Color Correction Look Book: Creative Grading Techniques for Film and Video

Book description

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!

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Introduction
    1. Special Thanks
  6. A Note About Image Fidelity
  7. A Note About the Downloadable Content
  8. Chapter 1. Working with Looks
    1. Developing a Project-Specific Color Vocabulary
    2. Splitting the Difference
    3. Managing Style Separately
    4. Saving a Library of Looks
    5. Protecting Skin Tones from Excessive Adjustments
  9. Chapter 2. Bleach Bypass Looks
    1. Simulating the Look
  10. Chapter 3. Blue-Green Swap
  11. Chapter 4. Blurred and Colored Vignettes
  12. Chapter 5. Cross-Processing Simulation
    1. Achieving the Cross-Processing Effect Using Curves
    2. Tips for Cross-Processed Looks
  13. Chapter 6. Day-for-Night Treatments
    1. The Look of Actual Night
    2. Creating an Exterior Day-for-Night Look
    3. An Interior Day-for-Night Look
    4. The Classic “Blue” Day-for-Night Look
    5. The Look of Underexposed Video
  14. Chapter 7. Duotones and Tritones
    1. Creating Duotones Using Color Balancing
    2. Creating Tritones Using HSL Qualification
  15. Chapter 8. Emulating Film Stocks
    1. Print Emulation LUTs
    2. Faking Film Emulation
  16. Chapter 9. Film Looks Other Than Grading
    1. Frame Rate and Shutter Speed
    2. Interlaced vs. Progressive
    3. Depth of Field
  17. Chapter 10. Flat Looks and Film Flashing
    1. Film Flashing
    2. Building Flat Looks
  18. Chapter 11. Flattened Cartoon Color
  19. Chapter 12. Glows, Blooms, and Gauze Looks
    1. Creating Glows Using HSL Qualification
    2. Creating Glows Using Matte Extraction
    3. Multilevel Glows
    4. Creating Glows Using Plug-Ins
    5. Aggressive Glows and Broadcast Safe
    6. Creating Gauzy Glows Using Superimposed Clips
  20. Chapter 13. Grain, Noise, and Texture
    1. What Is Digital Noise?
    2. What Is Film Grain?
    3. When Adding Grain and Noise Can Help
    4. Simulating Film Grain
    5. Compositing Actual Film Grain
    6. Composite Modes for Adding Grain
    7. Adding Texture to an Image
    8. Adding Texture and Grain Using Plug-Ins
  21. Chapter 14. Greenscreen Compositing Grading Workflows
    1. Pregrading Greenscreen Dailies
    2. Postgrading Final Composites
  22. Chapter 15. Lens Flaring and Veiling Glare
    1. Types of Flaring
    2. Adding Flaring Using Plug-Ins
    3. Faking Flaring Using Windows/Shapes
    4. Minimizing Flaring
  23. Chapter 16. Light Leaks and Color Bleeds
    1. Lighter “Diana Camera” Looks
    2. Heavier “Holga Camera” Looks
    3. Adding Light Leaks Using Composite Modes and Stock Clips
  24. Chapter 17. Monitor and Screen Glow
    1. Creating Monitor Glow
  25. Chapter 18. Monochrome Looks
    1. Simple Desaturation
    2. Manipulation of Black-and-White Photography
    3. Custom Monochrome Using a Channel or RGB Mixer
    4. Custom Monochrome Using Layered Operations
    5. Different Custom Monochrome Effects
  26. Chapter 19. Sharpening
    1. Sharpening to Add Grit
    2. Sharpen to Fix Soft Focus
    3. Sharpening in DaVinci Resolve
    4. Sharpening in Assimilate Scratch
    5. Sharpening in FilmLight Baselight
    6. Sharpening in Adobe SpeedGrade
  27. Chapter 20. Tints and Color Washes
    1. How Do Chromatic Lens Filters Work?
    2. Tinting and Toning for Film
    3. Artificial Tints and Color Washes
    4. Tinting with Composite Modes
    5. Creating a Color Matte for Tinting If Your Application Doesn’t Have One
  28. Chapter 21. Undertones
    1. Undertones Through Careful Grading
    2. Specific Undertones Using Curves
    3. Specific Undertones Using Log Controls or Five- and Nine-Way Color Controls
    4. Specific Undertones Using HSL Qualification
  29. Chapter 22. Vibrance and Targeted Saturation
    1. Vibrance
    2. Targeting High Saturation
  30. Chapter 23. Vintage Film
    1. Method 1: Faded Color
    2. Method 2: Distressed Dyes
    3. Method 3: Dramatic Black and White
    4. Method 4: Tinted Black-and-White Film Treatments
    5. In Conclusion
  31. Index

Product information

  • Title: Color Correction Look Book: Creative Grading Techniques for Film and Video
  • Author(s): Alexis Van Hurkman
  • Release date: December 2013
  • Publisher(s): Peachpit Press
  • ISBN: 9780133818482