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Post #1114751

Author
thorr
Parent topic
Color correction methodologies
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1114751/action/topic#1114751
Date created
4-Oct-2017, 6:43 PM

There a lot of threads about color correcting, so hopefully it is ok that I start a new one. 😉 The purpose of this thread is to discuss color correction techniques that can be used by the average person. I feel like I am getting better at doing my own color correction, but I am still a complete novice.

One simple method that I like to use is looking at the individual levels of R, G and B. If they are not crushed at either the low or high end, then in Photoshop or After Effects, you can drag the left and right slider to where the slope just starts going up on each end for each color channel. After doing this, the color looks pretty close to correct most of the time especially in outdoor scenes. Whites are white, etc. However, if any of the channels are crushed, then for those channels, you need to adjust the middle slider to eyeball it and usually you need to do this for the other channels as well. After getting the individual color sliders where they need to be, I then go to the combined RGB sliders and adjust the middle one to get the gamma where I want it. Overall, this method works for me most of the time and it is sort of an automatic color adjustment method without needing to know what color each thing in the scene is supposed to be. If it is too red then I adjust the red channel gamma, etc.

Are there any other methods that you use with tools like Photoshop or After Effects to correct the color sort of automatically (without using the Auto-color tool)?

Also, how about in general where, for example, you want the sky to look a perfect blue, but not affect the ground too much without setting up masks to adjust just the sky? Or, the perfect skin color, etc? Do you use the white balance tools in Photoshop to correct the whole frame based on known white, black and gray points?

Thanks,
Mike