Last one for today....
second one... last one... I promise. No more coffee. Ahoj. This is Zdenka.
One of the most frequently asked question I receive and I receive it
quite often is this one. I have the same camera I like you, I have the same lens
like you, I have the same video settings but still my video doesn't look
cinematic like yours. What am I doing wrong?
Well, my color grading takes literally five minutes. I came up with this you can
say easy cinematic color grading trick which obviously I'm gonna share with you
in this video.
And if you are new here welcome. My name is Zdenka Darula. If you want to learn how
to take better photos and videos with the latest gear and possibly participate
in creative camera challenges, consider subscribing. The camera I use is Canon
M50 which is filming right now and I just use the kit lens15 to 45
millimeters. The color profile I have selected on the camera is standard, just
a default standard. I use standard most of the time, I very rarely shoot log.
Well, I actually never shoot in log. I always shoot in standard because I have
very little time. My schedule is very hectic and I want to minimize my editing
time to absolute minimum so that's why I shoot in standard and I just do very
minor tweaks in the post to get my footage look that way. Video editing
program I use is Adobe Premiere Pro and there are literally two steps I make to
get my videos look like as you call it cinematic and soft, so let me go ahead
and open up the program and I'll show you step by step what I actually do here.
I imported a clip which I want to color grade. So now I need to go to color and
look at the Lumetri color panel which is very similar to Lightroom for
photography. Here I look at the basic correction. I usually check the exposure,
in this case it is lit up properly, it is exposed properly so I'm not gonna do
anything with it. Then I check the highlights and I don't see that it will
be too hot so I don't need to move that. Shadows I might move tiny bit to the
right and that's about it. I also look at the white balance if I need to adjust
anything. So with the temperature I usually go tiny tiny bit to the right just to make
the skin look a little bit more natural, warmer. Tint, I rarely touch depending
what I am wearing. If I want to make it a little bit more purple or green. But very
minor changes here. Next I go to color wheels and match. In shadows I usually
pull a little bit to blue tones a little bit to coolers that
I like myself. So right about here, a very minor change and then midtones. I usually
move a little bit more to the orange and reds. This gives me a little bit bigger
contrast, right here. Very rarely I move highlights maybe tiny bit to the
orange but very rarely... and here I play with it until I'm pretty happy with the
result. Sometimes, depending on what I am wearing and the background behind me, I
play sometimes with the colors to see if I can come up with something different.
Once I'm done with color wheels and match, I go back to basic correction to make
sure that the temperature and tint is what I still like to see. I sometimes
again play with it and pull it to the orange or to the blues. I think it's good,
pretty much here and sometimes I pull the tint more to the purple. Right. I
mainly look at the skin tone making sure that the skin looks kind of real. And
when I am done with this, I just save it as a LUT because next time I'm gonna be
filming something like this, very the same clothes or even having a very
similar background, I don't have to do it all over again. And those presets I also
upload to my Patreon page for those interested. For only two dollars a month
you get access to all of them. So all you have to do is to make sure
that your video kind of looks color wise and light wise similar to mine. Then
apply the preset, might tweak tiny bit and you're set. Let's actually go from
color to editing and here I pull out effect which is called lighting effect.
Drag it on the clip. Here is where I will make my video look soft. So let's close
the Lumetri color and look at the lighting effect. Under light one I'm
gonna change the spotlight from spotlight to Omni. Here I'm gonna be
playing with few things. First I'm gonna look at the major radius because right
now I'm very strongly lit here but the background here is quite dark and I know
that if I'm gonna make it darker, my arms will look very dark because the spot
light is really.... the Omni light is really just on my face. So I want to make it a
little bit bigger and I'm probably gonna go all the way usually to about 66
to make sure that even my arms everything else will be lit up. Next
thing I'm gonna go to intensity because it is very strong. I'm just gonna make it
a little bit softer, so I'll pull it to the left like this and then I check if
my arms are still good.
Right here is about right. From intensity I usually go to ambience intensity and
turn it down tiny bit to make sure there are no hot spots on me, on the sweater or
on the skin. The very last step I go to surface material. That one will actually
make my footage look soft. So when I go to all the way to hundred percent this
is the original footage, this is how it looks like, very contrasty and I'm going
to pull it a little bit to the left to soften it. If you would go a little bit
too much it's just kind of washed out and here it is again very strong. I usually
pull it back a little bit to about 75. Then I go back to major radius and I
play with it again to make sure that this is what I want to see. I want to see
myself light up and I want to see the background kind of dark.
I like the vignetting because that way I stand out in the video a little bit more.
So again if I increase it and it's a little bit too much of light, let me go
look back. OK that could be, that could be right. Something like this. That can
actually work. So here's before before I did any color editing in lumetri color
and any lighting effect and this is after with everything.
And again, let me show original footage and just with edded lumetri color and now
added lighting effect. Here you go. This editing style, technique as you
can call it I purely figure out on my own. I didn't watch any tutorials on
Adobe Premiere Pro, I literally was playing with the Adobe Premiere Pro
software so what I can do there and came up with this. I tend to not follow what
is really right or the style and that's how I was over the years with
photography as well. I just edit the photos the way I like, the way I feel is
right and that's why some of my photos actually don't look like the typical
North American style. They always say I'm kind of somewhere between Europe and
North America. And I show it to as many people as possible to get the feedback. I
wait and I see if they like it. If they like it great, if they don't, I tweak
something. I change something a bit and that is what it is all about. You should
find your own unique style. And just a very quick update about the creative
camera challenge. New one is coming up very soon in a few days actually. I've
posted a question on a facebook creative camera challenge group what you would
like to create, what would you like to see in the next round? you've posted some
amazing responses. I loved the fact that we can work as a team together so you
guys are happy with your creative camera challenges and me as well, I have fun with it too.
So, new one is coming up very soon. Hit the thumbs up button if you liked
today's video, subscribe for more. Let me know in a comment section below what are
you currently working on? What are you trying to master, to achieve, to learn
when it comes to photography and the video. This actually helps me to create
future videos. Or if you have any questions, comments or simply want to say
hello, you can do so there as well and I will see all of you my friends in the
next video. Cau... Ahoj...