Color correction

[Tyson Yoder]

I was just wondering what plugins you guys use for color correcting? Also do you use the video scope to monitor while you do it? I am kinda new to the whole Color correction thing. And advice or training aids would be great!

[Don Bloom]

Tyson,
While many including myself have and use the NewblueFX Essentials package which has a great color corrector Vegas has one of the best color correctors around. Between the CC, the secondary CC, Color Curves and levels there is literally nothing that can't be done, no plugins needed. The NewblueFX does offer pretty much a one touch fix but if you dont' know how to correct then it can be quite tricky. LEarning how to correct with the Vegas FX would be the best thing you could do. Once you know the basics using whats there, then it becomes fast and easy. Well easy is relative but it does get easier.
I use waescope, vector scope and histogram not all at once in most cases but go back and forth from one to another to keep colors in legal range make sure I'm not blowing out whites or crushing blacks (unless that's what I want to do). IMO CC is some science and a lot art. Don't forget what you see on a computer screen may not be what you see on a 52 inch LCD TV.
Have fun

[Richard Jones]

Don's absolutely right. Vegas' own colour correction tools are excellent and will give you just about everything you can ask for. The only other Plug In I wiould recommend is one for correcting the white balance - Frederic Baumann has produced an excellent one at:-

FBmn Software - plugins for Sony Vegas Pro 10

The most valuable advice I have ever received was to use an external monitor to check on your progress as the colours shown on the PC screen will not match those of a TV,

Richard.

[Tyson Yoder]

I usually use Vegas' Color Corrector and stuff and I like it. Is there any good training aid for color correction, video scopes, waveform, ect?

[Rob Wood]

yes...

get Absolute Training for Vegas+DVD, Vol. 4: Color Correction, Enhancement and Image Restoration
by Glenn Chan and Douglas Spotted Eagle
Absolute Training for Vegas+DVD, Vol. 4: Color Correction, Enhancement and Image Restoration

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read this article by Glenn Chan
Sony Vegas Color Correction Tutorial

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download and install this plug-in: AAV ColorLab
AAV ColorLab

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as mentioned by others the CC tools in Vegas are very good for out-of-the-box.... the filters i regularly use in Vegas are:

Primary CC for the basics
Secondary for tweaking specific elements in a shot (skin, grass, sky, etc)
AAV to quickly isolate/solve chroma problems
levels/curves/rgb-balance also useful but i use them less
get comfortable using the mask function in Vegas

there's other cc tools in the effects list, but the DVD i mentioned above explains better.

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if ur really into CC stuff, you may wanna check out a standalone CC app called DaVinci Resolve Lite
should be available later this month for FREE... here's a link with details of the Full version
Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve Software

[Don Bloom]

These have been around for a long time but still valid. IIRC some are from Glen Chan;

1. Drop color corrector on event
2. On right wheel, click left eye dropper, then click/drag on white in preview
3. On middle wheel, click left eye dropper, click/drag on flesh or neutral color in preview
4. On left wheel, click left eye dropper, click/drag on black in preview
You can often skip the middle wheel once you have black and white set.
This is especially true if your image doesn't have fleshtones to select.

If you have good light on event, you can use auto levels for quick fix (an FX).

You can use levels FX before you use CC also.

Use the highlights eyedropped (negative sign / complementary) on a highlight that is supposed to be white.
Click-drag the eyedropper over an area... this averages out noise.
Then do the midtones on something that is grey (supposed to be grey).
If the highlights look funky, drop on the secondary CC.
Limit the range to highlights, and de-saturate.


Color Correction
95% of video shot can be corrected or track graded using white balance (use your rgb parade scope at the same time), color corrector, Color curves, and HSL. All of these are quite easy to use by holding control down and moving the sliders.

Generally most video out of my cameras I automaticly set saturation in HSL to 1.2, I then set gamma to .95.

From there put the preview on split screen and fine adjust.

With rgb color parade up you can go to curves, adjust each color to exactly the look you want. for example I tend to like red a little heavier than blue and green with parade on you can make it very precise.
with Curves a little is alot.

Totally avoid the brightness and contrast fx as it will put to much noise in your images, it is a last ditch effort.

Practice using the secondary color corrector for fun, the more familiar you are with it the more you will use it, but I gues that is true of most of the tools in Vegas!

Oh yea, it is pretty standard to adjust the Luma to black and white and adjust exposure of image (view histogram or wave form) prior to color correction.

VEGAS LEVELS AND COLOR CORRECTION
Black and White, Levels, 3 way color corrector, curves.

Turn the footage black and white. Using a waveform monitor set your blacks to 0 and whites to 100, take off the black and white filter which should return you footage to color.

Using the 3 way color corrector using the highlight wheel to white balance the shirt.

Using the curves filter form a flattened s shape, this will increase your contrast by raising the whites and lowering the blacks. It is your preference on how far you want to take it.

[Richard Jones]

Once again Don is right about how to sort out white balance from within Vegas but this method is so cumbersome when compared with the Frederic Baumann plug in. You might like to read the comments on his web page from Graham Bernard, a skilled, knowledgeable and very experienced operator in the field of video editing, which bear out what I say.

The other advice offered by Don is excellent. You might also try to get hold of a copy of Steve Hullfish's book, "Digital Colour Correction." Although it's not Vegas specific it is a fount of knowledge about the subject. It is regarded by many as a text book.and much of what it says can be extrapolated to Vegas.

Richard

[Richard Jones]

You might find the on line webinar that Sony is hosting on itsS ony Creative Software site on 28th July useful.Their webinars are very informative and helpful in a practical way and usually become available as a download about a fortnight afterwards.

Richard