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how do I get good color like this?

hardhatmac

hardhatmac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2006
167
11
Utah
So I was at the apple store in SLC the other day and I opened FCP and the project that loaded had before and after footage that I grabbed some stills of.


This first still is the raw image:

zxz1.jpg


as you can see it's plain, average looking footage.


this next image is what they turned it into:

zzz3copy.jpg


The colors are rich, there's almost some kind of vignette...all around it just looks better....

how can I accomplish this using Final Cut Studio (the first studio...NOT #2)

I first thought to boost contrast and saturation...but that didn't do it.





any idea's?


thanks for your help!



ps. I shoot with the HVX200
 
Probably used color (the app) to get those results if it was a demo at an apple store. I really don't like the built in color correction tools in FCP, but if you have the skills I bet you could get close to those results with FCS1, or else upgrade to FCS2, color and motion 3 are enough to warrant the upgrade.

Of course to get good color results you need footage with good color sampling, and since you use a HVX200 you should be fine.
 
Laslo Panaflex said:
Probably used color (the app) to get those results if it was a demo at an apple store.
Click to expand...


Yea they did use the app color....I didn't say that because I was hoping people would give me a FCS1 way of doing it...

I plan on upgrading....but for now I would like to do this with FCS1...

possible or no?
 
That is the demo footage used in Colour is it not? I have no idea how or even if you could do that in Final Cut Pro 5. Colour is the only reason I am looking to buy Final Cut Studio 2.
 
with the toolset in FCP5, I would say it is a no go unless you add in something like Colorista, Final Touch HD (which became Color), Shake, or AfterEffects...
 
Its the same footage I saw at NAB. The folks there could pop something like that out in a matter of seconds. I, however, have no idea. I haven't had much time to work with Color as of yet.
 
You can definitely do that in Color, though I have no idea how to use that app lol.
 
Looks to me like you could obtain a similar effect by making a gradient in Photoshop that starts black, goes to blue, gets orange at the bottom, and approaches black at the bottom edge, then overlay it using multiply or overlay blending modes. Then the other thing they did was make the bike redder, so use a three-way color corrector and limit it to the reds, crank up the saturation and adjust the levels.

Or get Color. :D
 
The "gradient" is a feathered vignette. You can do those in Colorista as well as Color, but not in the FCP 3-way.

They've crushed the blacks quite a bit, and there's at least one secondary in there to push the reds on the bike right up. The mids have been pushed towards red/orange (see how the road goes from blue to brown).

The best example in all of this is how "flat" and low contrast the original shot is. This is just what you need to give you the latitude to do this kind of thing.

If you like this kind of look, think seriously about upgrading or buying Colorista. Both produce much nicer results than the old 3-way, much quicker.
 
Aw, you guys give up too easily! :)

I decided to try and work this out tonight with Final Cut Express HD...

The goal:

zzz3copy.jpg


My attempt:

FCE-attempt.jpg


Took me about a half hour since I'm more than a little rusty. I used the following filters, all of them free or included with FCE:

* Patrick Sheffield's absolutely Wonderful "Three Strip Technicolor", to get things started in the right direction
* Levels (Final Cut) on the Blue Channel input down 50% ( this could have easily been achieved another way but I was lazy )
* 1st color corrector to isolate blacks ( limit on chroma only )
* 2nd color corrector to isolate the blue sky ( limit on chroma and luma ) and dial up the saturation
* 3rd color corrector to isolate the red on the bike ( limit on chroma and luma )
* Marcus Herrick's free Vignette filter with dark blue at the top of the frame, wide soft radius
* Marcus' Vignette filter again with brown to accentuate the road

Done.

The colors aren't spot on by any means, and since I didn't have the actual source to work with, there's definitely some loss elsewhere, which causes for instance some anomalies when working with the red on the bike.

Keep in mind, I did this with Final Cut EXPRESS, so I don't even have the luxury of the 3 way visual color corrector. ( that would have been nice! )

For the really curious, I'm including a link below of a video of me illustrating the application of the filters, the chroma limits etc ... I tried at first to dial them in on the fliy, but that is a pain in the neck to try and record! )

It's only 1.6MB but the resolution is full sized so you can read the settings on the filter ( 1280x1024 )

http://web.omnidrive.com/APIServer/public/MRNpsqHgVD8yca87wbiaMUG7%2Fmoto-264.mov

I hope this inspires you to experiment and learn what kind of power you really have if you get creative even with inexpensive tools like Final Cut Express.
 
^^^^ wow, I am impressed...


I was about to go out and buy color.....I'll check out your video and give it a shot myself...

thanks for the help!
 
hardhatmac said:
^^^^ wow, I am impressed...


I was about to go out and buy color.....I'll check out your video and give it a shot myself...

thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Why thank you. You are very kind. I am not a professional, merely a hobbiest, so I've had to make the best of FCE on my limited budget! :)

The plugins I reference should all work on FCP/FCS BTW if you google for them, try them out.

Also, remember that the Vignette filters aren't going to track easily. This is one area where supposedly Color is far superior.

My method takes some trial and error to get good at isolating colors ( via chroma and luma limits ). This is presumably where Color will save you alot of time and energy, but if you're on a budget and have the time, this will hopefully serve you well.
 
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