alexis Van Hurkman walks you through twenty-one categories of creative grading techniques, designed to give you an arsenal of stylizations you can pull out of your hat when the client asks for something special, unexpected, and unique. Each chapter presents an in-depth examination and step-by-step, cross-platform breakdown of stylistic techniques used in music videos, commercial spots, and cinema. These customizable techniques can be mixed and matched for your own unique effects and include: • bleach bypass looks • cross-processing simulation • day-for-night treatments • emulating film stocks • flat looks • glows, blooms, and gauze looks • grain, noise, and texture • greenscreen compositing workflows • lens flaring and veiling glare • light leaks and color bleeds • monitor and screen glow • monochrome looks • sharpening • tints and color washes • undertones • vibrance and targeted saturation • and many more!

The colorist is responsible for the critical final stage of refinement of the film and broadcast image. Using all of the controls modern color correction software provides, colorists refine the mood, create style, add polish to scenes, and breathe life into the visuals. The craft of color correction can take considerable trial and error to learn, while the art of color grading takes years to perfect. Alexis Van Hurkman draws on his wealth of industry experience to provide a thoroughly updated edition of what has become the standard guide to color correction. Using a friendly, clear teaching style and a slew of real-world examples and anecdotes, Alexis demonstrates how to achieve professional results for any project, using any number of dedicated grading applications, or even an editing program’s built-in color correction tools. From the most basic methods for evaluating and correcting an overall image to the most advanced targeted corrections and creative stylizations, Color Correction Handbook, Second Edition, is your one-stop guide. Among many valuable concepts and techniques, you’ll learn to: • Set up a professional color correction environment using the latest technologies and adhere to the most up-to-date standards • Work with log-encoded media and LUTs • Analyze shots quickly and correct errors of color and exposure • Create idealized adjustments for key features such as skin tone, skies, and product shots • Develop strategies for balancing clips in a scene to match one another for continuity, and grading greenscreen clips destined for visual effects • Master a variety of stylistic techniques used to set a scene’s mood • Apply principles of color and contrast to add depth and visual interest • Browse valuable research about memory colors, audience preferences, and critical corrections for achieving appealing skin tones and controlled environments • Follow along with the downloadable files that accompany this book, including HD footage, cross-platform exercises, and project files.

Written both for students and working professionals, this book walks readers step-by-step through the foundations of color grading for projects of any size, from music videos and commercials to full-length features. In this clear, practical, and software-agnostic guide, author Charles Haine introduces readers to the technical and artistic side of color grading and color correction. Color Grading 101 balances technical chapters like color-matching, mastering, and compression with artistic chapters like contrast/affinity, aesthetic trends, and building a color plan. The book also includes more business-focused chapters detailing best practices and expert advice on working with clients, managing a team, working with VFX, and building a business. An accompanying eResource offers downloadable footage and project files to help readers work through the exercises and examples in the book. This book serves as a perfect introduction for aspiring colorists as well as editors, cinematographers, and directors looking to familiarize themselves with the color grading process.

Provides direct access to the skills, insights and techniques of some of the postproduction industry's most prominent digital video colorists, delivering practical skills to the postproduction pro seeking to improve their color grading craft. The author interviews and observes 8 professional colorists as they grade a series of real world video images, describing the methods and techniques each artist uses to reach their finalized image. These video images are included on a DVD that allows you to work lockstep with each artist as they grade their images. Though some tools provided may differ from one product to the next, the basic process of video color correction (grading) remains the same. Application agnostic and sure to inspire, The Art of Digital Video Color Correction will further your artistic skills, whether you're an editor, compositor, or colorist, and allow you to apply those skills to the grading process, making your finished image sharper, crisper and more aesthetically pleasing in general.

Use color to improve your storytelling, deliver critical emotional cues, and add impact to you videos. This book shows you how to analyze color correction problems and solve them- whatever NLE or plugin you use. Experienced editors and colorists in their own right, the authors also include the wisdom of top colorists, directors of photography, and color scientists to deliver this insightful and authoritative presentation of the theory and practice of color correction. The book provides technical insight into how to effectively color correct your video, also delving into how color can impact storytelling and deliver critical emotional cues. The new edition also includes 2 new "Quickstart Tutorials", a new chapter on how color impacts storytelling, information on the impact HD has had on the correcting process, and updated application specifications. The downloadable resources feature new and more robust tutorial media.

Look inside for these features: clear and concise explanations show how to prioritize color-correction options, from simple to difficult, and from the least to most likely to succeed; solid framework for understanding digital imaging explains how to measure color proofing and printing to evaluate compliance with industry and in-house standards; before-and-after images show how flaws in images can be corrected; step-by-step strategies for efficient image correction help readers make sense of the many numbers involved in working with digital images; and a companion CD features sample images, color control elements not available anywhere else, and unique exercises designed to deliver a solid understanding of the color process."--BOOK JACKET.

Professional Photoshop 7 not only covers color correcting for press, but also reflects the changing needs of readers by addressing issues such as outputting to color printers and high-volume copiers. The author teaches color correction with Photoshop by demystifying classic skills-analyzing images, understanding colorspaces, working with numerical color curves, using the Unsharp Mask filter. Covers new Photoshop 7. This edition includes three completely new chapters on previously unpublished techniques for correcting color. ABOUT THE CD-ROM Includes original images from the book, bonus instructional materials, Adobe Acrobat Reader for Windows and Macintosh. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.