calibrating see log footage is actually much easier than you think with a tiny bit of knowledge
you'll be able to go from this to this in about one minute today I'll show you how to do it
without any special plugins or let's I'm Rafael and welcome to the channel conversion lots are
great when they work what do you do when they fail and they will fail this technique I'm using in
this video will work in any editor that has color correction tools I did this exact same walkthrough
in DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere you can find those links in the description below in this video
we'll talk about how to set the exposure and contrast properly in log 3 how to easily white
balance with and without a color chart using the waveform how to correct skin tone issues using
the vector scope how to check to make sure that the skin tone is set between 40 and 70 Ayari and
exposed properly how to set the presets to use on all your footage and how you'll never have to ask
for help again once you've practiced these steps full disclosure I am NOT a colorist but for most
of my client work I will gladly hire pros to be as precise as possible to grade the footage however
for smaller projects and my own personal work I've learned these steps required to quickly get from
log footage to the base grade without using Luntz or expensive plugins so this isn't the be-all and
end-all for color correcting C log footage or any log footage for that matter there are many ways to
do the same thing but it's a method I found that works really well to rough-in a base grade and add
some personality to it after so let me ask this question why do we shoot log in the first place
it's to ensure that the camera captures the most amount of detail in any scene the darkest dark
and the brightest bright rec.709 is designed to output between seven and nine stops of dynamic
range and it's mostly a display standard log helps expand that distance to twelve to sixteen stops
depending on the camera rec.709 color space looks pleasant log footage does not so then we have to
bring back the information to a pleasant look but now we can choose if we want the brighter end the
darker end or a nice mix of both as I go through this method I will try to cut it down to only the
essential things you'll need to know to correct and then grade your footage all these steps assume
that your footage is exposed mostly correctly and is within the right white balance check out
this video where I talk about correctly exposing your EOS r4c log footage and since you're here
give this video a thumbs up and subscribe if this video helps you out quick terminology recap we'll
be talking about in this video color correction and color grading color correction is when you fix
color issues color space color temperature the white balance or skin tones in the video color
grading is adding color for creative purposes to convey meaning mood location time of day themes
character associations it's really powerful stuff psychologically if you have a color chart this
will help setting up your own Luntz or correcting for any location but don't worry I'll show you how
to correct even without a color chart all a lot does is tonal easily map colors from one place
to another this value should be this and that value should be that and it's all based on log
footage you start with that is why different lots don't work with different log footage and it's
why creative lots never work without normalizing your footage first they all assume the footage is
starting from a certain color space like rec.709 which is the most common but we won't be talking
about the creative grading much in this video this video is how to get your log footage to a starting
point by normalizing it the creative decisions you make on how you want your footage look after that
that is up to you that's where you get to play and have fun if you like it and you think it looks
good go for it there really are no rules to be clear there isn't unless your footage is perfectly
exposed with 100% perfect white balance expect to do a bit of tweaking either the color tint or
the luma though there are some simple truths that do work as a starting point and today we'll cover
that workflow and if you have a color chart up I know what you're thinking but Rafael I don't have
a color chart so this is gonna work for me and you would be wrong random citizen I am going to show
you how to do it without color charts and even without any skin tone in the shot so just give
me a second we're gonna start with the color chart first because this is the best way to get precise
colors open up the waveform monitor let's make it a little bit bigger this represents the luminance
values across the image from left to right the bottom is black and is full white so from left
to right you can actually see where all the hot spots are where all the brightness happens here
are all the colors on the color chart the white gray and black right here so what we want to do
with these three stripes right here we want to bring the white as close to the top as we can
we want to bring the middle gray right into the middle and we want to bring the black as close
as we can to the bottom without touching it I like bringing the black to about 5 or 10% and the white
to about 90 95 % and then adjust from there so once you have your image open and waveform is up
choose waveform luma and IR e we're gonna add some color wheels to this image I'm going to drop the
blacks down and bring the highlights up near 100 that looks pretty good we want to add saturation
over here then we want to crop the image just to the white gray and black and this is where bump up
the mid-tones just a bit you can go to RGB parade this is where you want to check to make sure that
your whites are white and your Gray's are gray so there's definitely a little bit of red in
the image in the highlights so you want to move away from the red and into the the green and the
blue until they're roughly lined up and then you want to make sure that the mid-tones are in the
same place so there's a little bit of blue so you want to add some red just ever so slight then you
can check to make sure that your your shadows are in a good place so that feels pretty good
I'm going to bring the iree back to 70 now I'm going to double check and double check the skin
tones so I mean just make sure that I trim and only have the skin tone go into the vectorscope
and we can see that it is leaning towards yellow we want to bring in some red and magenta overall
especially to the highlights and just watch that over ever so slightly that looks good now open
that up and then we want to add some curves to add some contrast to the overall image this log again
and it is very flat and nice add some contrast and saturation that is your correction this is
the before this is after and then you can save your preset the colors save it to studio save
it to the category that you want click Save and we'll go to an image that I know was shot in the
same lighting scenario go into settings and add Studio drop it in and then your colors are there
now because this feels a little bit bright I'm gonna double check to make sure that the skin tone
and select the brightest part and I'm gonna go to the waveform again and just
go to luma and make sure that the skin tones we are between 40 and 70 percent
so I can drop down the overall brightness and this as a base correction you can definitely
work with this and then and this is where you can start adding your teal and orange overall
to the image add some teal and boost up the saturation and add some orange and subtlety
is the key so again before after base correction teal and orange simple so let's do another shot
right from scratch I'm gonna add in some color wheels I'm gonna drop down the shadows bring
them all the way down this waveform monitor shows the luminance values of every single pixel in the
image I know that this shirt should be blacks but not totally black so around 10 percent it looks
good and then these doors should be blowing out a little bit so I'm gonna bump that up and her face
is right here represented by this so I don't want to go above 70 so that feels pretty good want to
add some overall saturation not too much then I want to add some contrast overall again knowing
that the skin tone for lighter complexion should be around 70 no higher you don't want to go too
high but now we're just going to double check the skin tones to make sure that they are what
they need to be so I'm going to go over the cheek and tried to make sure you don't get the eye or
the lips because that's our side in different colors and it will mess up your vectorscope so
then go to the vectorscope and that looks pretty good already and definitely exposing for the
right color temperature when you're filming is going to help you with these color Corrections
down the line but you can tweak it just a bit so there you go so this is straight log and this is
the corrected image and from here you can start adding your creative Luntz or doing any kind of
color correction so let's just do the popular orange and teal we're just gonna add another
color wheels we're gonna add some teal to the shadows and we're gonna add a little bit of orange
overall we're just going to double check the skin tone to make sure that it's still in a nice place
overall just add a little bit of saturation and you just want to lay the skin tone stay closer
to the center of the vectorscope because if you add in too much saturation let's
see what happens okay so I want to keep it all right around there I'm gonna turn off that but
let's say we wanted to add a lot of saturation becomes a little bit nutty so it really comes
down to your creative choices and what you feel looks good and what you want it to look like so
I definitely like to stay closer to natural this is proper exposure and color correction
this is a little bit of Keylong Orange so let's do another shot which has no skin tone so I'm going
to add color wheels and I open up my waveform monitor and drop down the shadows boost up the
highlights and again because I know that these boots should be black but there's gonna be a
lot of reflection that's coming in from a the warm Sun and be the reflection of the ground
so this already feels like it should look like that but let's add in a little bit of coolness
overall so I'm just gonna crop so I can see just the black boots go to RGB parade and we
want to make sure that these all roughly line up so I want to add some blue to the shadows
not too much cuz I know it's supposed to be a warmer shot so when you look at it
again this is before this is the after let's do one more shot again starting from scratch you
know let's futz gonna add some wheels drop down shadows/highlights are already kind of pretty
good we're gonna add some saturation overall add some curves to bring back some of that contrast
I'm going to double check skin tones to make sure that they're exposed properly and of the
right color so right now everything feels a bit too bright so I can just drop that down
then I want to check to make sure that the skin tones are the correct color and
they look like they need a little bit of red and magenta just bring it over
that skin tone line indicator so then when we pop back out this is before and after
you can save these presets so once I have a base color correction that's when I add in sharpness
usually leave it at the default 2.5% this is just adding back some of the sharpness that was
lost when filming in C log but there are some shots that I feel that definitely benefit from
pushing a little bit more or some that don't need it at all especially if you want to keep
any blemishes or skin issues off this is where you don't want sharpness in but there are some
cases where you do want to make it a little bit punch here but I tend to leave it at the default
2.5 which is what the camera would have done naturally unless you bring it down that's why
I bring down the sharpness but it allows me for those situations where I want to get rid of it
completely and soften the image or boost it up I have that control I like that and especially
if I built it into the preset I can just quickly then turn it off the other thing that I do add for
a lot of my other shots is a vignette and drop it in make sure that it is focused in around where I
want the audience to look so with it off with it on you just want to make sure that it's not too
dark everything is about subtlety with color grading and color correction and the vignette
definitely helps get rid of some of the extra noise that builds up in the darkness in us our
shots but it helps draw the attention all these lines are leaving here the focus the brightest
thing in the image is my face or the R which is all in around here this is where I want the
audience to be looking so before C log and then the final grade so let me know what you guys think
of this process it is simple you don't need lots you don't need expensive plugins you don't even
need the color chart that I'm using I recommend it I think it's great and there's a lot of coloring
tools that work really well but you don't need them if you have any of these editing software
you're going to be able to achieve really good looks with all the footage that you have knowing
how to correct when a lot fails you'll be able to correct your images properly if you have a
computer all you need is the Vinci resolve which is the industry standard and probably one of the
most powerful tools out there to use and it is free I personally like using Final Cut Pro
I bought it in 2011 I've only paid once for it and it has gotten better over time I find that
it is the quickest tool from in to out with any personal project that I have - again before and
after there are many other things you can do but I just wanted to show how to color correct for C log
footage from the canada-us R and C log 3 footage from the C 200 so let's recap use the waveform
monitor drop the shadows to about 5% bring the highlights to about 95% add a little contrast
boost the saturation using the vectorscope check to make sure your skin tones are on the skin tone
indicator use the luma value between 40 to 70 or for skin add your creative grade that fits
your story in mood sharpen the image to what feels right for you i de vignette to help focus on the
important thing in the scene save your preset or LUT apply the grade to the rest of your footage
and you are done if you do find a lot that works for you and it converts and corrects your log
footage correctly use it you'll save you a lot of time I made this video as a guide for when your
Luntz don't work or you get tired of a particular look and you want to create your own and for you
to be able to color correct your C log footage in any scenario let me know if you guys have any
tips or tricks to color grade your C log footage also I would love to see how you guys use these
techniques to color grade your own C log footage as always thanks for watching give this video a
big thumbs up subscribe if it helped you out I'm Raphael I'll talk to you soon bye for now you