Colour Corrections From Video to Stills
Good fortune today, I happened across the blog of Stu Maschwitz, a visual effects guy and one of many commentators on DSLR video work. What fascinated me is his many posts about colour correcting for video/movies - all of which also applies to still images of course. I'm a bit of a geek for information about the human visual system too, so fell into this discussion through this post:
http://prolost.com/blog/2010/2/15/memory-colors.html
Well worth a look for the brief content on colour palettes. He also touches on the idea that movies often use colour palettes that are strong on orange/yellow fleshtones and green/blue for everything else. This post, while chiefly an advert for his software-related activities, has an excellent video on the subject:
http://prolost.com/blog/2009/6/23/got-me-a-side-job.html
The advert at the start is worth watching for the different styles of effect, then sit through the over-long intro, then suddenly you're in a very long discussion and technique demo for achieving these big-film colourisations. It's actually quite fascinating when you realise all these films are broadly similar and quite simple. He demos using a few different apps on a video stream but all the technique applies to Photoshop and largely also to Adobe Camera Raw (and thus Lightroom, PaintShopPro, ...).
The video is one of the more useful demos I've seen for a while. Many years ago, someone did a portfolio critique for me and said to the effect of, "It looks like you're just trying to take pictures of what's there." I didn't understand that for quite a while and it's only recently I've realised how to make a move to fix it. Stu's blog has really helped my understanding too. (Though I don't want to use "hollywood colour" on all my images. :) )
It's interesting to pick out films that use colour for more detailed meanings. e.g. "Sixth Sense" - whenever something ghostly happens, there's red on the screen.* Then in "The Matrix", all the scenes in the matrix itself have a green tint, whereas the real world is a more natural, neutral tone.
Lots to think about here. I'll end up with some other colour-related links from Stu's blog:
Colour correcting 7D video footage (and by implication, stills):
http://prolost.com/blog/2010/1/26/color-correcting-canon-7d-footage.html
Quick example of the Hollywood colour:
http://prolost.com/blog/2009/9/2/what-is-mojo.html
A short film made by someone else, with some nice before/after post-process images:
http://prolost.com/blog/2008/7/16/go-naked-pt-2.html
* Surely that can't be a spoiler any more?
http://prolost.com/blog/2010/2/15/memory-colors.html
Well worth a look for the brief content on colour palettes. He also touches on the idea that movies often use colour palettes that are strong on orange/yellow fleshtones and green/blue for everything else. This post, while chiefly an advert for his software-related activities, has an excellent video on the subject:
http://prolost.com/blog/2009/6/23/got-me-a-side-job.html
The advert at the start is worth watching for the different styles of effect, then sit through the over-long intro, then suddenly you're in a very long discussion and technique demo for achieving these big-film colourisations. It's actually quite fascinating when you realise all these films are broadly similar and quite simple. He demos using a few different apps on a video stream but all the technique applies to Photoshop and largely also to Adobe Camera Raw (and thus Lightroom, PaintShopPro, ...).
The video is one of the more useful demos I've seen for a while. Many years ago, someone did a portfolio critique for me and said to the effect of, "It looks like you're just trying to take pictures of what's there." I didn't understand that for quite a while and it's only recently I've realised how to make a move to fix it. Stu's blog has really helped my understanding too. (Though I don't want to use "hollywood colour" on all my images. :) )
It's interesting to pick out films that use colour for more detailed meanings. e.g. "Sixth Sense" - whenever something ghostly happens, there's red on the screen.* Then in "The Matrix", all the scenes in the matrix itself have a green tint, whereas the real world is a more natural, neutral tone.
Lots to think about here. I'll end up with some other colour-related links from Stu's blog:
Colour correcting 7D video footage (and by implication, stills):
http://prolost.com/blog/2010/1/26/color-correcting-canon-7d-footage.html
Quick example of the Hollywood colour:
http://prolost.com/blog/2009/9/2/what-is-mojo.html
A short film made by someone else, with some nice before/after post-process images:
http://prolost.com/blog/2008/7/16/go-naked-pt-2.html
* Surely that can't be a spoiler any more?