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magic bullet.. pretty lame

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

Got to play around with magic bullet today -- very disappointing results. Footage looks too lame and not alive :weird:


anybody else experienced that? Do you try to color grade yourself, or do you use some other software?
 
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always go outside on my film stuff, but can't afford it on these commercial and music video projects. I don't even have a calibrated monitor and don't have any real tools, just use the stuff built into Vegas. Needless to say the results are... ok.
 
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Mostly myself in premiere but it depends on the look im after.

Everything is a tool. Problem with MB is that most ppl dont bother learning how to CC or grade and just use a preset. MB can actually help you with your look if you know what you are doing and use the functions it comes with.
 
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Quick Looks limited is pretty awful. Have yet to see a great preset (at least in the limited version) and the lack of control and ridiculously long render time leave such a sour taste I never sprung for the real deal.

Downloaded colorista when they posted it free but haven't really used it either.

I can do like 14 image control filters and masks and tweak them and finish the render in the time it takes to render one preset. It's nuts/
 
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Yea.. messing with RGB curves and saturation now.. so much better :) Can't deal with presets!


speaking of calibrated monitors - whose got one? does it really help?
 
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dlevanchuk said:
speaking of calibrated monitors - whose got one? does it really help?
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I calibrate my monitor s - and yes, it's indispensable for both video and still work. It's true that most people viewing your work aren't calibrated, but you have to at least know the source is good and your work will look "the same wrong" on their monitor as other images and films.
 
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dlevanchuk said:
speaking of calibrated monitors - whose got one? does it really help?
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I calibrate mine bi-monthly.

Colour standardization systems in this world are a mess. I think it's necessary to stick to the framework we have right now.

It's absolutely necessary for any professional photography work. And for video, if you're doing it commercially. If you are just going to burn a dvd for friends and family or put it on youtube and dont care what it "actually" looks like according to any standards out there, then i guess not.

I dont know what you mean by it "helping." Does it help in CC or grading? No. If you want it to have a bluish tint, you'll just adjust till it looks good to you on your monitor. But if your monitor is not calibrated, it wont look the same on another persons calibrated or uncalibrated monitor.
However, if you adjust it the blue tint to ur liking on ur calibrated monitor, it'll look the way you intended on another persons calibrated monitor. But there is still no guarantee it will look like that on any of the uncalibrated monitors out there.
 
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brianluce said:
If you want accurate colors you need it -- and not just any ole $179.99 monitor can be calibrated.
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That's where I am. I have a $200 Dell Best Buy Special 26". It doesn't have fine enough controls to calibrate it. My stuff looks different on each of Dell Monitor, Laptop, cheap HD TV, older Sony TV. I have just been correcting to the point it looks OK on all of them.
 
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Getting one's monitor calibrated is crucial. Make sure its not turned up too bright (flat panels suck at black) and use a device like the Spyder Pro.

Night and day difference. I thought I was pretty good at calibrating by eye, but the Spyder showed me how very, very wrong I was.
 
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