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Any tips on color correcting this scene?

H

harmonica44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYI8GnHKupk&feature=youtu.be

I shot this scene over two days, and something changed along the way, even though I put the lights in the same place and all. The lighting is the same but the colors are different. The older actor is more yellow at first then is more normal later. In fact his best color so far is 1:09 into the video. The younger actor, I haven't found his best yet, but a lot of his cuts don't match. Any tips on how to get them to both look good and match? Mostly I want to eliminate the yellow but also some of the pink in the cuts on the young guy as well. Thanks.
 
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harmonica44 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYI8GnHKupk&feature=youtu.be

I shot this scene over two days, and something changed along the way, even though I put the lights in the same place and all. The lighting is the same but the colors are different. The older actor is more yellow at first then is more normal later. In fact his best color so far is 1:09 into the video. The younger actor, I haven't found his best yet, but a lot of his cuts don't match. Any tips on how to get them to both look good and match? Mostly I want to eliminate the yellow but also some of the pink in the cuts on the young guy as well. Thanks.
Click to expand...

This is my attempt. I used Mojo and Colorrista II from Magic Bullet as well as tint which is built in. If you like the way it looks I can give you the numbers I used. Once you have viewed it respond here and I will take it off of my Youtube. I tried to PM you but your inbox was full. The video is only viewable with the URL so only people here can see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHoC5HdaESI
 
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It looks like none of your shots are white balanced correctly. There's solid white on the pictures and pieces of paper behind the actors. Set those to solid white first, then adjust some of the mids to match the skin tones. Once you've done that, you can get creative with a color grade if you'd like.
 
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In the RGBCMYK Color Wheel you counter yellow with blue, you counter (what you're calling pink, and I'm guessing is probably a bit more magenta) with green. Try a color curves adjustment, starting with a mild shift up or down in the relevant curve.
 
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moonshieldmedia said:
It looks like none of your shots are white balanced correctly. There's solid white on the pictures and pieces of paper behind the actors. Set those to solid white first, then adjust some of the mids to match the skin tones. Once you've done that, you can get creative with a color grade if you'd like.
Click to expand...

Yep, agreed. And this is also why it's important to white-balance properly. And I won't hate on you for that one, H44 -- this is one of my personal on-set foibles.
 
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Yeah this was the first scene shoot, and the day my original DP dropped out, so I didn't learn what white balance was at that point. I only new shutter, aperture, and ISO, but thanks, I will do my best to correct it.
 
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I'll give it a quick go in a few hours, see if I can get you somewhere that you might feel a bit better with.

I'm not trying to be offensive, but a lot of the issues in that scene would need pretty extensive correction in post to even out. Here're some of the issues:

- Somewhat a taste thing, somewhat not, the background is it around as brightly, if not more so, than the talent. This is distracting to the eye, and naturally unappealing.

- In the shots with the boy, there are frequent hot spots on the wall, and a few on his face. This eliminates color detail in the shot, limiting the amount of control you possess. When you blow out the whites, and then try to correct exposure, it almost immediately looks fake.

- It looks like the lighting scheme changes during the conversation. When the boy is seated, it looks like the light is coming from the far side of the room, and the back wall is blown out in the whites, but then gradually comes back to us as it nears the foreground. This might have been due to spill from your rim. When he stands, though, suddenly the back of the room is somewhat darker, and the falloff heads in the other direction. This is one of those subtle things that throws the audience out of the scene. You just changed their understanding of how the room is set up, because now they're not quite sure where the light source for the room is.

- Nothing to do with color, but having that one, single, lonely shot where the boss guy stands up and you hand-hold the camera is really off-putting. It doesn't really add to the feeling of the scene, so it really should just be on sticks like the rest of the shoot.

- Around that same time, all the shots with the boss inexplicably lose contrast.

- As people have said: White-balance, white-balance, white-balance. Even if you don't have the gels available to get your lights or windows, and balance in the scene itself as you see fit, there's little reason not to take a moment to balance on a white card. You mentioned that you weren't aware of white-balance, so that explains it, but use this as a lesson of how much extra work you need to put in if you don't spend thirty seconds dealing with it on set.

All-in-all, much of this is tweakable, but much isn't (or at least would require more than a simple "tweak").
 
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Here, it's SUPER rough still, with the kid being far too high contrast at points, and the old man being far too low contrast, but your color casts should be mostly gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZlTY-6r094
 
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