Color Grading

Tyrone Rose · April 4, 2018

Hello fellow filmmakers!

I have been editing in premier and color grading in davinci resolve. Ive actually enjoyed the process more than I thought I would but am curious how to achieve certain moods and tonws.

I love the memory type of colors we get in call me by your name during the grass scene how might I achieve that?

Overall the film has a very blue tone so how might you suggest I grade more romantic scenes, sad scenes, neutral scenes?

Lastly, I have had trouble transferring slow motion from premier to resolve any advice?

Thanks so much!

Tyrone

Max Field · April 4, 2018

Could you link to an image of what you're talking about?

Not sure how far along you are, but a misconception people can have early on is that the colors on the final product were via computer grading when it was actually the physical lighting choices in production design.

Tyrone Rose · April 4, 2018

I know that there is a lot of natural lighting but this is definitely done in post.

Memory-like/love tone:

&

Sadder tone:

&

Could you link to an image of what you're talking about?

Not sure how far along you are, but a misconception people can have early on is that the colors on the final product were via computer grading when it was actually the physical lighting choices in production design.

Max Field · April 4, 2018

I skimmed through the first scene and it appears they liked to curve the highlights pretty high, shadows aren't very punchy. Lot of emphasis on green, with a warm focus overall. Blue and purple seem to be the most de-saturated hues. Darker tones in the light range feel like they have more saturation than any other point of the picture.

But I'm probably an idiot so don't listen to what I say.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Macks Fiiod

Bruce Greene · April 5, 2018

I don't think without watching your film, anyone can answer your question. Sorry to say, either you have the skills of a colorist, or ... you don't have them yet. You can spend a lot of time learning on your film, which is not a bad idea, or you can go to a professional and skilled colorist.

If your film has not been photographed and art directed in the style of "Call me", you may have a difficult time to make it look like it. But, there's really no good reason to copy another film anyway. You will want what works best with your material.

So, if you're not on a tight deadline, welcome to colorist school! Good luck :)

Tyrone Rose · April 5, 2018

I

I don't think without watching your film, anyone can answer your question. Sorry to say, either you have the skills of a colorist, or ... you don't have them yet. You can spend a lot of time learning on your film, which is not a bad idea, or you can go to a professional and skilled colorist.

If your film has not been photographed and art directed in the style of "Call me", you may have a difficult time to make it look like it. But, there's really no good reason to copy another film anyway. You will want what works best with your material.

So, if you're not on a tight deadline, welcome to colorist school! Good luck :)

The whole idea is to learn which is why I am asking here, I don't think that was the most constructive feedback. I am aware of "hiring" a professional colorist and I am not trying to give my film that entire look I am interested in HOW it was achieved. My film has more melancholy tone so I was asking for color theory suggestions, I should have been more clear. If you shoot pretty neutral/flat you can really manipulate anything.

Robin R Probyn · April 5, 2018

There is no way you will learn to be a colorist /grader from this forum.. TBH.. I think your better bet is to go on a course.. online course.. Resolve workshop etc.. or find a colorist locally who can show you the ropes..

Tyrone Rose · April 5, 2018

This is constructive do you have any references for online course or videos?

There is no way you will learn to be a colorist /grader from this forum.. TBH.. I think your better bet is to go on a course.. online course.. Resolve workshop etc.. or find a colorist locally who can show you the ropes..

Bruce Greene · April 5, 2018

I

The whole idea is to learn which is why I am asking here, I don't think that was the most constructive feedback. I am aware of "hiring" a professional colorist and I am not trying to give my film that entire look I am interested in HOW it was achieved. My film has more melancholy tone so I was asking for color theory suggestions, I should have been more clear. If you shoot pretty neutral/flat you can really manipulate anything.

I was trying to be encouraging for you to learn color correction :)

I would however strongly disagree with your idea that a neutral/flat photographic style can be manipulated into any look you choose. If this were true, we cinematographers would not sweat so much about the lighting and exposure on the set!.

Sorry to not have a simple answer for you. Your questions are far too complex for a forum. I would suggest, that if you are not already a Photoshop expert, that you learn color correction there first, then migrate that knowledge to Davinci Resolve or other color grading software. It took me a good year or more of learning Photoshop before I ever tried color correcting and matching shots in a movie. After color correcting at least five feature films, I still only know about 85% of Davinci Resolve software :)

Robin R Probyn · April 5, 2018

This is constructive do you have any references for online course or videos?

Sorry I dont.. Im only a DP like most people on this forum.. Im sure there are forums for Resolve (seems to be the go to platform these days) or "colorists" in general.. your in a big city so there must also be post production companies there.. maybe just drop them an email and ask the same question.. I know there are courses for Resolve on line.. maybe contact them directly too..?

PS I think you have misinterpreted Bruces post.. I didnt see it as being negative in any way.. :)

Bruce Greene · April 5, 2018

Sorry I dont.. Im only a DP like most people on this forum.. Im sure there are forums for Resolve (seems to be the go to platform these days) or "colorists" in general.. your in a big city so there must also be post production companies there.. maybe just drop them an email and ask the same question.. I know there are courses for Resolve on line.. maybe contact them directly too..?

PS I think you have misinterpreted Bruces post.. I didnt see it as being negative in any way.. :)

Part of the reason I mentioned photoshop in my post is that there are many many books available for Photoshop. Less so for color grading. I know I started with a really big photoshop book years ago. In fact, even before you approach a colorist as a mentor, or even take a course in Davinci Resolve, I would learn Photoshop first so that you can make the most our of your study about color correction in movies. I know I must sound crazy suggesting learning a software as deep as Photoshop first, but I think it's the best idea. And you can apply what you learn quickly to the color controls in Premiere if that's what you're editing with.

Tyrone Rose · April 5, 2018

Thank you Bruce! I will take youe adviceI have been using photoshop for quiet some time and feel pretty confident in it enough tk retouch and color okd photos I guess I’m not as confident in trusting my gut about emotion since it can be interpreted so differently depending on the viewer. If you have any reference text/textbook/online course etc; I’d love to learn more about color theory and this is mostly a DP forum you are right maybe I should check out Resolve. As a DP yourself how might YOU go about achieving some of those looks on site? (Out of curiousity)

I was trying to be encouraging for you to learn color correction :)

I would however strongly disagree with your idea that a neutral/flat photographic style can be manipulated into any look you choose. If this were true, we cinematographers would not sweat so much about the lighting and exposure on the set!.

Sorry to not have a simple answer for you. Your questions are far too complex for a forum. I would suggest, that if you are not already a Photoshop expert, that you learn color correction there first, then migrate that knowledge to Davinci Resolve or other color grading software. It took me a good year or more of learning Photoshop before I ever tried color correcting and matching shots in a movie. After color correcting at least five feature films, I still only know about 85% of Davinci Resolve software :)

Bruce Greene · April 5, 2018

Thank you Bruce! I will take youe adviceI have been using photoshop for quiet some time and feel pretty confident in it enough tk retouch and color okd photos I guess I’m not as confident in trusting my gut about emotion since it can be interpreted so differently depending on the viewer. If you have any reference text/textbook/online course etc; I’d love to learn more about color theory and this is mostly a DP forum you are right maybe I should check out Resolve. As a DP yourself how might YOU go about achieving some of those looks on site? (Out of curiousity)

Here's my suggestion Tyrone: Open an image in Photoshop or Resolve if you'd like and color correct it to "normal". Use adjustment layers in Photoshop, or separate nodes in Resolve for each action when you do this.

Then, start playing with the curves controls, and adjusting the separate Red, Green, and Blue curves, perhaps in strange ways. In other words, mess up the shadow colors separately from the highlights etc. Use the opacity control for the adjustment layer to fade the effect in and out to taste as well. In Resolve this means playing with the Key control for the node you're working on.

When you're done with the color curves, add a Saturation adjustment layer. Start with the overall saturation, then on an additional saturation adjustment layer start selecting particular color ranges and play with the saturation and hue adjustments. Use the opacity control to fade these adjustments in and out to see the effect and apply just the right amount of the effect. In Resolve there are special curve controls for this.

Now, you've created a non-standard look to the image, but really think about the tone of shadows vs highlights and the intensity and hue of the colors. Save your correction as a power grade, or maybe LUT in resolve, or in Photoshop, save the adjustment layers in a group so that you can apply these corrections to another image.

When you're satisfied with one image, open another, and apply this correction to a normalized image and see how it works to created a consistent "look" that you can apply to your full project. I think you'll find that you need to adjust these "look" corrections to each image to create the impression of consistency.

Basically, that's the idea!