in this tutorial you will learn how to
transform a very boring and dull shot
and do something more cinematic like
this! We're going to take a look at three
stages, first of all we're going to start
with some basic color Corrections and
take a look at what contrast actually is
then have a look at color theory and how
we can do grading and finally we'll have
a look at some more advanced techniques
like masking and blending to really make
the difference so let's get started
Oh
what's up guys it's Jordy here for cinecom
dot net and let's just dive right into
it because as you can see it's a little
long tutorial and that's because it
exists at a three parts like you've
heard me saying in the beginning so
we've got your original shots right here
in the timeline the very first thing
that we want to do is add contrast to it
this here was shot very flat as you can
see for those who wonder it was shot and
a gh4 in the V lock profile now what you
want to do to create that cinematic look
is always make sure that you are
shooting as flat as possible because you
want to avoid having over or
underexposed spots in your shot at any
time and with that I mean that for
example your camera scarf you want to
make sure that that is exposed well that
this is not over exposed but also here
her coat that these darker parts over
here are not under exposed and that's
what really makes that film look so in
other words if your shot wasn't exposed
correctly then it's very hard to get
that cinematic look so this shot here is
perfect so let's start with the contrast
of this shot I'm going to open up the
lumetri color panel here on the
right side you can't see that you can
always head over to window here on top
and just select lumetri and it
should be somewhere right here click on
that and that will open up this panel
that gives you several options to do the
color Corrections and we're going to
start with basic color correction as you
can see right here you've got to be
contrast slider but there are a lot more
tools like the highlights shadows whites
and blacks and all these controls right
here are going to help you with setting
that contrast there is a very big
difference between contrast and
cinematic contrast now to explain that
I'm going to go to this image right here
first and this will allow me to explain
these controls here a bit further as you
can see we've gotten highlights slider
we've got a white slider now we've got a
shadows and a black slider now all of
these are different you might think all
the highlights and a whites aren't that
the same well not exactly and I could
visually show you exactly what they do
by opening up lumetri scopes again
this window can be found from your
window menu you're on top lumetri
scopes for right here now you want to
make sure that you are and you wave form
view you can change to that from this
little icon here this little tool by
clicking on that and then just select
waveform RGB
be now I'm not going to go too deep into
this that's a different story we're just
going to color great without these
scopes for now but basically what this
represents is how much exposed each part
is in your shot and you can clearly see
all of these steps right here that come
back in this image over here so that
means the white area is your on top
which is at one-hundred percent in any
black area is all the way you're on the
right site which is at zero percent and
everything else sits in between so that
means if I'm going to increase for
example the exposure of this shot you
will see that all of these steps also
increase an exposure and if I will lower
that the other thing will happen of
course and by the way always double
click on any of these controls to reset
that value let me show you the
difference between the shadows and the
blacks the shadows work a bit more
underneath the blacks and it will
usually also take a lot more of the
middle tones which lay here around these
fifty percent if I'm going to increase
that shadow slider or just move it up
and down you will see that these three
spots are going up and down as well as
this spot over here which represents
already the second rectangle here so the
shadows are going to work more here on
this area as I'm moving this up and down
now let's see what happens when I'm
going to move the blacks up and down you
will see that the more darker spots are
affected now and the one here on top the
more brighter spots a lot less so the
blacks are going to work more here in
the right side the real blacks as the
shadows like the name says are going to
work more on those shadows instead of
the real blacks now your wife and your
highlights work exactly the same the
right side here more unless site while
the highlights here set more on the
middle left side so now that we know how
this works we know how to do it as well
on the actual clip and just go to close
to elementary scopes because like I said
before that's a whole different chapter
so which are clip selected the very
first thing that I want to do is
actually add a bit more contrast with
this contrast slider and that's because
it was just shot a very flat so we're
going to have to add a lot of contrast
to make it look natural the next thing
that I want to do is crush those blacks
but make sure that we are not going to
underexpose anything to make sure to
look at the code here of Kim and the
same thing is going to have
40 white also increase that that will
give us a really nice contrast but as
for doing this be careful though that
you're not going to make those brighter
spots flat and the same thing goes for
the dark spots as well so what I usually
do to preserve those details is increase
the shadows but decrease the blacks and
that will really make sure to have a
nice contrast and that's difference
between a more video ish contrast and a
film look or cinematic contrast always
preserve those details the same thing
goes for the highlights here as well
bring that down as you can look here or
scarf it's starting to look a bit more
natural as we're doing this but we're
still keeping that bunch as we're
increasing the whites and the blacks
which are laying more on the outer sides
of the exposure spectrum now finally if
it's necessary you might want to
increase the exposure as well but as
you're doing this know that you are
making it flatter to so then again you
have to add some more contrast and you
can do that by either working on those
blacks or just moving that overall
contrast slider but be careful though
with this overall contrast slider again
only do that if your shots are very flat
alright so that was the very first part
on how to add more cinematic contrast to
your shot the next step is going to be
the grading we're going to work with
actual colors now and the first thing
might be the saturation now this is
always the second step because if you
are going to change the contrast also
the saturation will be affected so
that's why we're going to do the
saturation after the contrast so let me
just increase that a tiny bit not too
much not really big fan of adding too
much saturation it's not really that
filmic so perhaps you might want to
decrease that depending on your shot
once you're satisfied and there are some
colors in your shot we're going to head
over to the color wheels inside limitary
and here is where that magic is going to
happen we're going to create even more
contrast with these controls there's
going to be a different kind of contrast
we're talking about color contrast now
if you have to mention here when we talk
about color grading adding a certain
look and feel to your shot for any
project or for any personal preference
that is going to be different of course
I just want to show you one of the very
basics and that is
contrast but there are of course many
other techniques but i believe so this
is considered one of the more basics one
in colored rating to get that cinematic
look so we see these three levels here
the shadows mid-tones and highlights
we've seen before what exactly that they
are for the shadows so what I'm going to
do is add some blue into this and the
reason for it is that the color blue
fits more towards darkness 2 nite seems
to anything that is kind of bad
something that we want to stay away from
and I'm really seeing it a bit more
exaggerated but that's what fits with
shadows so let me just bring that
midpoint to the blue side like that all
right away you will see that the image
looks way too blue so we're going to
lift that up with the mid-tones and
we're going to work on the other side
and that's what I mean with color
contrast we're going to make two
opposite colors as you can see day late
on the opposite side of each shutter so
let me just add that orange into it and
you want to take a look at the skin tone
in this shot here make sure that they
look natural that assup magenta nor
green you want to add nice skin tones
something like this and finally this is
the last step which highlights we've
been shifting these colors here blue and
yellow but something very important is
that you have to look at your whites at
any time and in this case that's game
third scarf so first cart now is
starting to look yellowish or the sky
you're on top because we exchange that
any mid tones make sure to bring that
back to white we can do that by bringing
this to the opposite side so in this
case it's all pretty okay but you might
want to bring the highlights a bit more
to the blue sides here if necessary to
make those white area real white now
let's have a look at sea before and the
after and you can see that we've already
done a pretty damn good job here we've
got a rich contrast and that's basically
just done by adding two different colors
thing that we want to do is make sure
that Kim is going to pop out in this
scene you want to draw attention to the
subject so what we are going to do is
lift up those highlights even more to
make it real Bob know do work
specifically on your subject to we have
to actually cut her out and create a
mask to do that simply select your Clips
hold down the Alt key on your keyboard
and drag that clip to channel number two
and that will make a duplication of it
but also it will duplicate the gratings
that we have done fryer now let me head
over to be effects controls here on top
and from the audacity over here we're
going to locate the pen tool this year's
going to allow us to create a mask
around Kim now very important is that
you are going to start in the beginning
of this clip let me take the pen tool
here that allows me to create multiple
points around skim and connect these
lines now it's not that important if
your mask isn't done so correctly you
can go pretty rough over this you will
see in just minutes why that is
something like this and I'm going to set
this for a moment to twenty-five percent
because very important here is that you
are going to go outside of the canvas
because else you might see a little line
here on the bottom there we go now this
mask has to move also together with Kim
so we are going to track that and that's
why you have to be in the beginning of
this clip just press the play button
here under mask pass the mask that
you've just created and that will start
creating keyframes as you see and to
attract that together with Kim and if
everything goes well that mask should
stay on her if something goes wrong just
hit that stop button and i just renewed
it all right so tracking has been done
and as you can see the masked follow
sure pretty good if i'm going to disable
here the layer below Kim you will see
how the mask actually work so we've got
our isolated right now and that is
perfect because what we want to do now
on Kim here is maker pop even more go to
go into the
basic color Corrections and there are
different things that we can do for
example we can increase the exposure if
you like so that will brighten it up a
little bit more making her stand out a
bit more but we can also work on the
contrast for example here on the whites
i'm just going to increase that even
more to make your scarf pop outs but
again make sure that you are not going
to overexpose this that's a bit more
contrast as well bring down those blacks
so as you can see there's a lot of
contrast now on Kim and if you are going
to take a look at the before and the
after you can see what that does to her
and how that makes your pup out from the
background and by selecting and treating
these different parts you can really
guide the viewer to those spots now very
important as well if your mask is
getting visible make sure to fetter that
as well so in your effects controls here
underneath your mask you will see a
better option make sure to increase that
a little bit so that you won't see that
there's any mask here basically at any
cost you want a voice that people notice
your Guler gratings so if your mask is
visible then perhaps change something in
here just never do anything drastic in
here that's something that you should
have done in your original clip here
down below alright we're going to create
another mask skin tones is something
very important when you get your skin
tones right you got awesome footage so
again I'm going to grab the layer on top
here on which we've just added that more
contrast with that mask here as well and
I'm going to duplicate that again by
holding down the Alt key on my keyboard
drag that to channel number three now it
has copied everything so I'm going to
delete the mask around Kim first because
now I want to work specifically on her
face so again grab that pen tool here
and I'm going to zoom in a tiny bit more
on Kim something like this and just draw
a path around her face make sure to only
select the skin tones usually that's
also the neck of the person right here
again it doesn't have to be that perfect
but you do want to do your best as
quickly as possible there we go we've
got it selected we are in the beginning
of the clip hit that play button and
that will track it again if you're
tracking goes wrong dress that stop
button to adjust but don't mind it too
much as you can see here we are a bit
honda line of camera face but that
doesn't really matter that
there we go we've got her face isolate
it right now the tracking went pretty
well and here comes the magic now we're
going to add a bit more warmth into Kim
her face we can do that with you
temperature slider now this is something
that you shouldn't do on the overall
image because that is really going to
push that yellowish color in every tone
and your highlights in the blacks or the
shadows everywhere so that's why I'm
always very careful with this
temperature slider but it does work
great on skin tones as you can see that
really makes your pup out you can also
work with the saturation year and so it
also works very well is just adding more
contrast as you see we are adding
different layers of contrast where the
background has the littles contrast her
body a bit more interface gets the most
contrast that really makes your pop out
and pull the viewer towards her another
great setting is when you go into the
creative tab here is to increase the
sharpness to make her face more sharpen
and I'm doing that specifically on our
face because real sharp footage isn't
considered that cinematic so you want to
be careful with this slider here as well
if you are going to use that make sure
to use that on specific points because
you don't want you sharp moon stuff that
it's out of focus like the background
here so once that is done again make
sure to perhaps increase the feder a bit
more of that mask if that is necessary
so have a look at this year she looks
great let me just show you the before
and the after of those skin tones isn't
that awesome all rights we are almost
through which we are done with color
grading Kim but there is a bit more that
we can do about the environment again to
pull the attention towards her the scene
is still pretty dull that's because we
don't really have much colors here in
the background so on so what I'm going
to do here is create a custom lens flare
we've got those highlights here on top
and that is great we're going to use
that to create some sort of a son that
is casting light on Kim and to do that
I'm going to create a new salt you can
do that here from the bottom below from
your projects panel click on that and
select the color matte from here press
ok and if we're going to select a very
orangie color mass something like this
press ok and just give that any name for
example the Sun press ok
and drag that layer on top of everything
and we're going to create a mask on this
son I'm going to set the scale here for
a moment to twenty-five percent and I'm
going to disable that layer to so they
can see where i am drawing this make
sure that you have that layer selected
even if it's disabled two can still work
on that I'm going to grab the pen tool
under the opacity and going to draw a
quick triangle something like this I'm
going to enable that layer again so they
can see what I'm doing and what you want
to do now is increase that better a lot
but really a lot something like this now
it doesn't look right yet and that's
because we have to blend this layer 2
under the audacity here we can find to
the blend mode click on that that allows
you to select from different blend modes
we can choose something like an ads
which is very strong or like a screen
which is more softer but I've seen that
it works best with the color dodge over
here that will blow out these highlights
just a tiny bit which makes it look more
like the Sun is there of course the
effect is a bit too much at the moment
so what I'm going to do is just bring
down your fafsa tea and you just want to
add like this tiny bit of warmth coming
through you three something around
twenty four percent looks already pretty
good as you can see and since this mask
is fettered so much we don't have to
track that or animated perhaps if you
are fanning a lot you might want to play
with the position as well keyframe that
too but if you have like this very slow
handheld shot and you don't have to do
that this looks pretty awesome and then
there's one last thing that we have to
do we're almost there guys so stay with
me here you are seeing a lot today I'm
going to grab the clip here down below
where we had the original draining or
color correction on and hold down the
Alt key to make a duplication again and
we go to drag that's to channel number 5
now also in year we're going to create a
mask again so select that layer head
over to the audacity grab your pencil
and again we're going to cut out a
corner from this clip something like
this since we've got this part you're
isolated what we can do now is go into
the basic color correction and bring
down that exposure a tiny bit not too
much just a very tiny bit and what you
also want to do perhaps
add a bit more bluish into that see what
we are doing here again we're adding
yellow or orange to less site and blue
to more darkness to the right site again
here we have that color contrast we're
making this site a bit darker to pull
the attention towards Kim who's a lot
brighter in this shot so as we're doing
this make sure to increase that mask
fatter like a lot something like this
and voila here we have it to the epic
cinematic color grading as you can see
it's a lot of work I must be honest I
don't always do these mass kings myself
only with bigger projects so something
yet you have to consider yourself are
you only going to add some basic
contrast or do some basic color grading
by adding blue into the shadows and more
warrants into the mid tones or are you
going to take it to the next level and
also creates multiple layers multiple
masks to work specifically on certain
points if you like you can also download
this project file so that you can
practice these techniques on the same
clip that was used in this tutorial
thank you so much for watching make sure
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a week make sure if it sums up this
video if you liked it as well and as
always they created