This is a clip from the ‘First Film’ exercise.

#1

As the first attempt, I followed the video “The Complete COLOR GRADING Tutorial for Premiere Pro: CINEMATIC FILM LOOK | Cinecom.net” to try adding a bit of contrast to the frame.

At first, I simply turned the ‘contrast’ option higher in ‘Basic Correction’, which I think has done the job. Yet I follow the instructions to turn up ‘white’ and ‘shadow’, and lower the ‘black’ and the ‘highlight’.

I think these steps did add more contrast to the original clip, but one has to observe very closely to notice the change. In comparison, the ‘before’ does look flat, and the ‘after’ appears more vivid.

But to me, the ‘after’ still seems a little unnatural. What is originally black in the frame becomes darker, for example, my pants just look like a black block in the frame. The luggage on the left bottom has lost part of its array.

This is a screenshot with the Lumetri panel.

 

#2

Follow the video to explore the use of color wheels. I tried to use color wheels to add color contrast to the frame. I brought the shadow to blue and the midtones to orange so a contrast is created; in order to ensure the white color looks natural in the frame I bought the highlight to the blue a little so the color is balanced.

What confused me is it looks almost identical to the original, and I am not sure if this is supposed to happen. Maybe this means the color contrast of my original video is already good enough?

This is a screenshot of the color wheel.

 

#3

In this attempt of color grading, I decided to explore the use of ‘Hue Saturation Curve (Wheel)’ under the section of ‘Curves’. I find that I can use the wheel to increase the saturation of a particular color in the frame.

I first tried to give my shir more saturation in blue, even though it might make the color look artificial, I thought it would be an interesting experiment. However, somehow my computer screen is saturated with blue too, I think it is because the screen emits a certain blue hue, so I used the mast to exclude the screen out of the saturated section.

Apart from the blue shirt, I also did the same with red to saturate the red shirt in the shelf, but it also changed my skin tone a bit. The mask does not seem to be able to split, I think maybe if I use two adjustment layers to saturate red and blue separately, that would work better.

This is a screenshot of the Hue Saturation Curve.

 

 

This clip is from the ‘First Film (pre)’ exercise

#1

In this attempt, I still wanted to try adding some contrast to the frame. When I tried to increase the ‘white’, I found that there are places in the frame that are a little overexposed. If I keep increasing the ‘white’, these overexposed areas would become noticeable and distracting.

So I first decreased the exposure of the overall image, then after I increased the ‘white’ it would look just right. Following the same procedure as before, I think this attempt is quite successful. However, I’d still say it only looks slightly different to the original video.

 

#2

I think the color of the original video is too warm, mostly because its light source is natural sunlight. I wanted to adjust it to a neutral color tone. 

So I adjusted the ‘color temperature’ in ‘basic correctness’, brought the temperature half way down to cold (-42.7) to balance the temperature that was largely affected by the sunlight. Then I found the skin tone looked a bit unnatural, it looked green. So adjusted ‘tint’ to pink a little to balance the green. Finally, the white balance of the video resumed.

 

#3

(Color not corrected yet)

(Color corrected)

I wanted to explore a little noir effect with this one, also I thought it might be easier to see the difference in contrast if the video is in black-and-white.

I first turned the saturation to zero in the ‘Creative’ section, so when I turn off ‘Basic Correctness’ with the little tice on the side they will not interfere with each other.

After finishing the color correction, it is visible that the edge of the person is clearer than before, the color contrast separated the human figure from the background to a degree.

 

This clip is from the ‘making bed’ exercise

#1

I wanted to try more with the masking and the saturated color with this color grading.

First, I needed to fix the color temperature, adjust it to the right balance. Then, this time I applied two adjustment layers on top of the video so I could operate two different color grading over the video. After masking the Swisse cushion, I used shadow color wheel to make it pinker, then balanced it a bit with the midtone wheel. I recognized that the shirt is part of the midtone section, so I turned the midtone blue and used the other two wheels to balance it.

 

#2

I explored the use of curves in this attempt. I haven’t figured out how the curves work exactly, but I think from the left to right is black to white, and the curve can be used to adjust the primary color of each point. Once I bend the curve, the white color which somehow relate to the brightness of the frame varies, and the brightness in the frame can look more natural. I can change parts of the frame’s brightness in a more flexible fashion than just using the five bars in ‘Basic correctness’.

 

#3

For this experiment I tried this wild use of the curve. I wanted to create the effect of hallucination that films and TVs sometimes present to show one’s unsteady state of mind. I raised the curve of red and blue, then tuned down the green, so two colors are increased over the other one. Blue and red gives everything a purple filter, that unusual color usually represents someone is having hallucinations in films or TV.