Color grading is commonly known as “color correction,” but I prefer the more British term “grading” since “correction” implies a coloris...
Color grading is commonly known as “color correction,” but I prefer the more British term
“grading” since “correction” implies a colorist’s job is to fix mistakes, when it’s really much
more creative than that. In fact, the line between cinematographer and colorist is increasingly
blurring, and today you can’t be great at one job if you don’t have a good understanding of
the other.
Since this is a “cinematography” guide, I won’t go too deep into grading other than to say
that you should absolutely have a project-specific aesthetic in mind before you shoot, as
opposed to figuring it out once the footage is already in your NLE.
As for how to grade, Stu Maschwitz has made a terrific tutorial
demystifying color correction using his own software Magic Bullet
Looks and Colorista, collectively part of the Magic Bullet Suite (of
which I’m a user). The techniques presented in the tutorial apply
to any three-way color correction tool (such as those included in
Final Cut and Premiere Pro, the incredibly deep but frustrating
Apple Color, or the oft-overlooked Color Finesse plugin that ships
with After Effects). Here’s the tutorial, which focuses on “summer
blockbuster” looks:
Deft use of digital color grading, in conjunction with a DSLR’s shallow depth-of-field
images, can make for amazing images at incredibly low prices points.
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